Paper Chopper
by Mechanical Oven
Summary: With Mario on a vacation, Bowser sets out to kidnap Princess Peach...and to be safe, he steals the Star Rod. But stealing it made the Star God angry. Without Mario to help, who will stop Bowser? Unfortunately, not Luigi... But who?
1. The Story of the Star Spirits and Wishes

**If you've found this story, then congratulations! ...Well, personally, it doesn't really matter if you did or not. But, this is the start of a large trilogy called the Paper Chopper trilogy that I thought of many, many years ago.  
**

**But, you can still read this if you want. I'm not telling you to leave this page right now. :P  
**

**Even though we probably know this by now... I do not own all the Nintendo characters in this story. They belong to, well, Nintendo. The only thing I own are any OCs that appear in this fic (so if you don't like 'em, this isn't the story for you).  
**

* * *

_Today… I'm going to tell the story of "Star Spirits and Good Wishes." _

_Far, far away, beyond the sky, way above the clouds, there is a haven where all the Stars live. They are protected by their God, Staris. Staris cares for his stars deeply, and though he cannot speak, he can always give the Stars what they need._

_In the sanctuary of Star Haven, there rests a fabled treasure created by Staris, the Star Rod, which has the power to grant all wishes._

_Using this wondrous Star Rod, the seven revered Star Spirits watched over our peaceful world carefully…very carefully. And then…_

_Oh dear… What the…? Who stuck that weird thing into this story?_

"Ha ha ha! Yeah! I finally did it! Gwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!" a shadow got closer inside of the Star Sanctuary, near the pedestal where the Star Rod sat.

"With that stupid plumber Mario on his vacation, getting the princess should be a piece of cake! Now that nobody can stop me, I'll take the Star Rod back!"the figure, which revealed itself to be Bowser, jumped into his Koopa Klown.

"Do it, Kammy Koopa!" the old Magikoopa wearing a purple robe, known as Kammy, used her magic and suddenly, some light pink energy was emitting and unleashed.

Suddenly, the Koopa King appeared, riding on some sort of weird device with a clown face on it called the Koopa Klown.

While all seven Star Spirits were cringing in pain, Bowser spewed out a fireball at the Star Rod, breaking the barrier surrounding it.

_No, you mustn't do that! _

"Yeah! The Star Rod is finally mine!" Bowser cackled as he held it up. "Now let's take care of you seven stars..."

_Stop it! Cut it out, Bowser! You're ruining the story!_

All seven Star Spirits screamed as the power of the Star Rod struck them. Soon, their screams stopped and were now transformed into Bowser Cards.

"Bwa ha ha ha ha… We did it! That was a piece o' cake! Gwaa ha ha!"

However, despite thinking that this would be the same thing over again, it was not. A loud, angry roar could be heard from the outside, which began to make the sanctuary shake.

"What was that, Your Evilness?" Kammy asked.

A yellow puddle appeared from the ground, confusing the two.

"Huh? What the heck is that? Oh, who cares! Let's fly out, now!" Bowser, not caring what that puddle was, flew out of the sanctuary with Kammy.

The yellow puddle then began to form into something. A strange, watery yellow creature with green eyes, a head that had parts that resembled a star with long, skinny arms, thick fists with three fingers, legs with two toes and a small, stubby tail watched as the two tried to flee. It attempted to grab a hold of the Star Rod by stretching its arm, but it was too far for him to grab a hold of.

_Oh, dear… The Star God, Staris has become angry! With that Star Rod stolen, he might go after the stars and absorb them! But, not only that, but now wishes can no longer come true. With Mario on vacation, who can stop Bowser? Somebody must! There HAS to be somebody! Please, stars! Grant us a wish to help find somebody!_

* * *

**Yeah, that's just the beginning for now. Kind of short, but that's how it was meant to be for the beginning. We'll get to some action in the next chapter though.**

**And before you ask about what Staris is, things will be revealed a little bit later, so just relax for a bit about questioning him. With that, be ready for the next chapter. :P**


	2. Chopper's Unfortunate Defeat

**Oh, I almost forgot one thing. This won't only have Paper Mario stuff, but also some stuff from Super Mario RPG: Legends of the Seven Stars (Which, sadly, I did not play through fully yet), and Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga. Yes, we'll be seeing something from that game in the next chapter or so… As for stuff from SMRPG, we'll get to something like that much much later…**

**All right, let's get things started.**

* * *

**Planet Clara, dawn-**

Somewhere in the jungle of a different planet called Clara, there were a couple of tall trees and some rather big plants, too! Some arrange mostly from dark green and light green. The flowers around the jungle are a bright pink color. However, not all the plants are friendly. There are red plants that pretend to be a normal plant…but when their meal walks by... GULP! It's gone. Compared to the animals in other worlds, the animals on this planet are actually pretty big, but that ends up making them slow as well.

But, what WAS something here in this jungle was a big mushroom house. The house has a white stem and the top part is a red color with white polka dots. There were windows, but it looked like the lights were off. At the moment, it was still dark out, but it appeared that morning was coming in an hour…

Inside the mushroom house, a bed could be found up on the top floor. There are only two stories in the house, anyway.

In the dark pink bed, a young, pale green boy shaped like a ball was fast asleep, wearing a cute, floppy green hat with yellow polka dots. Over by the small table was a clock, a pair of white gloves, and a picture of a lime green male that was short and wore green armor and a red cape, and a female with pale green skin, a ponytail and brown leather armor. The boy sleeping in the bed could be seen a tiny bit on the picture as well.

For many years, this boy, known as **Chopper**, has had a rough life. At the age of four, his race was attacked by invaders known as the Hellspawns, led by an evil being named Maquano - who has haunted the universe for almost 10,000 years at this point. He succeeded in destroying the planet and his kind, except for Chopper, who was rescued by a blue warrior in a cape and a mask. Ever since then, the two have become sworn enemies for four years so far.

But, enough about Chopper's past. Let's see what's going on right now.

Chopper slowly got up from his bed and began rubbing his eyes. He got out of bed and put on his pair of green shoes. When they were on, they almost looked as if he wasn't even wearing shoes. Next up were his white gloves. Why he wore these, he had no idea. It was mostly to keep his hands warm or protect them from sliding it on something rough.

"All right, I've got all that taken care of," Chopper said as he stretched. "I think it's time for me to go downstairs."

With that, he left his room and went downstairs. As usual, Chopper turned on the lights on the wall, revealing the walls to be a light yellow color. The stairs were a white color, just to help him see where they were if there was a power outage.

When he went into his kitchen, he opened the fridge to see if there were any eggs. There happened to be some, to his delight. Ever since he was taken to this planet, he had no other choice but to live on his own. Even when his rescuer brought him here, he didn't really help him that much. All he did was train him with a sword a bit, which didn't work out too well.

He got a pan out and put it on the stove. Admittedly, he was a pretty bad cook. He even tried making something for his parents after his mother taught him a bit (a four year old learning to cook? This is madness!). But, the food turned out to be pretty bad. But, even then, he had to make something, whether it was good or not. However, whether something tastes bad or good, he actually enjoys eating anything that he could find, with some exceptions.

With the stove on, he cracked the eggs and put the yolk in a glass cup...which he poured into the pan for some reason. He used the spatula to try to move the liquid around. Nothing too special. But, when he felt like he was going to sleep, he accidentally touched the pan.

"OW!" Chopper yanked his hand away from the pan and began to blow at his burnt finger. "Next time, I'm using an oven mitt to cook this!" he got an oven mitt, grabbed the handle, and put the eggs on a plate.

...And then he threw the eggs up in the air. He opened his mouth and began to suck the eggs into his mouth like a vacuum. What was strange was that he wasn't actually born with this ability. He ended up getting something like this when he was given a rainbow heart that could give one abilities they've never even knew about before, which included the ability to inhale.

"It's been over a year since Maquano tried to make another plan to attack. To be honest, that makes me feel good." Chopper smiled as he sat on his red sofa. "But, now that I think about it, that makes me feel a little bit bored of myself. I'm kind of lonely, and I don't usually have much to do."

Chopper turned on the TV, but it turned out that there weren't any interesting shows up. "Man... This stinks! Even the shows are uninteresting or just repeats! Maybe I need a vacation... But to where?"

He began to think while lying on the sofa. Chopper doesn't tend to leave this planet often, due to the fact that Maquano could make another attack any minute. But, after a year of him not attacking, he felt that this wouldn't be a bad idea at the moment.

"I don't think I should go to Popstar... I mean, I would LOVE to go there, but I heard that there were some things going on there. Did some...whatever it was try to summon a clock to allow it to conquer that place? Better not go there... I'd rather not go to Mobius either. And Planet Zebes... Well, that world's gone now."

A light bulb appeared on Chopper's head as he thought of a place. "A-HA! Now I know where to go! I should go to the Mushroom Kingdom for a vacation! While I believe many people might be confused or scared to see me there, it wouldn't be a bad idea to go see new people for once. Good thing there's a teleporting building there. It makes it easier to go! So, Mushroom Kingdom it is!"

Chopper went to the front door and left his house. Another interesting ability he had was the ability to move at great speeds, despite having stubby feet (he has no legs). He never had this ability until he got the powers from the rainbow heart. He dreams of being able to move at the speed of sound, but he hasn't gotten there just yet...

"There it is! The teleporter room!" he smirked as he entered the gray building and pushed a green button to activate the teleporter. A green beam emitted from the corner of the room with a map of where to teleport.

Knowing where he wanted to go, he chose to teleport to the Mushroom Kingdom. It listened to him and zapped him out of the planet.

* * *

**Toad Town, Mushroom Kingdom-**

Before he knew it, he was in the Mushroom Kingdom

He looked around in the small teleporter room to find absolutely nothing. No one was inside here anyway, so he decided to leave the teleporter room and walk outside into a pretty town. Even when it was dawn, it was still a pretty sight.

Chopper looked around, noticing the Mushroom people running. One's white cap with red polka dots dropped from the ground, but he managed to grab it and continue to run.

"What the… What's going on? !" Chopper asked. "Why is everyone running? !"

"Run for your lives!" a Toad cried.

"Fine, I'll just go find out myself," Chopper frowned as he headed to the right to go to the next area. He found himself in an area with a blue house with a flying roof to the upper left and a post office to the upper right. Between those was a blue door with a yellow star.

But, at the center of the area, there was a Toad with blue polka dots on his white cap holding a spear, trying to fend off someone. It looked like it was a Koopa with a green spiked shell and a tail that Mario was always able to grab onto. Only one person would have such a tail.

"B-B-Back off, B-B-Bowser! D-D-Don't m-m-make me use th-this!" the Toad Guard stammered, attempting to scare Bowser away. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to work.

"Oh, please… You really think I'm afraid of a puny little spear?" Bowser scoffed. "I'll show you what I do to people such as yourself!"

Bowser brought his head back and soon let out his fire breath upon the Toad. When he was finished, he was nothing but soon.

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Foolish little fungi!" Bowser's assistant, Kammy Koopa, cackled. "Do you really think you could defeat the great and mighty King Bowser? Of course not!"

"Gwaa ha ha ha ha ha! See? Nobody can stand in my way! Go ahead, Toads! Run for your lives!"

"_I can't just let this Koopa scare all the Toads away. …I guess I have no other choice but to do this myself…" _Chopper thought.

Bowser cackled until he noticed Chopper walk up to him, not running at all.

"Kammy, who's that over there? He's an odd one..."

"Huh? Err… I'm not so sure, Your Evilness." Kammy gawked. "He seems a lot different than anyone else in the Mushroom Kingdom. Is this a new type of Toad or Goomba?

"Toad? Goomba? I'm none of those!" Chopper retorted, clenching his fists and getting in a fighting stance. "I'm Chopper of Planet Clara! And I wanna know why you're attacking, whoever you are..."

"What? You don't know who I am? !" Bowser roared. "I'm the great and evil King Bowser! And who do you think you are, trying to question me? ! NO ONE ever questions me!"

"Well, then I bet I'm the first one to do that."

"Grrrgh... Anyway, I don't really have the time to talk to you. I have a castle to uplift!"

"Uplift? How does one..." Chopper was cut off once he felt a large tremor. He looked over at the castle through the door and saw it slowly rising from the ground. He saw another castle under it. It looked more like an evil castle compared to the other one. "Wait... What the heck? Why are you uplifting a castle? What point does that have for you?

"Oh, I have my reasons for that," Bowser explained. "One step to my plan was kidnapping Princess Peach, which I succeeded in now!"

"And how did you even UPLIFT the castle?"

"I just did a few little things, and BAM! My castle is under Peach's castle! Princess Peach's Castle is under my control! Unfortunately for you, there's nothing you can do about it?"

"Look, I've faced evil demon knights, evil old wizards, and robotic versions of myself. I'm sure you're no different compared to them!" Chopper scoffed.

"True, true, I've had my problems in the past… But this time is different!" Bowser smirked. "Say... Now that I heard your name, it almost reminds me of that demon knight guy who was talking about you before."

"What? How do you know about Maquano? !"

"Maquano? Oh! Yes! That guy! You see, he came here and wanted us to work together for some kind of evil plan! I agreed to help him when he told me that if we worked together, he'll give me the desire to get what I want! That required the use of getting the Star Rod back. He said that with it, we'll both be able to take over the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"So Maquano was busy trying to take care of the Mushroom Kingdom..." Chopper trailed. "Dang... Here I was hoping to have a vacation for once..."

"OK, tough guy! If you wanna fight, then let's just settle this now!"

"All right, bring it on!"

Chopper made a dash towards Bowser and landed a jump on his head. Unfortunately, he only did 1 point of damage to him. He then jumped back away from him. This was also something that rainbow heart gave him: the ability to have a better jump.

"Yes… That jump does remind me of Mario. Of course, I remember what I did with Mario when he tried to defend Peach!" Bowser recalled

The large Koopa stomped toward Chopper and used his claw to spin him around. But, it only did the same amount as Chopper did.

"Looks like we're even," Chopper said as he stomped on Bowser again.

Once again, Bowser used his claws to attack Chopper. It was like the fight was just going on like this.

But, after Chopper stomped on him one more time, Bowser grinned at the boy. Was he planning something?

"Hmph… Not bad… You're actually pretty tough for a kid."

"I'm only eight..." Chopper frowned.

"Yeah, whatever. You don't seem so weak, despite being so young, Chopper. In fact, you seem to be really eager to take me down. But today, victory won't be going to you!

Bowser pulled out the Star Rod.

"Take a look at this!"

"What? It's just some stick with a star on it..."

"Stick? Oh, no... This isn't like anything else you've probably seen before."

"I've seen things like that before..."

"Quit cutting me off, marshmallow!" Bowser snapped. "Ahem! This is the **Star Rod**! This fine piece of work has the power to grant any wish in the whole wide world! And once I use this to increase my strength, you won't be a match for me, Chopper!"

Orange outlined stars emitted from the Star Rod, and there was a ray of light coming from it. Suddenly, Bowser was surrounded by rainbow energy

"Gwa ha ha ha ha ha! Now do you see this? THIS is what I can do! Just try and hit me, kid! I DARE you!"

Bowser stomped to Chopper, and he hit him with his claw. This time, the attack was much stronger than the previous time.

"Ouch! Now THAT hurt!" Chopper cried.

He only had 5 HP right now, and he felt like he was in danger. He knew he still had to attack, and that's what he did.

Chopper rushed towards Bowser again and stomped on him. However, when he looked at the Koopa king, he noticed that he didn't even cringe.

"Wh-What? !"

"Gwa ha ha ha ha ha! Is that all you got? How sad! You'd best take some vitamins and a glass of water, 'cause that didn't hurt at all!

Bowser stomped over to Chopper and jumped on top of him, flattening him like a pancake. Chopper gasped as he was battered up and covered in a couple of scratches.

"_This isn't going so well… I only have 2 HP left! Well… I can only try one more time to hurt him…" _Chopper thought.

Chopper jumped up, and he stomped on Bowser again. Unfortunately, it didn't look like he was going to win the fight this time.

"Yup, just as I expected. Chopper doesn't stand a chance against the new me. It's not even worth my time to toy with you anymore, Chopper. It's time to end this! Here we go, Chopper! Good night!"

Bowser opened his mouth and unleashed a large amount of fire on him. Chopper coughed as he was all covered in soot.

"_No… I lost…"_ With one last cough, he fell over on the ground.

"Yes! Oh, yeah! See? This is what happens when people think they can take me on! THIS happens! And I bet Maquano's gonna give me something good for this!" Bowser cackled.

"Congratulations on your victory, Your Viciousness! That's why you're the King!" Kammy congratulated.

"As long as I have this Star Rod, everything I wish for will come true! No one can stop me now! Without Mario, there's not a single person out there that can beat me!"

Bowser turned back to Chopper, who was still lying on the ground. "Well, it's not worth throwing him someplace else. He can just rot here like the little child he is!"

He jumped in the air and got in his Koopa Clown Car, while Kammy Koopa got on her broomstick. They flew away from Toad Town and made their way up to the castle.

Chopper was just left there. No Toads or anyone came to help him.

Except for a shadow that got bigger as it got closer.

Footsteps could be heard, and as the shadow got closer, the footsteps were louder.

Whoever it was…it might be someone to help him…or someone to get rid of him…


	3. A New Adventure Begins

**PROLOGUE**

**-A Hero in Need-**

Somewhere else in the Mushroom Kingdom, Chopper was lying on a wagon that was being dragged by someone. He didn't know who was actually moving it, but it didn't seem to matter at this point, considering that he's still out.

However, it was no longer dawn, but daytime. The birds seemed to be chirping, and all of the Goombas roaming around on the path took notice of the wagon Chopper was unconscious on. However, he wasn't alone. Seven spirits shaped like stars appeared, surrounding the eight year old boy.

_"Oh, the poor little boy... He's been gravely injured, but I think he'll be able to recover." _a yellow orange star with a pink bow gasped as she flew down to Chopper.

_"But Bowser was able to steal the Star Rod back! Now he's mightier than this boy! And Staris has been going on a rampage and absorbing stars! It's hopeless! All is lost!" _a yellow green star with a small brown mustache cried.

Those two Star Spirits then floated back into the circle of the seven. The elder Star Spirit with the big white mustache spoke.

_"Everybody just calm down. As long as we keep it together, there's always hope. Now… Our fate's in Chopper's hands. We must try to revive him. Gather around, everyone. Send Chopper your power!"_

All seven Star Spirits gave Chopper their energy. Sparkles were everywhere, healing the wounds left on Chopper to help him recover.

_"Phew…that's it,"_ the elder Star Spirit sighed, wiping his brow._ "That's all we can do right now. I wish we could do a little more for him, though... Chopper… Please get up… Please…"_

And with that, the Star Spirits' spirits disappeared and the sky was back to normal. Chopper opened his eyes a little to see where he was…but he ended up closing them again due to being too tired.

Apparently, the person pulling the wagon was a Toad with gray polka dots on his white cap. He was also wearing a white lab coat like those scientists. And lastly, he was wearing glasses that were difficult to see through.

"This boy is not so hard to pull when he's on this wagon," he said as he dragged the wagon down a hill. "I can't believe no one even bothered to help him. Once I saw him face Bowser, I know he may be..._the one_… But, why can't he just get his butt up right now and not make me do this? I'm too old for this! OLD! Well, not that old. I'm only thirty-five."

The Toad began to keep moving through the field near a village full of Goombas. However, the Goombas on the road past him didn't seem to care about attacking him for some reason.

* * *

**Later-**

Chopper was now lying in bed, fast asleep. However, he wasn't alone. The elder Star Spirit's spirit appeared once again and looked down at the young boy.

_"Chopper… Can you hear me, Chopper…? My name is Eldstar, a Star Spirit… I have something very important to tell you… It concerns the princess, the Mushroom Kingdom, the Stars, and you… But sadly, I haven't the strength to talk to you here… Listen, Chopper… I need to have you come to __**Shooting Star Summit**__. Please… Chopper… We Star Spirits will be waiting for you at the summit…"_

Eldstar disappeared, leaving only Chopper in the bedroom. The walls were a white color, and the floor was a metallic gray color - something that was kind of like that tele porter building back in the Mushroom Kingdom.

When Chopper opened his eyes, he got up and jumped out of bed. He took his time to look at the room, but he was still rather confused.

"Huh? Where am I? This looks like some kind of bedroom. But, this isn't mine! Something's not right, here…"

He heard the door open, and out came the Toad that rescued him from earlier. He looked a bit surprised to see him up already.

"Huh? You're awake? Well… That's good news! You haven't opened your eyes for days! And where are we, you ask? We're in my lab! Chopper, you must have been so exhausted after that fight."

"Uh… Sure… But, who the heck are you?" Chopper asked.

"Who the hell am I, you ask? I am **Professor Toadsmeth**! As you can see, I am a scientist. This is my lab, of course, which is right by **Goomba Village**, which is a tiny town that's west of **Toad Town**. I stay here and study many things…such as Goombas and Koopas."

"So… You study things? Uhhhh… So were you..studying me?"

"No. Why would I ever do that? What did you think I was doing?"

"Ugh… OK. But if you took something from me, I swear that I'll inhale you and spit you far from here…" Chopper trailed, making Toadsmeth slightly back away. "Anyway, isn't there supposed to be a hero here? You know, like Mario?"

"Mario? Well… He has taken a vacation. You see, he has gone to the Beanbean Kingdom without his brother. His brother would've came, but he decided to stay and take care of the house." Toadsmeth paused for a moment. "...Hold on a minute, how do you know so much about him? You don't look like you come from here!"

"I just heard about him, that's all," Chopper replied.

"I see… Well, why don't you make yourself at home right now? I think you should stay in bed for a bit until you're fully recovered."

"What? No way! I feel just fine anyway! I can't just stay here forever, you know! You saw Bowser, right? He's got some kind of weapon that makes himself invincible! We NEED to stop him!"

"But not right now! You've faced a hard battle. It's better that you rest for now. It would be bad news for you to just go out now."

"Doesn't matter," was all Chopper said as he left the bedroom and found himself in the main room. There were machines everywhere, and also a couple of chemicals over by one wall. "Wow… Well this interesting."

"Chopper, you shouldn't be going now!" the professor cried as he ran into the same room.

"Look, Toadsmeth person… I REALLY don't want to sit around here. The reason why I need to go right is now because I heard a voice telling me that I need to go somewhere."

"Really? Are you sure?"

"Yeah, I'm not kidding," Chopper nodded. "I think I was told by some weird star thing that I need to go to Shooting Star Summit. He said that I should go immediately. Didn't you see it?"

"Hmmmmmm… Maybe that was just all a dream?" Toadsmeth wondered. "People tend to see things like that in dreams."

Chopper: ?

"Well, maybe not… But, maybe it could have been some sort of message from a Star Spirit. They live in Star Haven. Shooting Star Summit is the nearest place to Star Haven, so that would make sense…"

"Where could I find Shooting Star Summit?"

"It's near where Princess Peach's Castle is. You remember seeing a castle lifted from the ground, right?"

"Yeah, I do," Chopper nodded.

"If you take that blue door, you should be able to find Shooting Star Summit over by the right," Toadsmeth explained. "I think that explains it all."

"Well, thanks for the help, professor," Toadsmeth's eyes widened as he saw Chopper heading out the door.

"Wait! Don't go!"

Once Chopper came outside, he found himself near the gates of Goomba Village. He saw a family there as well. The grass was green, and there was a yellow dirt path to the right and left. Chopper looked to the right, which seemed to be the path to go to Toad Town. But, before he could go, Toadsmeth caught up to him.

"Chopper, don't go yet! It's too dangerous to go alone! Take this!" Toadsmeth took out a communicator and gave it to him.

**You got a Communicator!**

"With this, you can contact me anytime! I can tell you anything that's important, and maybe I can help you with what's going on at Bowser's Castle. Not to mention I can gather some cool information on any baddies you see!"

"How exactly are you going to do that?"

"I have something called a Hearoscope," Toadsmeth explained, making Chopper look dumbfounded.

"Hearoscope? What the heck is that?"

"It's a device that's like a telescope, but instead, you use your ear to hear things from a huge distance. It could even hear things from space itself!"

"Wow… But really, it's called a Hearoscope?"

"Now's not the time to be discussing about something like that," Toadsmeth scolded. "Listen, just try and keep in touch with me if you can. With my intelligence, nothing could go wrong if you're going to fight Bowser!"

"Please don't jinx it…" Chopper grumbled.

"Heee! Yee hee heee!"

"Yup. I knew it."

Kammy Koopa began to fly over the two, but soon came to a sharp halt over by the path to the next area.

"Bleah heh heh heh… Ah, my instincts were right… Chopper… I can't believe you're on your feet after taking such a beating from King Bowser. You're a hardy one, all right. I was smart to come here to check on you."

"Hey, you're that weird ugly hag that was with Bowser, aren't you?" Chopper scoffed. "Yeah, I think you're that one. I can remember you just sitting there and watching me get beaten by him."

"Weird? Why I oughta… I am a beautiful Koopa with a beautiful name: Kammy Koopa! Hmmmph! I wish I had some time to teach you a lesson, you ungrateful little boy! But no. Hear this, little fool! It is useless for you to try to defeat Bowser and save Princess Peach and her castle. Ridiculous! Laughable! As you have seen, King Bowser is more powerful then even _you _can deal with this time. Here's a gift from him! …And from Maquano!"

Kammy took out her wand, and she used her magic to make a big block to block the way up ahead. Upon hitting the ground, it made Chopper and Toadsmeth jump up from the big BOOM it made.

Both were gaping at the point with widened eyes, but they were soon back on the ground after two seconds. Chopper was rather frustrated and grabbed a rock.

"Nyeah heh heh heh! Chopper! You will kneel and weep when you see the wonderful changes King Bowser's made! You will never be able to save this world! With Mario out of the picture, this world is ours now! Bleah heh ho hyuck heh heh HA!"

"Well, then take this!" Chopper threw the rock straight at Kammy, hitting her straight on. The old Magikoopa began to yell out before flying away on her broomstick.

"Serves her right… Well, now to break this." he walked over to the yellow block and attempted to kick it. Sadly, nothing happened from kicking it.

"What? That's not right!"

"Kammy Koopa, that fiend!" Toadsmeth growled. "Did you hear what she said about the princess? It didn't even sound good. I hope nothing's happened to her…"

"Toad guy! Help me break this block!" Chopper continued to punch at the block, with still not positive results. "Man, if only I had a hammer or something to help me!"

That's when Toadsmeth had an idea. He immediately pulled Chopper away from the block and turned him around to face him.

"Good news, Chopper! I happen to know where to get a hammer! Yes, one of the Goombas in Goomba Village had a nice-looking hammer."

"What? I have to go into the village? Oh, all right, I'll go. Hopefully nothing bad happens on my way there."

Chopper headed toward the left. But before going there, he found a block that was in rainbow colors, with a big white S on it. He decided to hit the block.

**Hit this block to save your game progress. When the game is over, your status will return to what it was the last time you saved, and you can continue to play on from there. When you find this block along the way, remember to hit it to save! Do you want to save?**

"Yes… I want to save, dang it!" Chopper said as he was beginning to tap his foot.

**Save completed.**

"All right, there we go. Now to move on so I can get that hammer."

Once Chopper headed toward the path to the left, he found himself in a village with a Goomba family. A Goomba with a small black mustache opened the gate to walk toward him. His name was Goompapa.

"Hmmm? Strange… You look a lot different than anyone I've seen in the Mushroom Kingdom…" Goompapa trailed. "Is there a new species here or something? I never really heard about or seen something like you."

"I'm Chopper of Planet Clara," Chopper introduced. "And the reason I look a lot different than anyone else in the Mushroom Kingdom is because…I'm from a different planet."

"Huh? Oh, I see… That is…rather interesting! We've never really had outsiders here for centuries!"

"Daddy! What is it?" a pink Goomba with a big orange bow came to Goompapa, and she was rather surprised to see Chopper. Her name is Goombaria.

"Hey, you don't look like anyone from the Mushroom Kingdom. Are you from somewhere else?"

Chopper simply nodded, saying, "Yes."

"Oh, wow! For someone outside of the Mushroom Kingdom, you sure look cuter than those Toads…and some of those Boos! I am being completely honest, here." Goombaria commented. "Although, I don't think you're as cute as those Dayzees, no offense."

"None taken."

"Anyway, what brings you to our peaceful little town?" Goompapa asked.

Chopper began to explain to him about all the details about the hammer and the yellow block in his way.

"You need a hammer to break a block? Well, you came to the right place! We happen to have a hammer with us! And it's a brand new one! Come to that big brown house to the upper right! We will give you that hammer you desperately need!"

"Oh, great! Take me there right now!" Chopper smiled.

And with that, Goompapa went to the big house. Chopper sighed in relief. Perhaps not all Goombas were bad people.

Chopper followed Goompapa into his house and saw the inside of his house was a brown color. There were some vines between the first and second floor. There is a table that is shaped like a Goomba. There was a chair and a cabinet with some books. A staircase happened to be hidden behind some furniture.

"Come up the stairs with me. I have the hammer up there." Goompapa said as Chopper followed him up.

Going up the stairs, there was a door that was in front of them. This must've been the room.

"All right, stay here for a moment. I'll be back with the hammer in a minute or two! Just be patient." Goompapa said.

"Of course," Chopper nodded.

Goompapa headed into the room, forcing Chopper to wait. It must have been his bedroom, I guess. One guess… It was brown just like the other rooms.

Chopper decided to sit down on the ground and think about Shooting Star Summit. He had to go there…but what really might be there? What will that Star Spirit tell him?

These questions all made Chopper wonder what he might find. In fact, will he have to do some more fighting?

"Hrmmm… Where did I put that hammer? Let me see now… Oh, HERE it is!" Chopper could hear Goompapa picking it up, despite the fact that they have no hands.

Goompapa came back to Chopper with the hammer that appeared to be a brown color, with a white stripe, a pink face and a yellow star on the front part of the face.

"All right! I managed to find the hammer, so here you go, kid!" Goompapa gave Chopper the hammer, and he held it up.

**You got the hammer! Chopper can do the Hammer attack now! You can smash yellow blocks with this Hammer.**

"Wait… Why am I holding this up?"

"That should do well! Now you can smash that block that's in your way! Also, you can hit trees to make things fall from it, too!"

"Thanks, Goompapa," Chopper thanked. He and Goompapa left the house, but when they went down the small steps, they heard someone's voice.

"_**DAAAAAD! BIG PROBLEM!**_" Goompapa's son, Goombario walked to him and Chopper. Unlike the other Goombas, he was wearing a blue hat. For some reason, Chopper had a feeling that he wanted to kick him. He's not one to hate people for no reason, but this guy seemed different.

"Goombario? Is there something wrong?" Goompapa asked.

_"I don't know why… But he reminds me of something I tend to kick in my house." _Chopper thought.

"Yeah! Some of our stuff was stolen while you were taking that weird kid into the house for that hammer he's got right now." Goombario explained.

"Weird? Hey, I should hit you for that! …But, I won't…since that's wrong. _But, it'll happen, someday…_"

"Somebody stole our stuff? What exactly did he steal? And did you see him?" Goompapa asked, shocked.

"All I know is that he stole our big photo that we hung up on the wall! And what does he look like? Umm… He's a green color. For some reason, he looked like a bean. He was carrying some kind of sack, and he ran off through the gate. He said something about calling himself 'The Shadow Thief'."

"Oh, that's not good," Goompapa frowned as he turned to Chopper. "Listen, I apologize for asking you this, but can you find that Shadow Thief and get back that painting? It's very important to our family."

"All right, I'll go ahead and do it," Chopper nodded as he headed off out of Goomba Village and back to the lab.

* * *

**Toadsmeth's Lab-**

When he got near the door, Professor Toadsmeth came out, sending Chopper flying back.

"Good news, Chopper!" Toadsmeth announced. "I found this in my drawer, and apparently, this thing can scan enemies and Tattle them for their stats!"

"So you're saying I can get info on the enemies with that thing?" Chopper asked.

"Yes… But I can't let you hold onto it. No, no. Way too valuable for you to hold onto. Not only that, but it's fragile. …Well, I'm not sure if you even know the word 'fragile', so I'll just say it can easily break."

"I know what the word 'fragile' means. I'm not as stupid as you think. I mean, I'm pretty intelligent, you know…but not as much as my good friend, Flyer…and he's SIX!"

"Six? That's crazy!"

"Well, his kind can be quite the intelligent kind… Anyway, I got the hammer that the Goombas had!"

"Great! So, Chopper… Are you ready to head off now?"

"You bet I am!" Chopper smiled. "It's time to break this thing!"

Chopper rushed over to the block, and he smashed it with his hammer. It was smashed to bits.

"Well, now that you have the hammer, you can protect yourself against some of the enemies here! I'll just go on ahead to see if there's anything." Professor Toadsmeth ran off ahead to check the area out.

…But, Chopper could hear someone screaming, "_**YOUCH!**_", which sounded like Toadsmeth getting slapped. Chopper noticed him rolling back over to him while stuck in his cap.

"What the heck? Toadsmeth? What happened to you!" Chopper was pretty shocked to see this.

"That showed him!"

Chopper turned around and saw a small Koopa that was around his size…but maybe a little taller. His body had the bottom part of his egg shell, and the top part was like a hat for him. He had brown feet, and he looked pretty mad.

"Hey, who are you, and how did you get here!" the little Koopa baby asked.

"You're kidding, right? A BABY kicked your butt, Toadsmeth? That's just…messed up right there." Chopper said with a look of disdain. "Oh, yeah. What's my name? It's Chopper."

"All right, but I have something to tell you both! This is MY playground, you idiots! Nobody sets foot in here without my permission! Nobody! Prepare to start crying at the feet of Master Jr. Troopa!"

"Oh, a battle? All right, but I'm going easy on you, since you're a baby!"

Professor Toadsmeth managed to get himself up went up to Chopper, panting a little. His glasses were a little messed up, too.

"Chopper, I forgot to tell you something before heading to Goomba Village. This is Jr. Troopa. He's the boss of the neighborhood gang. A bit of a bully, obviously. He's more bark than bite. Since he's just a baby, he's not too hard to fight. Just boost yourself up and don't let him get to you! I'll stay right here behind you and watch your progress."

"All right, then," Chopper made a dash towards Jr. Troopa and stomped on his head. He felt good to stomp on something, actually.

"Oh, excellent! That was great! Go on!" Professor Toadsmeth applauded as Chopper gave two thumbs up.

But, after he did that, Jr. Troopa moved toward him and stomped on his head. It only did 1 point of damage, anyway, so no biggie.

"Oh, you're a tough guy, aren't you? Well, let's see how you like this!" Chopper brought his hammer out.

Chopper rushed toward Jr. Troopa and bashed him with his hammer, and it did hurt him. His attacks really only did 1 point of damage pretty much.

Jr. Troopa simply jumped on his head again just like last time. Chopper quickly shook his head from the attack.

Chopper decided to do something different. He inhaled the baby Koopa with his strange ability and spat him out, leave Jr. Troopa dazed and angry.

"Grrrr! I'm just getting warmed up!" Jr. Troopa ran up to Chopper and stomped on his head once again. It's like they're taking turns attacking, actually…

Chopper brought his hammer out again, and he brought it down on Jr. Troopa. Toadsmeth was glad he was keeping up.

"Chopper, you've almost got him! Keep it up! Go on!" Professor Toadsmeth applauded.

"All right, you asked for it!" Jr. Troopa growled. "Say hello to Jr. Troopa's special attack! _**Full power!**_"

Jr. Troopa began to run in place as he stored enough power for him to deal and extra attack. He then ran toward Chopper and stomped on his head. Unlike before, this attack did 2 damage instead of 1.

"Ouch! All right, now THAT hurt. I was going easy on you before, but not anymore!" Chopper growled.

Chopper saw that he had only 5 HP left. So, he jumped on Jr. Troopa's head and ended the fight. So, basically… Jr. Troopa had 5 HP, 1 Attack, and 0 Defense

The attack sent Jr. Troopa down to the ground, making him dizzy.

"Chopper, that was wonderful fighting. You got **Star Points!** You get Star Points every time you beat an enemy. Every time you save up 100 Star Points, you'll go up a level. Always try hard to get points!" Toadsmeth explained.

"Star Points, huh? Well, that sounds pretty good!" Chopper smiled as he had his thumbs up after the victory while he collected his 20 Star Points.

"Shoooooot!" Jr. Troopa whined as he got up. "I was winning, too! I'll be back, Chopper!"

He began to leave by heading towards the next area, but then he stopped and turned back, pointing at Chopper.

"I mean it, I'll be back!" With that, he was gone.

"So he's saying he'll be back to get me? Umm… I don't think I should be scared, right?" Chopper asked.

"No worries. He's just a little brat. At least MY children didn't act like that when they were younger. Yes, they're a little older. Around seventeen or so…"

"Umm… OK. That's interesting. I'm only eight…" Chopper trailed.

"You don't have to worry much when you're a little kid," Toadsmeth groaned. "Anyway, do you think you'll be able to travel to Toad Town on your own?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine," Chopper nodded. "I've faced worse things than this. So, don't really worry about me at all."

"You sure? …Maybe you should take a look at the sign by Goomba Village first before going on." Toadsmeth went to the sign to the left and noticed a Goomba with a spike on its head was on there.

"Wait a second… I don't remember this Spiked Goomba being here… This is odd…" Toadsmeth began to read the sign.

_Beware of Goombas!_

Suddenly, the Spiked Goomba peeled off of the sign, and it began to go after Toadsmeth.

"ACK! Chopper! I am in need of your assistance!"

"All right, I'm coming!" Chopper used his Speed Dash to run over to the Spiked Goomba and bash it in the head with his hammer.

"Phew… That was a close call for me." Toadsmeth sighed as he got up. "Chopper, that is a Spiked Goomba. You see that spike on its head? Be careful not to jump on him. You'll definitely get hurt. Also, these guys have stronger Attack than normal Goombas."

"Don't worry. I can handle this. I already got the first strike." Chopper said as he whacked the Spiked Goomba with his hammer, and it was gone.

Chopper collected his 3 Star Points, while waggling his finger, and he began to relax for a bit.

"Chopper, I apologize for stopping you again, but I want to give you something before you go out fighting some more Goombas. Wait here." Toadsmeth headed back into his lab, and after a while, he came back.

"Good news! I was able to find it! Here you go, Chopper!" Toadsmeth gave Chopper something called a Badge. It was a badge with a light blue foot with spikes on the bottom of it.

**You got the Power Jump Badge! Chopper stomps on a single enemy using a lot of attack power.**

"This is called a **Badge**. If you wear this, you'll be able to do a Power Jump, which means you'll be able to do a lot more damage with your Jump attack. But listen carefully. You'll only be able to do it if you're wearing the Badge. You'd better try it first. Putting Badges on and taking them off is a vital skill. Would you like me to explain how to use the Badges you collect during your travels?"

"Ummmmmm… I don't think so." Chopper responded, shaking his head. "I think I'll be all right with this badge…"

"Oh, really? Then that's good for you. Now remember, you need **FP (Flower Points) **to use this Power Jump technique. And if you see any blocks with a heart in them, hit them, and you'll recover not just your HP, but your FP as well. They're lifesavers, Chopper! Use them whenever your HP and FP reserves are getting low."

"All right, thanks for the tips. With that block out of the way, I can probably catch that Shadow Thief, and get to Toad Town."

"Thief, you say? Well, then. I wish you luck in finding him. I will have my communicator on if you ever need me, all right?"

"All right, I'll see you some other time!" Chopper waved goodbye to Professor Toadsmeth as he headed out.

Chopper found himself in the next part of the area, which looked the same as the area by the lab. But, there were Goombas, and there was even one with wings called a Paragoomba.

"I should land a First Strike on that," Chopper walked towards it, and he stomped on it, landing a first strike.

Suddenly, Chopper heard his white communicator going off, so he took it out and saw Professor Toadsmeth on the screen.

_"Oh, I forgot something. That Goomba you're fighting right now is called a Paragoomba. That enemy's flying. Your hammer won't reach enemies in the air. If you want to attack airborne enemies, you'll have to use your Jump attack. You can jump over one enemy to attack one behind it, too. This is some good advice here. Remember it! That is all."_

"All right. Thanks for the advice there." Chopper put away his communicator, and he jumped on the Paragoomba, defeating it.

Chopper got three Star Points from it, and he began to move on. He saw a red ? block that was near, so he jumped under it.

A red octagon Badge with a sun in the middle appeared, and Chopper held it up.

"Wait... Why do I keep doing this?!"

**You got the Close Call Badge!**

"Hmm… Maybe I'll put this on right now." Chopper decided to equip the Badge, leaving him with only 1 BP left.

"Geez… Only 1 BP left? Oh, well… I guess I better continue on." Chopper decided to avoid some of the enemies, due to only having 5 HP.

Chopper walked up to a sign near the block, and it had a Mushroom on it. He decided to read the sign to see what it says.

_Eat a Mushroom to regain your energy! When HP gets low, eat a Mushroom with _(That's supposed to be the C button to the left on a N64 Controller).

The Mushroom peeled off of the sign, so Chopper took it and put it away.

Up ahead, at the end of this part of the area was a Heart Block. Chopper wanted to recover, so he headed quickly over there with his Speed Dash and jumped under the block, recovering all of his HP and FP.

"Now that I did that, I can go attack those enemies that are here," Chopper headed back to the enemies, and he began to fight some.

After about five to six minutes, Chopper defeated all the Goombas around here. He hit a Heart Block to recover some of his lost HP and then proceeded on.

In the next area, there was a yellow spring, and it would be able to take you up to the higher ledge. When Chopper walked to the spring, he heard someone's voice shout our to him.

"Hey hey! Hold it right there! You! Yeah, you, suspicious little boy! Don't move!" Chopper looked up, and he saw a red and blue Goomba. They were bigger than the normal Goombas.

"You don't look like anything from around here," the Red Goomba noticed. "Wait, you're probably Chopper! I knew it. You can't go past here, Mr. Antenna Head. We're not letting another person through here ever since that thief got past here. But, it's a direct order from the Goomba King to stop you. That's right! I'm sorry, but the only way by is through the Goomba Bros. That's me, Red Goomba, and my brother, Blue Goomba."

"So the thief DID come through here…" Chopper trailed.

"Let's get him, Blue Goomba!"

"Oh yeah! Let's do it, my red brother!" Blue Goomba replied. Both Goombas jumped down to Chopper.

"Crud… This is going to slow me down." Chopper groaned.

Chopper decided to start it off with a Power Jump, so he stomped on Blue Goomba. Unlike his normal Jump, this did 3 damage.

"Hey Chopper! How'd you like some of this?" Blue Goomba headbonked Chopper in the head, and his brother followed up also. They only really did 1 damage, though.

"OK… They'll only do 2 damage to me. I think I can handle this…" Chopper stomped on the Blue Goomba again, and he managed to defeat that one without any problem.

"Blue, Blue Goomba! Gaaah! My little brother! You'll pay for that, Chopper!" Red Goomba cried.

Red Goomba went toward Chopper and headbonked him in the head. Even with what he said to him, it did 1 damage still.

Chopper decided to go with his Power Jump again, so he stomped on Red Goomba. It did some good damage to him.

Red Goomba did his headbonk on Chopper rushed toward Red Goomba, and he stomped on his head, defeating him.

Chopper got 20 Star Points from the fight, and he did a flip after winning, bright his arms up in victory.

"Geeaaaah! I… I'll let you go for now!" Red Goomba cried, along with his brother. They both fled from him by taking the ledge up.

"Well, I think I should recover now, since that fight took away some of my HP," Chopper went back to the Heart Block to recover, and then he returned, hitting the Save Block that was nearby, and saving his game.

"All right, time to head on up," Chopper jumped on the spring, and it took him up to the higher ledge. There, he headed on into the next area.

Chopper saw a sign in the next area, and he began to read it, since a Mushroom was on there.

_Eat a Mushroom to regain your energy!_

The Mushroom on the sign changed to a Goomba, and it peeled off of the sign. Chopper jumped up a little from this.

"Oh, man… This kind of sucks…" Chopper decided to take care of the Goomba, and get his 4 Star Points, thanks to the other Goomba that joined in the fight. When he saw a sign ahead, he decided to read it.

_Goomba King's Fortress Ahead._

"Goomba King? I was hoping that it would be that Shadow Thief…" Chopper trailed. But, he had to move on, so he did that.

* * *

**Near Goomba Fortress-**

Chopper saw that there was a small castle's top being destroyed…which was making a bridge to the other side. The windows were falling, and the skinny part of the castle opened up, with the Goomba King, who was bigger than a normal Goomba, but had a crown, a white mustache, and his body was red and white stripes.

The skinny part that the Goomba King was standing on then came down, and it ended up sending King Goomba flying.

Chopper saw that the bridge was back…but he saw someone by the castle, who happened to have hit the switch. He saw him holding a brown sack.

"Hey… That might be him!" Chopper began to make it to the Shadow Thief, who still didn't notice him.

"Ooooh! Boo! Blast! Criminy! The famous shadow thief, **Popple**, has been caught in full sight!" the Shadow Thief happened to be someone named Popple, apparently.

"Hey you! Don't move!" Chopper got in his fighting position. When Popple turned around, Chopper saw that his skin was green, he had some green hair sticking out, some black kind of thief hat, a purple mask and yellow eyes. His shirt was in purple and pink stripes, and he wore black pants and white gloves.

Popple was shocked to see Chopper. "Who are you? Are you one of the cops to get me? You're not going to get in my way, see? I've escaped the Beanbean Kingdom from a robbery, and I've come here for more robbery!"

"I just want to get that picture you stole back!" Chopper explained. "And did you say you are from a place called the Beanbean Kingdom?"

"Yeah, that's what I said! And you don't look like someone from here, either, pale green drip!" Popple spat.

"Well, yeah. That's true. Look, just give back the picture, and everything will be cool, OK?" Chopper wanted to settle things peacefully, but Popple didn't take it the same. He got pretty angry.

"Boo! Boo, I say! You really think you can take away what I stole? Well, open those antennas, punk! I, Popple, shadow thief, filcher of the world's riches, will not let that happen! It's time I gave you a beating, see? A BEATING!"

"Oh, great…" Chopper had no other choice but to fight.

"I shall steal all that is yours when I'm through with you, see?" Popple said, with an evil smile on his face.

"You wish, beanie!" Chopper scoffed.

**Tattle: **_That's Popple. He comes from the Beanbean Kingdom, and he calls himself the shadow thief. He doesn't look as easy as Jr. Troopa, though. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 0. He can steal your coins, or even your items to help himself. Not only that, but he could steal your hammer and use it on you. You better be careful here, Chopper. He may not look as tough as the Goomba King, but that makes it up for him with his agility and speed. I wonder how he even got here from the Beanbean Kingdom…_

Chopper saw that Popple was near the tree, and there was something in the tree that he could use to hit him.

_"Hmmm… Maybe I can hit that tree…" _Chopper thought. He brought his hammer out, and he whacked at the Goomnut Tree.

A big, yellow Goomnut fell on Popple, and it pretty much hurt him more than any of Chopper's other attacks. It took away 3 HP from Popple.

Popple had that evil smile on his face, and his feet began to shake like he was running. He then attacked Chopper. It only did 1 point of damage, really.

Chopper decided to do his Power Jump on him, and it did some decent damage to Popple. But, Popple was going towards Chopper again.

Popple began to get closer to Chopper, and he quickly stole something from him. When he moved away, he had a Mushroom.

"I'll be taking that, see?" Even though Chopper lost a Mushroom, he could get it back. Also, he didn't take any damage.

"Gimme back my Mushroom!" Chopper stomped on Popple, causing him to drop the Mushroom. Chopper picked it up, and he moved away from him.

"That's what happens when you steal from ME, Popple."

Popple then began to charge toward Chopper, doing a headbutt attack on him. Unlike his normal attacks, this one did 2 damage this time.

"I suppose a Power Jump can finish Popple off," Chopper did his Power Jump attack on Popple, and he was already lying on the ground.

Chopper ended up getting 30 Star Points, and he waggled his finger like what he did before when he won a battle one chapter ago. He then noticed that he gained a Level. What was nice was that he was allowed to choose to get his HP to 15, his FP to 10, and his BP to 6.

Chopper decided to choose FP, so he wouldn't have 5 FP…and that his HP and FP would then be even.

"…_Geh!_ …_Buh!_ …_Haaaaack!_"

"Grrrrrr! Boo, I say! I'll… I'll remember this!" Popple got up, grabbed his sack and began to run away from Chopper.

"Dang it… He got away with the picture. I thought I'd be able to get that thing back." Chopper sighed until he heard his communicator going off.

_"Chopper, have you found that thief who stole that family portrait?" _Professor Toadsmeth asked.

"Well… I found him, beat him…but he got away."

_"Dang... Well, if you ever find him again, you can go ahead and give him what he deserves, and also get the portrait."_

"I'll do that." Chopper put away the communicator, went into the small castle, and then he crossed the bridge. He could see that below was pretty far down, so he made sure not to look down.

After crossing the bridge, Chopper followed the yellow path for a little bit by using his Speed Dash, and then he moved on.

But, he didn't notice Kammy Koopa was watching him cross the bridge. With a frown, she flew off to tell the news to Bowser.

* * *

**Nope, we don't get a party member in the prologue, which kind of makes this a little unique compared to Paper Mario. Also... The whole Goombario thing isn't something to take serious (even though I don't really like him that much), but I apologize to those who were offended. :P**

**Now we get to introduce the bad guys next chapter!**


	4. The Demon Knight and the Koopas

Up in the dark sky, Kammy Koopa was flying towards Bowser's Castle. However, she was actually going to Peach's Castle. Apparently, that's where Bowser is currently residing, now that he's captured the princess.

Inside Peach's Castle, Kammy came out of a blue door with a yellow star in the center. The floor was a checkered black and white, and the walls were a light blue. She slowly made her way over to Bowser.

"Mighty King Bowser… I've been looking for you." Kammy panted. "A report, Your Evilness: the Goomba King was defeated by some bean thief, and he was beaten by Chopper. He's now heading to Toad Town."

"What? Unbelievable! The Goomba King lost to a BEAN! I even used the Star Rod to make him a king because he begged me… And he loses to some bean? What a wimp! Uh…Kammy Koopa! You ARE sure that this Chopper can never defeat us, right?"

"Please, please, Your Vileness! Try to be calm, Goomba King is small-time. I had a feeling he'd fail. It doesn't matter, because while you hold the Star Rod you are definitely invincible. You could could probably beat Chopper with one claw tied behind your back."

"One claw behind my back? Nothing more, hag?"

"Well, having the Star Rod in your possession is what we needed to begin with, according to Maquano. He said he needed that in order to help take over this kingdom with you…or even destroy it!"

"Hmmmmm… The Mushroom Kingdom destroyed…" Bowser pondered as he held the Star Rod. "Ooh! Maybe we can replace it with a brand new kingdom: the Bowser Kingdom! Gwa ha ha ha! That sounds excellent!"

"Oh, yes. I almost forgot." Kammy realized. "Maquano's wizard sent a message to me to be passed to you. He said that him, Maquano, and his minions would be coming here to deliver you those robots."

"Robots? Oh, you mean those C units? Oh, yes. I've been waiting for those things to come! I hope that they are good as that demon knight said."

Before Bowser could continue, everything began to shake. Above Peach's Castle was a huge red and black ship. It was bigger than both Bowser's Castle and Peach's Castle.

Bowser and Kammy then saw a red beam coming down in the room they're in. Some big, flaming monsters came down into the castle. They were bigger than Kammy, but not as big as Bowser… They have black and red armor on (futuristic kind, actually), and they also have black wings with some red stripes. They are the minions of Chopper's arch nemesis: the Hellspawns.

Some small little dark creatures with a round head, a round body, and small hands appeared as well. They had an antenna with bulb on top. Most of them had red eyes and a red bulb, and some had other colors. They're called Darklings, which are weaker than the soldier.

Someone else appeared from the beam. It was a small Hellspawn with red skin. He was wearing a black wizard's hat and wore a monocle. He has purple eyes, unlike the other Hellspawns, since they have red eyes. The small Hellspawn has two fangs that could easily be seen through his gray beard. He was wearing a black robe with long sleeves and was also holding a wand that had a red orb with darkness inside of it. His legs and feet could not be seen, since it was covered by his robe. He's also riding on a broomstick, which is black, covered in spikes, and has a strange, flaming eye inside. He is known to be the oldest Hellspawn in existence, and his name is Camikon.

"All Hellspawns stay in two straight lines!" Camikon ordered. The ten Hellspawns were in a straight line of two, with some room for someone to walk in between both of them.

_"Whoa… These soldiers are pretty different. They remind me…of myself!" _Bowser thought as he looked at the Hellspawns. They didn't even look at him at all.

Camikon walked toward Bowser and turned around. Someone else was starting to come out of the beam.

Bowser then saw a Knight coming out of the beam. He looked more like a human than a demon though. He was pretty tall, but not as tall as Bowser. He was wearing a black helmet with three light gray spikes pointing out of it. You can see bright evil red eyes from his helmet. His chest armor seems to be mostly red, but with some gray and black on it, and his shoulder pads are red with black spikes on it. His armored gloves are black, with one red stripe. His pants were gray, with the armor on it being black. The knight's boots were black, with a red stripe on it. This Knight has a red sword with a black handle, but currently, he has it away for the moment. He also donned a light black cape to show off that he is the leader. This guy is almost 10,000 years old, now being around 9,998 years old.

This knight began to walk over to Bowser. The Hellspawns didn't even move a muscle. They were pretty well-disciplined.

"So… You're **Maquano**, right?" Bowser asked.

"Yes, I am Maquano. I'm the one who came here requesting for your help." Maquano nodded. "Have you gotten a hold of the Star Rod yet?"

"Why, of course! I have it right here!" Bowser grinned as he held up the Star Rod. "It was a piece of cake! Now those Star Spirits are back to being trapped!"

"Excellent! Everything is going according to plan then! The only problem is that Chopper is apparently here."

"He's still alive unfortunately," Kammy announced.

"Well, with the Star Rod stolen, chances are that he won't be alive for long when he manages to find him," Maquano grinned.

"Who's 'he'?" Camikon asked.

"I'm surprised you don't even known, Camikon… I'm talking about the Star God Staris! Now that the Star Rod's stolen, he has gone mad and is corrupted with evil power! We can have him on our side and take down Chopper with ease!"

"What about Mario? We need to get rid of him too."

"Of course. You can get rid of your nemesis while I get rid of mine. It makes it all better for us. Anyway… I have some C Units that I needed to deliver, right?"

"Yeah, that's right. Where are they?"

"I'll get to it right away. Camikon! Get them here right now!" Maquano clapped his hands, issuing an order.

"Of course, Lord Maquano," Camikon waved his wand and summoned a couple of boxes that landed in front of Bowser. One of them opened up to reveal a spherical-shaped robot with two arm guns, gray eyes and a jetpack. It had spiky antennas as well.

"Wait… Why does this look somewhat like Chopper?" Bowser asked.

"Well, you see, we created this one robot that resembled Chopper, and thankfully, it seemed to work very well with fighting Chopper. However, now that robot left us on his own, swearing that he would defeat Chopper himself. Thankfully, I think these robots will do just fine. This one is called **C-1 Mega**. It's the first of it's kind."

"But the second one is our favorite," Camikon informed.

"Ah, yes. Let's get that one out too." Maquano cut the box open with his sword, revealing a silver spherical-shaped robot with horizontal stripes all over his body, two antennas, a red visor, one arm gun, a stubby, fingerless arm, stubby feet, and a jetpack. This one seemed to resemble Chopper a little more than C-1 Mega.

"This one looks cooler than the other," Bowser grinned.

"Let's see if it works," Kammy turned on the robot, making its red visor glow. It looked around the room, seeing the villains staring at him.

"So, what's this one called?" Bowser asked.

"Well, since it's the second of the robots, this one is called C-2. Codename: Choppor."

"Choppor," C-2 Choppor said as his visor spun around. "Greetings, master. I am here to serve you."

"Wow, this is nice… How about you get me something to help me walk better?" Kammy suggested.

"Out of the way, Haggy," Bowser interrupted, pushing the old Magikoopa out of the way. "This thing listens to ME!"

However, before he could even say something else, C-1 Mega stopped working.

"The first C unit seems to not be working properly…" Camikon gawked. "Hellspawns, I thought you fixed this thing!?"

"Well, we didn't have time to fix it. We had to go immediately." the first Hellspawn Soldier explained.

"You fools! All of you! Go back into the ship and fix any of the robots that you didn't fix up!" Maquano ordered.

"Yes, Lord Maquano!" All the Hellspawns and Darklings saluted as they went back into the ship.

Maquano then looked at C-2 Choppor, who seemed to be fine right now and not having any problems.

"This one's working fine. You can hold onto that one for now."

"All right, then. You, C-2 Choppor! You will now obey only me!" Bowser demanded. He then turned his attention to Kammy Koopa.

"By the way, Kammy Koopa, those Star Spirits we managed to capture again don't have any way of giving Chopper their power, do they?"

"Please, don't worry yourself. Each is held separately. And each is carefully guarded by your handpicked subjects. Even Chopper can't save all seven Star Spirits."

"Star Spirits, you say? Oh, yes… The ones you turned into cards. If I didn't tell you to go steal it again, you wouldn't have had all of this stuff." Maquano smirked.

"Yes, it was because of you, Maquano," Bowser laughed. "Hold on, Kammy, who's the closest Star Spirit to Chopper? It's that one at the fortress that WAS there before. Isn't it called **Koopa Bros. Park** right now? If Chopper somehow reaches there, can those Koopa Bros. defeat him? I mean, Mario's a different story, but what about Chopper?"

"King Bowser, you mustn't worry…" All four paused for a moment.

"_**Hi-yaa!**_" Four Koopas with masks jumped down like ninjas. One had a red mask, red shell, and red boots, the second one had a black mask, black shell, and black boots, the third one had a yellow mask, yellow shell, and yellow boots, and the last one had a green mask, green shell, and green boots. They all had green gloves, as well. They are Red, Black, Yellow, and Green.

All four of them had their thumbs up, making a flash emit from their thumbs

"Here come the Koopa Bros.! Uh-huh! Oh yeah! We're the coolest of the cool!" Red gloated.

"…What the heck is this?" Maquano asked.

"I highly doubt that you'll stand a chance against Chopper…" Camikon groaned, face palming.

"…Pssst! Kammy Koopa. Are you sure these guys can get the job done?" Bowser whispered. "I mean, the Goomba King was beaten by a bean and all, but I don't think he would've beaten Chopper."

"Pssshaw! Get real, King Bowser!" Red assured. "Yeah, the Goomba King was huge, but he was a total wimpola! We're nothing like that gigantic mushroom! See, we got the teamwork and all, but we tore down our fortress to make a park… And we're sure that this park…or should I say DEATH TRAP will keep this Chopper person from getting the Star Spirit! And if that doesn't work, we'll put the hurt on him in seconds flat!"

"Oh, please… I highly doubt that you can even stop him with some park. I want to see some blueprints on this park." Maquano demanded.

"All right, if it's blueprints you want, then it's blueprints you'll get, demon knight! Check it out!" Red took out the blueprints and showed them to the demon knight.

Maquano took a look at the blueprints, and he was nodding a little. Camikon took a look also, and he seemed to be nodding a little as well.

"Hmmm… Not bad. Not bad at all. My minions could make a place like this, but it never looked something like THIS…"

"Yes, it could quite get Chopper…" Camikon agreed.

"Let me have a look at those blueprints!" Bowser took them from Maquano, and he was taking a good look at them.

"_**Ooh…OOOH! **_This… This is… _Ohhhhh!_" Bowser was quite surprised to see what he was seeing on the blueprints.

"They're good and all, but not a reason to go 'Ohhhhh'…" Maquano sighed.

"So, how do you like 'em? King Bowser? How are they?" Red asked.

"Oh, yeah! Excellent! Really! I'm not easily impressed with blueprints, either! Chopper won't have a chance getting through that park, or if you finished him with that excellent attack you can use!"

"We'll take him, King Bowser!"

"We'll just see about that…" Maquano said.

"Chopper doesn't seem to have anybody with him, so if he's just facing the park himself, then things may not be so bad for you," Camikon informed.

"By the way, my Koopa Bros… About the captured Star Spirit I've locked up in your park… Who's guarding him right now?" Bowser asked.

Koopa Bros.: !

"…Uh…nobody, sir…" Red gulped. "You know, we're here and so…"

"_**You idiots!**__ Use your heads!_ Get back to the park and guard that Star Spirit!" Bowser's voice roared through the room, scaring the Koopa Bros. away and giving Maquano and Camikon a good chuckle.

Suddenly, Maquano's communicator went off, and he took it out. He saw a ghost demon with black skin, purple eyes, and he was in some kind of red motorcycle clothing, with his sleeves ripped, and a red bandanna on his head with crossbones. This is Maquano's brother, and his name is Bob, who is approximately 9,996 years old. Unlike Maquano, he's just someone who thinks he can do what he wants. Basically, he's a jerk.

_"Hey, Maquano! What's the password to your terminal? I need to look at some stuff." _Bob informed.

"Why the HECK do you need to use my computer!? And are you in my castle in Hell?" Maquano roared.

_"C'mon, Maquano! We're buds! Just give me your password so I can ruin your com-er… I mean get some information."_

"No. Is this why you called me? Just to give me my password so you can infect my computer?! You've made so much excuses to use my computer, and all the things you do on there end up filling my computer with your own stuff and infecting it! Get off of it and get yourself a girlfriend so you can stop bugging me all the time…_you idiot_…"

_"Well what about you? You don't have any girlfriends! …Wait, you had a wife before, but you killed her so you can raise your son to be evil. Oh, and also... I had to blow my nose on one of your capes…"_

"…I hate you so much. You know that, Bob? Go to Hell and quit bothering me every single day."

_"But I'm already there"_

"That's not the point! First you call me old, and then you try to do things that fill my computer with nothing but porn! I'm not talking to you right now." Maquano turned off his communicator and put it away.

Maquano then looked at C-2 Chopper, who was looking around. He was pretty much waiting for orders (We'll refer to him as a male, all right, since he doesn't look much like a female).

"I don't think the Koopa Bros. will be able to do this alone. Bowser, I think you should send C-2 Choppor out. He's a pretty skilled robot, which is something good. But, C-1 Mega is probably stronger. But, since he's getting fixed, I recommend sending him."

"Hmmm… I guess I might as well. Choppor, I want you to go help out the Koopa Bros. at Koopa Bros. Park!" Bowser ordered. "Maquano told me you're skilled, so you should be able to do this."

"As you command, " C-2 Choppor nodded. The bottoms of his feet

"Geez… I wonder if you're going to be more creative with your robots by making something not like Chopper…" Bowser wondered as he received a glare.

"If you try to insult me, then this deal is off," Maquano growled. "Now, if you'll excuse me… I'm going to make myself at home here."

With that, Maquano turned away from Bowser and left the room through the blue door.

* * *

**Originally, I wasn't really GOING to make Maquano have a brother...but once my friend gave me the idea with Bob, I knew it had to be in the story. Bob is, in my opinion, one of the biggest jerks in the WHOLE Paper Chopper series. There aren't any in the third one, but there is a jerk in the second one. But, Bob probably wins by a landslide.**


	5. Staris and Shooting Star Summit

Chopper saw that the yellow path was coming to an end, with some steps going down, so he walked down the large steps to find that the dirt path was gone. To the bottom left was a yellow block.

"I remember these blocks back on Clara," Chopper recalled, looking up at the object. "Let's see what's inside…"

He punched the block to find a Sleepy Sheep. "Well, looks like this should be helpful! What is this…? A Sleepy Sheep? Huh…"

Chopper noticed a tree nearby, so with a simple bash, a spring fell from the branches. Apparently, it could help bring you up to the roof near Toad Town.

There was a brown chest on the roof, so he opened it, and there was a Hammer Throw Badge. He decided that this would come in handy in the future.

When he jumped off the roof, he saw some plants. He knew that he was pretty close to Toad Town. The path up ahead seemed to be the way straight into the town.

"All right, time to go!" Chopper instantly made a bolt to the town.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

"Finally! I made it back to Toad Town at long last!" Chopper smiled as he stopped at a sudden halt. Unlike before, it wasn't filled with running Toads. Everyone seemed just fine, despite the sudden attack Bowser dealt back at dawn.

"Whoa, look at that guy there," a Toad noticed as Chopper walked in the center of the first area of Toad Town. He looked down at the star picture he was standing on and smiled at it. "He's a strange one, isn't he?"

"You think he's friendly?" a female Toad asked.

"Let's find out," he walked over to Chopper, who was still busy looking at the town. "Ummm… Hi there, strange one! Welcome to our town! What's your name?"

"My name? Well… I'm Chopper of Planet Clara." Chopper introduced with a wave. "I suppose all of you are wondering what the heck I am… Well, even I don't know what I am! Anyway, I just came here for a vacation, but it got ruined when Bowser came along…"

"Wait… Are you here to stop him?"

"Well, I was told to go to Shooting Star Summit…whatever that is. And… I think that might mean I need to stop Bowser.

"Then… We still have a chance to win! With you here, you can help us!"

"Ummmmm… Well, you see…"

"Guys! I think a new hero has come!" the Toad cheered.

"Yeah! We can finally teach that Koopa a lesson!"

"Whoa! Settle down! I'm not much of a hero!" Chopper gawked, trying to get some of the Toads to calm down. "You just met me, and now you're calling me a hero? You really can't do that, you know!"

"Well, our hero, Mario, has taken a vacation, and we can't just let ourselves be hopeless! A new hero IS needed to stop Bowser!"

"Ugh… Well, I think I should get away from this crowd…" Chopper mumbled as he noticed a green pipe nearby. Not caring where it would lead him to, he jumped into the pipe.

* * *

**Mario's house-**

By a house with a red roof, a human plumber wearing a green cap with an L on it, a green shirt, blue overalls, white gloves and a mustache was sitting near the steps of the front door, looking up at the sky.

"I wonder what my brother Mario is doing on his vacation right now…" Luigi wondered. When Chopper got out of the pipe, he noticed him.

"Whoa! Who are you? You don't look like anybody from around here!"

"Yeah, I know. You're not the only one who just said that…" Chopper trailed. He noticed that the front of the house had the name "MARIO" in big letters. "Hold on… Is this Mario's house or something?"

"Yeah, this is my bro's house," Luigi nodded. "However, he went out on vacation to the Beanbean Kingdom. Well, I don't know if it would be considered a vacation. There's an evil witch there that's attacking, but so far he's been doing fairly well."

"Interesting… It's something similar to me. I came here for a vacation, only to have Bowser ruin it."

"Bowser? Wait, so you're the one who was fighting him before? I only saw a little bit of it…"

"Long story short, he beat me," Chopper concluded. "Oh, and he ended up taking a castle as well."

"So Bowser has kidnapped the princess again? That's just great. Without Mario, the princess will never be saved! I'd try to go, but I can't just leave the house unrequited. Someone could easily break in!"

"Uhh… I suppose I could fill in? I'm on an adventure,"

"Really? Great, just great." Luigi sighed. "Even you are on an exciting adventure. Talk about unfair."

"Oh, I'm kinda feel sorry for you…"

"Don't feel too sorry. I've been on a couple of adventures on my own once. You're young, and I think you should be able to experience some too. You… You are young, right?"

"I'm eight."

"Yeah, that's young. Well, I guess I can do is wish you luck."

"Thanks!" Chopper said, giving him a thumbs up as he jumped in the pipe. Luigi sat back down and sighed.

"Someday you'll probably go on a real adventure, Luigi…"

* * *

**Toad Town-**

Chopper proceeded through the next part of Toad Town. This was the area where he faced Bowser and lost. Not much has changed. The house with the flying roof was still there, and there was even a shop open. Since he had some Clarin - which is money for his planet, he headed over to the shop to purchase something.

"What? What do you mean you don't accept Clarins?" Chopper grimaced. "I thought you'd accept money!"

"We do, kid," the Toad with the mustache nodded. "However, not this kind of money. Do you even know how our money works?"

"No…"

"Well, you see, we use money called coins. This would be an example of a coin." the Toad held up a holden coin. "The best way to make these is to either defeat enemies for them, or sell some items you don't need."

"Oh! I found some of those when I was fighting a couple of Goombas!" Chopper gasped. "I think I can use those, I suppose. I'll get…a POW Block and a Honey Syrup."

"Well that's just fine!" Chopper gave the shopkeeper the right amount of coins and gave him the two items. With that, he left the shop and returned outside.

Before heading to the next part of Toad Town, he saw a Buzzy Beetle with a green shell, with braided hair on the top. He also saw someone wearing a blue sheet with a white trim. The strange person also had a small amount of blonde hair like a sumo wrestler.

"Hmmmmm… Lee, do you see what I'm seeing?" the Buzzy Beetle asked.

"Yes, it's just as **The Master** predicted, Chan," Lee nodded. "He said 'Be prepared when a boy from another galaxy comes down to our kingdom. That will be the day where we must be prepared to test his skills.'"

"Yes. Perhaps that time will come."

Chopper looked over at the two, who stayed silent for a moment. With a shrug, he proceeded through the next part of Toad Town. This was the area where he faced Bowser and lost. Not much has changed. The house with the flying roof was still there.

He noticed that there was also a Paratroopa flying out of the post office across from the house with the flying room. He was carrying a bag full of letters, but accidentally bumped into Chopper.

"Oh, I'm so sorry!" he apologized. "I just don't know my place at times!"

"Don't worry about it," Chopper assured, helping the postman up. "I don't know much about this place anyway."

"Yeah, when I get a look at you, you don't look like most people around here, no offense."

"None taken."

"Anyway, I gotta get going. Good luck to you!" And with that, the postman flew off. Chopper thought he was pretty nice, even if he was completely different than anyone else here.

He noticed another person over by a tree. This was actually a girl, and she was more like a ghost. She was a light green color and wore red bows on the side of her head. She yawned as she crossed her arms.

"Well, I guess getting away from that butler is such a relief once in a while," she sighed. "No butlers will be able to bug me for once! It's very relieving…"

"Ummmm… Hi there! Are you a ghost?" the ghost paused and noticed Chopper standing in front of her. "I haven't really seen a ghost before, not even a ghost girl. I never knew they were actually kind of pretty. So, this feels pretty new to me seeing female ghosts."

"I think that's very sweet of you to say that," she giggled while blushing. "Aren't you that boy that stood up to Bowser before? I'll admit, that was kind of brave of you."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I didn't expect someone like you to try to fight against him, even if you look really cute," she pinched Chopper's cheek, making him wince.

"What the… Why did you do that?"

"I don't know why, but your face makes me want to pinch it. It's just cute! Anyway… I think I should head off. Maybe I'll see you some other time, Chopper."

"Wait… How do you…" Chopper noticed her give him a wink before disappearing. "OK… That was strange. I don't know whether she was flirting with me or just complimenting me back for calling her pretty… Well I don't care. I'd rather not have a girlfriend anyway."

He turned away from the tree and searched for somewhere else to go in Toad Town.

"All right, I think I better go this way…" Chopper hit the Save Block first, and then he headed to the blue gate up north.

Chopper gaped as he saw a deep hole in the ground to the north. That must've been where Peach's Castle was…

"I can't believe that Princess Peach's Castle was here a little while ago. Wow!" the Toad gaped as he looked at all the rubble. "I can't believe I was able to get out just in time before the rest got captured…"

"Poor fountain… This looked pretty nice, but I don't think it's going to get fixed anytime soon…"

Chopper headed over to the path past the remains of Peach's Castle and noticed that the beautiful green grass was turning to a purple color.

"The grass is purple? Huh… This is interesting…" Chopper began to go further, and when he crossed the small bridge, he noticed the sky changed to a blue color. There were some shooting stars coming down as well, making this whole place feel…relaxing to him.

"Wow, this place is so beautiful," Chopper jumped up a small ledge and saw a sign. He decided to read it.

_Shooting Star Summit is to the right._

Chopper noticed another passageway just below him. There was a sign over there, so he jumped down and looked over at the sign and read it.

_Looking for something? Drop by Merluvlee's Place!_

"Merluvlee,huh? Well, while it would be nice to go visit someone, I don't have the time to go see someone. I have to go to Shooting Star Summit!"

Chopper headed towards the path to Shooting Star Summit, and he noticed that the dark blue sky was now filled with beautiful stars. The ground was also a darker color, probably because of how different the sky has become now. There were also yellow rocks shaped like a star near the spiral path.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Chopper noticed when walking to the left, there was something called a Star Piece. He took it and put it away.

"A Star Piece, huh? Does it form some kind of star if you collect them all?"

With that in his mind, he began to climb up the small mountain using his Speed Dash. He was actually relieved that he wasn't slow, or else climbing this mountain wouldn't be easy. He noticed up on the top, there was the same Star Spirit, Eldstar, waiting for him.

"_Welcome Chopper… We've been waiting for you."_

"'We'? What do you mean 'we'? Is there more than just you?"

_"Why, of course," _Eldstar flew away from the center and six other Star Spirits appeared. "_We are the 7 Star Spirits. Our job is to grant the wishes of good people from our home in Star Haven, a place high beyond the sky. We're going to tell you something incredibly important. Please listen carefully."_

"All right, I might as well… If it's to stop Maquano and Bowser, then I must."

"_The other day, Maquano told Bowser to steal the Star Rod if he wished to change the Mushroom Kingdom and get the princess. Bowser decided to go with that, so he and his followers invaded our peaceful Star Haven. They stole our prized treasure, the Star Rod, which we've cared for since the beginning of time."_

"Wait… So that thing Bowser was holding was something that Maquano told him about? No wonder he was able to get that..."

"_The Star Rod…is powerful beyond belief. It can grant any wish. For as long as we can remember, Bowser and Maquano have been making wishes like, for instance… 'I'd like to trounce Mario' or 'I want Princess Peach to like me.' That was mostly for Bowser, but Maquano had such things like… 'I want to destroy Chopper' and 'I wish to destroy the entire universe' and even 'I want my idiotic brother, Bob, dead.' Of course, Stars ignore such selfish and hateful wishes. As a result, their wishes were never granted." _the second Star Spirit, Mamar, added.

"_Maquano…that evil demon… And Bowser…that fiend… When Maquano found out that we were ignoring his wishes, he got Bowser to go steal the Star Rod so not only Bowser could get his wishes, but Maquano could get anything he told Bowser to get him. Not only that, but now the Star God, Staris, has become full of evil power and is currently trying to find and absorb the powers of the Stars. Every wish Bowser makes, the more bloodthirsty Staris will become. Bowser seems content right now, mainly because he defeated you and captured the princess…again. Soon enough, though, I fear that he will wish for more…and then Staris will go after more Stars from every wish Bowser makes." _the purple Star Spirit, Skolar explained.

"_It is the responsibility of the 7 Star Spirits to keep the Star Rod safe and use it properly. We must get the Star Rod back from Bowser and return it to its rightful place! Or else Staris may perhaps destroy everything in the Mushroom Kingdom with the power of the Stars absorbed. In order to do this, we need the help from someone from a different planet. That is you, Chopper!" _Muskular informed.

"_Sadly…right now you are not strong enough to challenge both Maquano and Bowser…he has made himself all-powerful by making wishes with the Star Rod. Both Bowser and Maquano are terrible to behold! And defeating Staris won't do much. He will always come back even if you defeat him once! I don't know which to worry about right now." _Misstar frowned.

"_Once we 7 Star Spirits are reunited in Star Haven, we can give you the power to fight Bowser and Maquano even with their strength. With our help, you can prevail!" _Klevar assured.

"_Chopper…we are… Alas… We've nearly exhausted our power to talk to you. Although it looks like we're there beside you, it is only an illusion. We're using all of our strength to communicate with you over a great distance. But even now, our strength is fading… We've been caught and are being held by Bowser's followers in different places throughout the Mushroom Kingdom. Please, Chopper, first of all, you must rescue us!" _Kalmar cried.

"_In order to take the Star Rod back from Bowser…stop Maquano…save Princess…and also stop Staris from getting stronger…we need your help. Please, Chopper…you are our last hope…and we will…" _Eldstar's words were soon cut off as the seven Star Spirits faded away.

"Wow… It looks like things are more serious than I thought," Chopper realized. "Maquano is here, and an angry Star God is probably going to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom! Not only that, but it seems like I have to save a princess this time. That's not usually something I do, but I have no other choice... I wonder what is going on with her, though? I'm a little worried."

* * *

Back up in the sky, in Peach's Castle, Princess Peach was in her own room, which was filled with mostly her dresses, a pink bed, and a large window

Her room had a pink floor, a light blue wall with clouds on them, a fireplace, and some furniture. She had a picture of Mario on the wall by the fireplace also. Peach seemed to be a little sad.

"Sniffle…" Peach sighed as she slowly moved back and forth in the room. "Maybe allowing Mario to go to the Beanbean Kingdom for a vacation wasn't such a good idea after all… Everyone's in prison… The Mushroom Kingdom will be destroyed if things continue the way they're going. Something must be done… If only I could get help from somebody…"

Peach heard the door open, and Bowser, Kammy, Maquano, and Camikon came out of the door, walking over to the helpless princss.

"Gwaa ha ha ha ha! My dear Princess Peach, how are you doing this fine day?" Bowser asked.

"It's no use waiting for Mario to hear about the news and come back here, my dear!" Kammy cackled. "We're soooooo high above the sky right now. And by the time Mario comes back, the Mushroom Kingdom will be ours!"

"Ah, so you're the famous Princess Peach," Maquano grinned while bowing. "It's such a pleasure to meet the leader of the Mushroom Kingdom...for now!"

"Who are you two?" Peach asked.

"Who? Me? My name is Lord Maquano, but I'll allow you you call me Maquano if you want. I come from a faraway galaxy from this place. I usually inhabit the Starland Galaxy - a place with my arch nemesis. But, at least he ended up coming to this world so we can kill him!"

"I am his sidekick, Camikno!" the old wizard sneered. "It's best not to get on my bad side, silly human. You wouldn't want that to happen... However, we ARE the ones responsible for angering the Star God and corrupting him with evil!"

"Staris may be your typical kind god, but with him corrupted in evil, nothing will stop him from absorbing all the energy from the Stars! Since the Star Spirits are stronger than anything else in Star Haven, absorbing them would give him a new form. When he absorbs all seven... He'll be unstoppable!"

"Oh my… That's terrible! Why would you do such a thing?" Peach gasped.

"Well, unlike Bowser, I have no regards to Mushroomian life in this world. I enjoy hurting and killing people, you know But no worries, Princess. I will not harm you...yet. Heh heh heh… But, when I get full control of Staris, I'll let him do some of the work for me!"

"Gwa ha ha ha. Oh, yes… That Star God will definitely help the two of us, even if he wants the Star Rod back!" Bowser cackled as he held it up. "You know, Princess, as long as I have this Star Rod, no one in the Mushroom Kingdom can touch me. You know the power that grants everyone's wishes? It now belongs to me! Isn't that just wonderful?"

"Nyeah hee hee hee! Imagine what it's like down in your kingdom! Your subjects must be so upset because their wishes aren't being granted!" Kammy sneered. "Oh, how delightful! They deserve it for the way they've been treating us Koopas and Goombas over the years!"

"And soon, Staris will arrive, and he shall destroy them all!" Camikon cackled.

"If you, you know, want anything, all you need to do is ask me, Princess," Bowser added, getting closer to her. "I can grant wishes. Of course, I'll only grant requests that I like… Anyway, think about it. You take care, Princess Peach! Enjoy your stay here!"

"You watch yourself, Princess. You'd better not cause trouble. Bleah heh heh ho ha ha…" Kammy cackled.

"Perhaps we might meet again some other time. But, we shall see about that, Princess." Maquano pondered. "But, if you wish to see me, I can come here, and it can only be for something that I'm interested in, perhaps something like wanting to know about my world, or why Bob can be a douche, or why Camikon can be annoying at some times."

"Lord Maquano! Why would you call me annoying? !" Camikon gaped.

"Shut up, old man."

Bowser, Kammy, Maquano, and Kammy left Peach's room, leaving the princess alone in her room.

"Oh… Please… If only somebody could help me…" she wished as she clasped her hands together. She suddenly heard a knock on the window.

"Huh?" Peach saw a small yellow Star Kid knocking on the window. From what she knew, this little Star Kid looked a lot familiar.

"Oh my! It's Twink!" she gaped as she opened the window, allowing the Star Kid to fly energetically around the room.

"Hi Princess Peach!" Twink greeted. "It's been a long time, hasn't it? Wasn't it seven months or something?"

"It has been. I'm surprised it was you that came here. Did you hear my wish?"

"Of course! That's why I came here! When I first your voice, I knew I had to come here and help!"

"Oh, that's just great! It's always nice to see an old friend return! How has it been in Star Haven?"

"It's been great! I've been slowly knowing more on how to grant wishes! I haven't become fully capable of granting big ones, but I'm getting there!"

"So... You're not able to get the Star Rod away from Bowser?" Peach asked.

"Sorry... Like I said, I'm still a little around the novice side." Twink frowned. "The only Stars I know that could do something like that would be the Star Spirits..."

"But the Star Spirits are all captured..." she trailed. "Is it possible for you to take me away from here? Everyone in my castle has been captured and I have to save them all as soon as possible. Are you able to do that?"

"…Oh… I'm sorry, Princess Peach. I can't grant that wish either, I'm afraid. If I were a more splendid Star, maybe I could actually help… That would take me a couple of years to learn..."

"It's all right, Twink… Don't be so sad. Hopefully, Mario will come soon to save us all. I bet he's coming back from the Beanbean Kingdom right now! But… If I asked you to find Mario, that might take you a while. The Beanbean Kingdom is pretty far from here. Do you think you can find somebody that's brave enough to come help? If you can, give this to him or her."

Peach took out a necklace with a yellow star on it. Twink took it and held it up in a certain way that Chopper would hold it up.

"I remember this! This is a **Lucky Star**, isn't it? OK! I'll do it, Princess Peach! I'll fly to the Mushroom Kingdom just as quick as I can!" he nodded as he put the Lucky Star away.

And with that, Twink headed out to the window…

"Oh! Wait, Twink! Wait one second!" Twink stopped and turned to Peach. "Can you also… If you find Mario or someone that knows of me, please tell them I'm fine, and they shouldn't worry… OK? Can you tell them that?"

"Of course! I'll tell them your exact words, Princess Peach! Definitely! Now, don't despair… I'll be back soon, so stay safe until I return, OK?"

Twink flew out the window in an instant. Peach went out in the balcony, looking up at the sky in sadness.

"Mario… Where are you?"

* * *

**Shooting Star Summit-**

Chopper left Shooting Star Summit and was now making his way back to Toad Town. However, he started to wonder where he needed to go to find the next Star Spirit. They didn't tell him where to find any of them, which bothered him.

"All right… This shouldn't be much. I gotta go free seven Star Spirits, and then I can beat Bowser and Maquano. But… Who's this Staris? He sounds like a powerful monster that could probably take me down within seconds!"

While Chopper headed back to Toad Town, he felt something hit him hard in the head.

"_**Ouch!**_" Both Chopper and the Star shouted. The Star was none other than Twink, who turned around to apologize.

"Oh, sorry, sorry, so sorry!" Twink cried. "I'm in a huge hurry!"

"Don't worry about it. I'm in a huge hurry as well." Chopper assured. "I need to go free all seven Star Spirits. Well, that's why I was here, anyway."

"Wait… You went to the Star Spirits? Wait… If you're going to set the Star Spirits free…then does this mean! Oh, thank the Stars I found somebody!"

Twink began to fly around happily, while Chopper looked confused.

"Wait, who sent you here? The Star Spirits?" Chopper asked. Twink then stopped flying around and flew back down to Chopper.

"Actually, Princess Peach asked me to give something to somebody who could help. Are you any chance…going to save her? If so, then what's your name?"

"My name's Chopper. Chopper of Planet Clara." Chopper introduced. "And yes, I suppose I'm going to go save her, since that's what the Star Spirits told me. That, and Maquano's in this world as well, and he's plotting something."

"I'm so glad I found someone like you! My name's Twink. Now let me get what Princess Peach wanted me to give to someone like you…"

Twink began to check for where he put it. "Ahhh… Yes, here it is!" Twink held up the Lucky Star in front of Chopper

"Here, this is it! Take it!" Twink tossed the Lucky Star to Chopper, and smiled as the Clarian boy held it up.

**You got the Lucky Star!**

"That's the '**Lucky Star**' from Princess Peach," he explained as Chopper put it away. "Now that it's yours, you can use the '**action command**.' May I take a moment to explain what the action command is?"

"Well... To be honest, I think I might be fine..." Chopper trailed.

"This is important, Chopper. I think you'll want to know about this."

"It's OK, Twink. I might understand how this could work... Hopefully."

"Oh! OK! Great! I don't even have to explain. Once you understand how to use the action command properly, you'll be even more powerful."

"Wait, so I can basically deal more damage in battle now? YEAH! This should come in handy!" Chopper fist pumped. He soon noticed a yellow puddle right behind Twink.

"Wait, hold on a second… What's that yellow puddle over there?"

"Yellow puddle?" Twink turned around and gasped at the figure that slowly began to rise from the puddle. He gave him a look that would probably say "You're in my grasps!", while he gave Chopper a glare.

"Eeeek! It's **Staris**! The Star God!" Twink shrieked, getting behind Chopper. "If he gets to me, I'll be nothing but stardust!"

"Wait… So this is the Star God Staris I've been hearing about?" Chopper gaped, clenching his fists. "Huh... He may be bigger than me, but I don't think he's going to be taking you any time soon!"

"This is the STAR GOD you're dealing with, Chopper! A GOD! Don't underestimate him!"

"He doesn't look too much like a god to me... In fact, he's nothing but pee, in my opinion."

"He's actually made of star water. It's a very sacred kind of water that he formed from. That water is said to hold tears from dead Stars. So, if you try hurting him, it's not going to be easy."

"Well, I assure you that I'll be fine," Chopper looked over to Staris, who stretched his arm out in order to punch Chopper. He jumped out of the way just in time and landed on his feet. "You're not much of a talker are you?"

Staris did not say a word.

"All right, then let's just fight and call it a day, all right?" With Staris's fist ready, Chopper readied himself for an attack.

**Tattle: **_That's Staris, the Star God! This is just him without any of the power from the Star Spirits. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. Even though his arms aren't so strong and muscular, he can stretch them out in order to punch you. Staris may create some little water balls that he might use on the next turn. Can't you spit them out at him or something? I mean, you have that Inhale ability, right? Maybe that will come to use here. Overall, Staris is someone not to be messed with. Even in his normal form, he can be challenging. Since you got that Lucky Star, things shouldn't be bad, right?_

"All right, maybe it's time I tested out my Lucky Star," Chopper walked toward Staris and stomped on his head. He jumped back up and stomped on him again. That did 2 damage.

Staris didn't move at all. He brought his arm back, and he stretched it towards Chopper to punch him. Chopper defended himself from the attack with his Guard ability, taking only 2 damage instead of 3.

"Well, this is something new! I like this!"

Chopper tried out his Hammer attack, so he went towards Staris, and he brought his Hammer up. When he found the time to be right, he hit Staris with it for 2.

Staris decided that it would be best to conjure up a water ball. With it ready, he threw it over to the side so it would be ready to attack Chopper.

"All right, time to test out the Inhale move!" Chopper walked to the water ball, and he began to inhale it. With it in his mouth, he spat it at Staris, leaving him only at 6 HP.

Staris thought about what to do next, so he sunk his arm into the ground, and a yellow puddle appeared by Chopper.

"What the…" Chopper saw a yellow fist hit him upward. He failed to guard the attack and took 3 damage.

"I should use my Power Jump. That might weaken him a little." Chopper ran up to Staris and delivered a Power Jump that made Staris cringe in pain.

Now that Staris only had 2 HP left, things could get a little easier from here. But, Staris still had another trick up his sleeve. He began to spin his arms around, with his fists now surrounded in a yellow glow. When the fists got close to Chopper, he attacked him three times.

Luckily, Chopper guarded all three of his attacks, so he didn't take any damage at all. So, Chopper decided to end this all up.

"Maybe I can inhale a part of his body. That might work." Chopper walked towards Staris, and he began to inhale him.

Staris tried to hold on, but a part of his body got inhaled into Chopper, and he spat the water ball from him back at Staris, causing him to explode.

Chopper got 20 Star Points from the battle, and he spun around and made a pose afterward. Twink seemed happy that he won.

"Yeah! He's finally finished!" Chopper cheered.

"I'm surprised you actually managed to defeat him," Twink gaped. "However, that was just him in his normal form. He's a lot stronger when he's absorbed the powers of the Star Spirits."

"Which I doubt will even happen," he assured. He looked back at the yellow puddle that reformed that seemed to be inching away.

"Hey, where do you think you're going?" Chopper asked as he followed the puddle over to the bridge. However, it soon disappeared out of his sight.

"Don't worry… It's better that he got away. If he didn't, I would've been history. Thanks for fighting back. I didn't want to be Star food for him!

"You're welcome!"

"I'm going to return to Princess Peach's side. I'm not strong enough to really help her, but at least I can tell her that you're here to help. Well, Chopper…see you later!" Twink began to fly away, but he stopped.

"Oh dear! I almost forgot to tell you the message from Princess Peach!" he realized. "'I'm all right, so don't worry about me…' …that's exactly what she said. I get the feeling, though…that she's very lonely. Anyway, I'll do my best to help the both of you! But please be brave! You must save Princess Peach and stop Bowser and Staris!"

With that, Twink flew away.

"What a brave little guy… All right, I think it's time to head back to Toad Town." And with that, Chopper began to leave Shooting Star Summit and get back to Toad Town.

* * *

**Toad Town, East-**

Once Chopper came out through the gate, a Toad noticed his arrival and walked over to him.

"Oh... What now?" Chopper groaned.

"You're Chopper, aren't you?" the Toad asked. Chopper responded with a simple nod. "Merlon was looking for you. He lives in that house with the spinning roof. He asked me to tell you to go meet him at his house. I was just about to go look for you, but here you are! It's rare for Merlon to call somebody over to his house… He's a bit eccentric. Even when he has visitors, it's rare for him to come out of the house at all."

"I was actually wondering about that house... All right, I'll go see him." Chopper walked over to the blue house and gave the door a good knock.

"Merlon is out!"

"...What? How can someone be out when someone spoke through the door?" Chopper knocked once again.

"Why do you keep knocking? I'm telling you he's out!"

The door opened before Chopper could react, sending him flying to the ground.

A blue hooded man with a white mustache, yellow eyes, a Star Point on his mustache, a blue cloak, red feet, and wearing a white shirt came out of the house. He looked down and noticed Chopper lying on the ground, moaning.

"What the…? Why is someone sleeping in front of my house? Wait a minute… That face seems verrry familiar to me…"

"Oww… Why did you do that?" Chopper asked as he slowly got up.

"Oh! Maybe… No… Yes! It must be! You're that eight year old Chopper! I've been waiting for you! You should've come earlier! Well, you're here now. Come in."

Chopper followed the hooded man into his house. The inside looked kind of like a tent, with the colors being blue and yellow. There was a table with a green crystal ball with a star on it.

"So... What the heck is this place?"

"Where to begin…? My name…is Merlon." he introduced, ignoring Chopper. "I am a wizard. When I was reading the stars the other day, an oracle came to me. What I discovered is very important, and it concerns you. But, before I tell you about it, there are other things of which I must speak. It is a very long story, but I'll try to shorten it."

"Oh, boy… Long stories..." Chopper groaned. "THIS should be interesting..."

"Yes, I know that. Now where should I start…? It was in the old days. One of my ancestors was up on Shooting Star Summit and as usual…but one day it happened. …suddenly…a great…appeared and I…standing face to face… Then, the faraway…the pious…was…raised me up…was amazing… I was still so young then… I believe in… But…our hearts were…and…then…so…"

* * *

**Twenty minutes later-**

At this point, Chopper ended up sleeping through the whole story because of how boring it was.

"…and that is all that matters." Merlon concluded before noticing Chopper asleep.

"Huh? Hey, Chopper! Were you listening to me? !"

Chopper instantly woke up and gave him a nod. "Uhhhhh... Yeah! I got all of that down, Merlon! Especially the part with the stars and pies!"

"Oh…all right. …So, anyway, that is why I am able to help you. If you get lost during your adventure, you can come to me. I can predict the path you should take for a small price. Right now, your main goal must be to save Princess Peach, and defeat Bowser, Maquano, and also stop Staris from getting to the Star Spirits as is humanly possible, but…according to me second sight, your path must first take you to the great par of the Koopa Bros. To reach the Koopa Bros. Park, head east on the road in front of the Toad House."

"Head east from Toad Town? Sounds simple! All right, I'll see you, Merlon." With that, Chopper left Merlon's house and saw the Toad House just past the post office. However, he noticed something else on the road.

Four dark Toads. They were blocking the way.

"Umm… Excuse me, but I need to get through." Chopper said in a polite tone. "Could you let me through?"

"You don't wanna go out there. It's way too dangerous." the red Toad warned.

"Going to Koopa Bros. Park would be a huge mistake." the black Toad agreed.

"Definitely. Definitely don't go." the green Toad suggested.

"Most of all, though, you shouldn't go ask old man Merlon for help. That would be really bad for us…I mean, for you! Don't even think about it!" the yellow Toad warned.

"No, seriously. Can you let me through?" Chopper tried to get past them, but they continued to block him. "All right, I think I'm forced to do something about this."

He opened his mouth and began to inhale the four Toads. Unfortunately, for some reason, it didn't seem to have any effect on them.

"What? That's not right... Usually if I inhale something, they go in my mouth, but you guys are still here. You know, I think I know the logical thing to do: go tell Merlon!" Chopper declared as he headed back to the house. The red Toad gave the yellow Toad a glare.

"Good going, Yellow! Now you're going to reveal our disguises!"

"Sorry, Red!"

"I hate you..."

Chopper walked back inside Merlon's house and began to explain all the details of the Toads blocking the way to Pleasant Path.

"Come again? Strange Toads blocking the east side of Toad Town?" Merlon gawked. "That shouldn't be… That's ridiculous! Such a thing has never been heard of! Never! I'll get to the bottom of this. Follow me over there. I'll see what's going on."

Chopper followed Merlon out of his house and over to the four dark Toads. They seemed to be arguing, but they stopped upon noticing Chopper and Merlon show up.

"Hey, I told you that you can't pass, pale green ball!" the red Toad spat.

"Take off!" the black Toad suggested.

"Hmmmm! You aren't Toads, are you?" Merlon pondered as he looked at the Toads.

"…Um…we don't know what you're talking about," the yellow Toad gulped.

"Yeah, what gives? Ask anyone! We're just cute, ordinary Toads hanging out." the green Toad stated.

"Reveal your true selves!" Merlon roared as he conjured up a spell that struck all four Toads.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh!"

Their disguises wore off and the Koopa Bros. were revealed to be under them.

"Huh? Who the heck are these guys?" Chopper gawked. "I don't know why, but they look like ninja turtles to me!"

"Hmph! Just as I thought! You're the Koopa Bros.!" Merlon huffed.

"How… How'd you guess it was us? We were perfectly disguised!" Red gaped.

"Well, you looked different. Didn't seem like it was perfect." Chopper noted.

"Shucks! I guess that's what happens when you try to look a little different... Black! Yellow! Green! We retreat! …for now…" Red ordered as they all fled.

"So… They're called the Koopa Bros.?"

"You are correct," Merlon nodded. "Those imposters were none other than the Koopa Bros. You must pursue them to their hideout, the Koopa Bros. Park. Don't let the place convince you that it's an innocent place. It's a lot worse than you think."

"OK..."

Merlon was about to head out, until he remembered something.

"Oh, Chopper, there's one part of your fortune I haven't revealed. To get to the Koopa Bros. Park, you'll need help from **a pink-shelled Koopa**. This is a strange portent. In **Koopa Village**, you might find something that will clear it up. I must return home now."

And that is exactly what he did.

"Hmmm… I need help from a pink-shelled Koopa?" Chopper pondered. "Well, I'll be glad that I don't have to go through there ALONE! It would be nice to have some company, and someone to talk to while on my adventure. So… I guess it's time to go to that park and get the first Star Spirit."

Chopper instantly ran off towards the east of Toad Town, heading out to Pleasant Path. Hopefully he'll be able to save the Star Spirit and find this pink-shelled Koopa in time.


	6. A Fuzzy Problem

**CHAPTER 1**

**-The Koopa Bros. Park of Doom-**

Chopper was already crossing the bridge above a river in Pleasant Path that led to the east where the Koopa Bros. Park is. The sky was it's beautiful blue color, and the grass was a nice green color with its yellow dirt path. But, Pleasant Path looked a little different than the trail that Chopper walked on near Professor Toadsmeth's lab and Goomba Village. There were strange, blue objects sticking out of the ground called Candy Canes. The tree's leaves were also a nice, pixilated green color.

Chopper noticed a Koopa with sunglasses and a red shell coming his way, so he got himself ready.

"Hmm… A new enemy, I presume? Might as well fight this guy." Chopper walked towards the Koopa, who spotted Chopper.

"Uh oh…" Chopper saw the Koopa get in his shell, and go toward Chopper. He simply jump and landed the first strike. Not only that, but he flipped him over. He discovered that this was actually called a Koopa Troopa.

A Goomba noticed the Koopa flipped over, so he came to him in order to help. But, Chopper took the Goomba out first with a stomp, and it was gone.

The Koopa got himself back up, but Chopper flipped him over again, and when he came back down to stomp him again, he dealt about 1 damage.

Chopper was able to make another attack, since the Koopa was still trying to get up, so to finish it, he bashed it with his hammer, taking him out.

Once he collected his 4 Star Points, he moved on. He defeated a Paragoomba up ahead, and also saw a yellow ? block and a brick block. The yellow block contained a single coin, while the brick block had nothing.

"Well that was much of a waste to hit that block. But, a coin's better than nothing…" Chopper also saw another brick block and a red ? block.

"Ooh! I hope there's something interesting in there!" Chopper jumped under the red block, and a Badge came out. It was the Dizzy Attack Badge.

"Dizzy Attack Badge? ...OK, I guess I'll take it."

Once he took that, he took care of the two Goombas in the area. By the end of this area, he saw a yellow ? block, which contained a Fright Jar. He decided to hold onto it for now, wondering if he'll ever need to use this item against the enemies.

Chopper saw a tree that was by the river flowing south. He noticed that the path continued from the other side of the gap, but since there was no bridge, he couldn't cross.

"Hmmm… Oh, yeah! I remember something! Back by Toad Town!" Chopper hit the tree with his hammer, and an oval-shaped blue ! switch came down.

With a single kick of the switch, a bridge appeared and was connecting to both sides. With that, he crossed the bridge and moved on.

Chopper saw a path up ahead, but he had to jump up a couple of small ledges. He fought some Koopas and Goombas first, and then he proceeded on through.

Once he was in the next part of the area, he saw a sign. He walked over to the sign and began to read it.

_Go to the left for Toad Town. Go to the right for Koopa Bros. Park. Go south for Koopa Village._

"OK, I guess this was helpful..." Chopper trailed until he heard something up in the sky. It was a robot that was shaped just like him flying over to Koopa Bros. Park.

"For some reason, that robot kinda looks a little similar to me. That's kind of weird… But, why is it going to Koopa Bros. Park?"

Chopper began to ponder. "Hmm… Things are starting to get confusing…" he stopped for a second when he saw a Candy Cane looking straight at him.

"What the…" Chopper made a step, and the Candy Cane's eyes kept its eyes on him. "This is weird... It's like this thing knows my every move. Creepy..."

Hearts began to appear around the Candy Cane as Chopper walked around it. When he grabbed the hearts, he recovered HP that he lost from earlier battles. After collecting enough, he seemed to be prepared.

"All right… I might as well start by going south. Merlon said to find a pink-shelled Koopa, so I better do that." Chopper walked down to the path next to the Koopa Bros. Park path, but down instead of up.

* * *

**Koopa Village-**

Upon reaching the village, Chopper looked around at the buildings. They seemed to be houses that resembled a Koopa shell. There were some that were in green, and some in red.

"Weird design for a house..." he muttered.

One of the Koopas walked over to him, forcing Chopper into a fighting stance. Unlike the other Koopas, this one had no sunglasses, and had a green shell.

"Hmm? You must be someone new…" the Koopa trailed. "You don't seem like you're anyone evil. I mean, I guess someone that looks cute isn't so bad. But, who are you? Never seen someone like you at all."

"Hmm? I wonder why you're not attacking me," Chopper gawked. "I mean, those other Koopas on that path tried to attack me when I was ALONE. And I'm only eight!"

"Well, not all Koopa Troopas are bad. Those must've been some of Bowser's minions."

"Really? Well, I guess that's a relief. Oh, and my name's Chopper, and I'm from a planet called Clara."

"Chopper? Clara? Interesting… No wonder you look different. Yes, Pleasant Path is not as pleasant as you think. Those Koopa Bros. came back, and now they made some kind of park! Some Koopas have gone there…and never came back. My cousin even went there, and never came back for five months. It's scary!"

"That's not stopping me."

"An eight year old who wants to go to the park of doom? You must be nuts if you're planning on doing that! You might get yourself killed, kid!

"I've risked my life to do a lot of things. I don't think a park should be any different..." Chopper rolled his eyes. "But, do you know any Koopa that has a pink shell? I might need that person's help."

"Pink-shelled Koopa? Oh! You must be talking about **Koopla**! She's **Professor Kolorado's** niece. She's in one of the red houses just up ahead."

"OK, thanks," Chopper went to the Save Block first, and he hit the Save Block, saving his game.

"Oh! Before you go... There's something you might wanna know!" Chopper turned back to the Koopa, who was apparently yelling. "Try not to get her on her angry side! She has a bit of a temper, and is quite the tough Koopa! You don't wanna know what she did to someone who said something bad to her!"

"Ummmmm... That's interesting, I suppose." Chopper waved goodbye and began to make his way over to the next area of Koopa Village. _"So, she's a tough Koopa, huh? Well, that actually might be a good thing if she's able to fight. Of course, if she tries to hurt me, she might not be expecting someone like me to have strange abilities!"_

With that, he stopped over by a red Koopa house that seemed to have a lot of noise occurring from inside.

"This must be it," Chopper knocked on the door, but he didn't get an answer. After waiting for a couple of seconds, he knocked on it again.

"Hello? Is anybody in there!" he decided to turn the doorknob and noticed that the door was unlocked. Though it was rude to do this, he opened the door and headed inside. He noticed some stairs going up to the second floor, but he also took notice of the back door.

_"Come back here, you!" _Chopper heard a voice coming from the back door, so he instantly went outside and discovered something.

Chopper noticed a Koopa with blonde hair, a blue hoodie, yellow pants and blue boots chasing after a Fuzzy. There was also an orange Fuzzy that was sparkling and cackling at her. They had a green book about Koopa shells, which was what the Koopa was trying to get back.

"Give me back that book you wild Fuzzies!" the Koopa hissed. "I swear I'm going to stick my boot right into your..."

"Hi there!" Chopper interrupted, making her trip.

"Meeeooooooork! Ha ha ha! Let's beat it!" the Fuzzies laughed as they bounced away.

"Argh! They got away!" Koopla shouted, slamming her fist to the ground. She looked up and gave Chopper a glare. "You idiot! Why did you have to come here and let them get away!?"

"Look, I didn't intend on letting that thing get away..." Chopper interrupted.

"Well why did you have to come here and stop me?!"

"Well, sorry if I helped them get away... What are those things anyway?"

"Those things are Fuzzies, and they stole one of my books on shells! Hmmmm..." the Koopa began to ponder for a minute. "You know what? Since SOMEONE had to let them get away, how about you go get that book back."

"What?! That's stupid!" Chopper frowned.

"Well that's what happens when you let something get away," she smirked.

"Ugh... Fine. I'll do it, only because I'm nice."

"Good! All right, just follow the Fuzzies, and I'll try to make sure that you do just fine. All right? Good luck, there."

Chopper nodded, and he began to follow the Fuzzies with his Speed Dash. He saw three logs, with one being short, and two others being taller. There was an HP Plus Badge there. Unfortunately, he couldn't reach it because of the gap.

Once Chopper crossed the bridge, he knew that he had some kind of challenge coming up. Even if he doesn't know much on Fuzzies, he felt that it wouldn't be easy to get the books.

He found four holes up ahead and also saw the orange Fuzzy with the book, but it instantly jumped into the hole. Chopper frowned, being a little late to the party.

"Oh, come on! There's ALWAYS something that stops me from getting something!" Chopper grumbled.

The orange Fuzzy popped out of the hole, and so did three other normal Fuzzies, mocking him.

"Meeeooork! Meork! Come get this if you can! Nyeah, nyeah!" the orange Fuzzy mocked as it and the rest of the Fuzzies retreated into the holes.

"Meeeeeoooooork! Guess where I'm hiding?" the four Fuzzies began to switch holes quickly. Chopper was taking a good look at where they'd go.

After they did that, Chopper went to the second hole, and he whacked that one with his hammer. The orange Fuzzy with the book came out.

"Meee-ooh? Not bad, weird little thing! But not good enough!"

"Weird? ...Well, I suppose I'm weird in this world..."

"Meeeeeoooooork! Let's see if you can get me this time!" the Fuzzies began to jump into each hole faster than the previous time.

After they stopped, Chopper whacked the fourth hole with his hammer. The orange Fuzzy came out with a bump on its head.

"Meeoooow! Meeoork! That hurt! But, you got me twice! Must've been luck for you! Now I'm being serious!"

The orange Fuzzy retreated back into the hole. "Meeeeeoooooork! I'm getting serious, now! So, this isn't going to be easy now! Guess where I'm hiding?"

The four Fuzzies quickly went into each hole faster than before. Chopper was looking really carefully, and he had a hard time with their speed.

"Wow… This isn't really easy." Chopper frowned. The Fuzzies stopped, and Chopper went to the first hole. He whacked it with his hammer, and the orange Fuzzy came out with another bump on his its head.

"Meeeeooooooh, noooo! I give up, little thing! Uncle! Here, take this stupid book anyways!"

The orange Fuzzy tossed the book to Chopper, who proceeded to put it away. The Fuzzy was also dazed from being hurt.

"You're too tough for me. I won't be bad anymore, I promise. …Maybe." the orange Fuzzy snickered as it went back into the hole.

"Ah, yes! I got the book!" Chopper turned around, but saw the Koopa coming over to him with an angry look.

"Aha! There you are! I kind of realized that for someone small like yourself, you probably wouldn't be able to stop them! If I can't get that book back, then it won't help the people here with making their shells tougher! I wanna show those Fuzzies what's what!"

"You don't need to worry, uh..."

"Call me Koopla."

"Oh, Koopla! Yeah! But, you don't need to worry about getting it, because I have it!" Chopper held the green book up, making Koopla gasp.

"Wait... You managed to get it?"

"Yeah! See for yourself!" Chopper gave the book to Koopla. She opened it and took a close look at what was on there.

"Oh, yes! Yes! This is it, all right! Don't get me wrong, I wanted to take care of those things this whole time, but my temper got to me and made me want you to do it. My uncle, Kolorado, gave this book to me when I was younger. You know him, don't you?"

"Nope, never heard of him," he responded with a shake of a head. "Well, that's because I'm not from here, actually."

"Oh, right. You aren't from here. Sorry that I asked you that. He's a Koopa who's a professor of archaeology. He's also known as an explorer." she explained as she put her book away.

"All right, now that I got this book, is there anything I can do to repay you? I mean, I'm sure you probably want candy or ice cream, being a kid and all."

"Well… Since Merlon told me YOU'RE the one to help, you think you can travel with me to the Koopa Bros. Park? I need to get the Star Spirit that's there."

"You're on an adventure? Hmm… That's pretty interesting. Here I thought you just wanted some candy. Actually, I always wanted to beat the snot out of those Koopa Bros. one day for their annoying acts. So… If you need me, then I'll come with you! Yes, I think you'll need me on this whole quest. I'm a toughie around here. Plus, if you're new to this world, then it's recommended that someone gives you a little hand."

"Good! Now things won't be so bad alone!" Chopper jumped while a cheerful look.

**Koopla joined your party! Press (v) to make her throw herself and reach an item or a switch in the distance. While in battle, she can attack an enemy on the ground with Shell Toss or attack all enemies on the ground with Power Shell!**

"All right, are you ready to go? Good! Let's get going!" Koopla suggested as they were about to leave, but they heard a voice.

"Meeooreeeeork!" the orange Fuzzy and three normal Fuzzies came out of the holes. "I changed my mind, sucker! How about a fight? It's time to get a taste of the power from the Beam Fuzzy!"

"Oh, great… So you want to fight. That's just great…" Chopper groaned.

"I think this should be a good fight to get warmed up!" Koopla cracked her knuckles, but noticed the Beam Fuzzy glowing.

"Hmm… I think I can do something with my Inhale on that Fuzzy! Maybe it'll be something good…" Chopper said with a snap. He opened his mouth and inhaled the Beam Fuzzy.

"Meeeoooorgh! Noooo!" the Beam Fuzzy got sucked into Chopper's mouth, who proceeded to swallow it.

Chopper's skin changed to a yellow tint, with a hat that was more like two hats. One part of the hat was red, and the other was yellow orange, with white polka dots. He became yellow and now had orange shoes. He was also holding a wand with the tip being a blue orb with beam energy.

"Hmmm! Of course! This is a **Copy Ability**! This enemy had an ability I could use! Yeah, I'm Beam Chopper now!"

"Now it's my turn to make a move!" Koopla got into her shell, and she used her Power Shell attack on the three Fuzzies remaining. It did the same amount of damage as Chopper's Hammer attack.

"Hey, that was pretty good! You attacked all three of them! You're gonna be a lot better than I thought!"

The three Fuzzies that were left attached themselves onto Chopper in order to suck his HP. Luckily, he guarded each of them, so he didn't get hurt.

"Ha! Now watch how _I _handle things, now!" Chopper waved his wand and a yellow orange beam fired like it was some kind of rope at the first Fuzzy, defeating it.

Koopla got back into her shell and did the Shell Toss attack on the second Fuzzy, killing it off.

The Fuzzy jumped back onto Chopper to suck his HP, but he guarded it again, so he didn't get hurt like before.

"Hmmm! You're not so bad. I never expected you to be this tough…for an eight year old." Koopla commented.

"Yeah, I know. But, let's just finish this." Chopper swung a beam attack at the last Fuzzy, defeating it and getting rid of all the Fuzzies.

Chopper got 12 Star Points from that battle, and the three Fuzzies left were bouncing around in fear of the two.

"Meeoooorkoooonoon! We'll be good! We'll be good!" they cried, fleeing from the two.

"You better stay that way, thieves! Next time, it just might be worse!" Koopla smirked.

"Well, I guess we might as well head to the park," Chopper said, shrugging. Koopla agreed, and they went back to the village.

But, before they left, Chopper noticed a worm with a top hat, and a yellow bow-tie.

"Huh? Who's that, there? Maybe we should go talk to him…" Chopper and Koopla walked to the worm and spoke to him.

"Kaaaa-wiiiizzz! Chuck Quizmo's the name, and quizzes are my game!" Chuck Quizmo introduced. "You want quizzes, I got 'em! If you can manage to answer my brain-busting questions correctly, then… Y… Yaa… Yaaaaaahooo! I'll give you a Star Piece! Want to try a quiz?"

"Uhh… Sure?" Chopper shrugged.

"Go ahead, Chuck," Koopla nodded.

"Then let's go to the question!" he said as everything changed to a game show, with a Toad with hearts on her mushroom cap appearing. Chopper looked confused, as if everything changed.

"What the heck? What just happened?"

"Question. What is the name of Maquano's wizard sidekick?" Chuck Quizmo asked.

"Oh, that's an easy one! The answer's Camikon!" Chopper smirked as he placed his hand on the button to answer.

"Correct! Congratulations! Here's your Star Piece!" Chopper walked received a Star Piece from Chuck as everyone cheered.

"You've correctly answered 1 question so far. Good luck next time! Well, well…so long, farewell. 'Til we meet again!" he quickly disappeared using his hat

"Wait, did he just disappear with his hat? That's rather…off." Koopla gawked.

"Meh, not really a big deal. Let's just move on." Chopper and Koopla headed to the last part of Koopa Town to save, and when they got to the exit, the Koopa at the entrance walked over to them.

"Ah, Koopla! So, how are things with you right now? Doing fine?" the Koopa asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. I'm going to be traveling with this boy whose name is..."

"Chopper," Chopper whispered.

"Yeah! I'm traveling with Chopper right now. I think it's the right thing to do, since he might need somebody tough such as myself to help him."

"Well, I'd go with you, but I'd probably get in the way. So… Good luck with Chopper, all right?"

"Don't worry, I will Dave," Koopla assured. Chopper simply gave him a nod, and soon both left. They headed back up to the sign after getting back up.

"So, his name is Dave? Do you two know each other or something?" Chopper asked.

"Well, he's one of my best friends. We've known each other ever since we were both little… Actually, we've been friends for at least 16 years to tell you the truth. Anyway, let's just move on."

"All right, if you say so," Chopper and Koopla crossed the bridge that was up ahead, and they headed to the next area.

They saw coins up ahead, but it was a trap set by a Koopa. But, they were lucky enough to beat both the Koopa and the Spiked Goomba that came out to attack.

"All right, now let's just go down and…whoa, look at the ground! It's changing…some kind of light blue color!" Chopper gaped as he jumped down from the ledge to see it has changed. Koopla jumped down also, and saw it changed as well.

"You're… You're right!" Koopla gaped. "I didn't know that the park started a little from here! This is…very odd. Are the Koopa Bros. actually trying to turn Pleasant Path into a whole park!"

"Let's hope not," Chopper walked over to the Spiked Goomba and gave it a good bashing with his hammer. Up ahead was a short gap, with water down below. There was also a sign, and across the gap was a blue ! switch.

"What does that sign say?" Koopla asked.

"Let's find out," Chopper walked to the sign, and he began to read it.

_No entry allowed, Chopper!_

_Yours truly, The Koopa Bros._

"Like I'm going to listen to that. Koopla, think you can hit that switch across the gap?"

"Of course I can. I'll even do it right now" Koopla walked toward the edge and got into her shell.

Chopper kicked her to the switch, and a bridge was made. Crossing the bridge, they saw a Koopa Troopa with wings flying around.

"What's that kind of Koopa?" Chopper asked.

"A Paratroopa," Koopla explained. "They're able to fly around. If you stomp on them, then their wings will be gone."

"Oh... Well that's not too bad." After beating down the Paratroopa, Chopper ended up leveling up. This time, he chose HP instead of FP.

They headed to the next part of the area, and they started to see some kind of Ferris wheel in the background, as well as a couple of other rides.

But, right now, they noticed that the trees were no longer their normal color, but blue with pink leaves. This confused Chopper at most.

Chopper and Koopla kept going, seeing some more rides in the background. They looked fine…but when you get to them, that is…

After defeating a couple of enemies, Chopper saw a Heart Block at the end of the and jumped under it, recovering all of his HP and FP he lost from battle.

"All right, I think the park is just up ahead. Let's be prepared for this, now." Chopper suggested

"I'm ready whenever you are," Koopla nodded.

Both of them exchanged nods, and they proceeded on to the next area, where they might find the entrance…to Koopa Bros. Park.

* * *

**So, this isn't like Chapter 1 of Paper Mario at this point. Instead of a fortress, we have...a park.**


	7. Welcome to Koopa Bros Park!

Nothing remained of the Koopa Bros. Fortress. That placed used to be set up a couple of months ago, but it was now demolished and replaced by a park. The bridge leading over to the stand was a light blue color, and the stands themselves were a pink color.

Chopper and Koopla walked into the area and noticed that no longer the Koopa Bros. Fortress was around. However, Chopper never knew about that place, so it didn't matter too much to him.

"Wow, what a park!"

"Well, this must be it. To be honest, I've never been to this park, before. So… I think it's best if we're careful." Koopla suggested.

"Yeah, I know," Chopper hit the Save Block nearby, and then he and Koopla crossed the small bridge to the entrance.

While Koopa Bro. Black was busy, he walked right into Chopper, but stopped when he took notice of him standing in front of him.

"Whoa! It's you! Chopper! How on earth did you…? Oh, looks like things are going to get interesting! Chopper's here already! I gotta tell the leader! Red Kooooooopaaaa!"

Black Koopa bolted away from the two, but he didn't seem to be afraid when running away. Nevertheless, Chopper and Koopla headed through the entrance, since Black left the gate open.

"That was pretty dumb of him to leave the gate open," Koopla commented.

"Well, sometimes good things happen, y'know?" Chopper said.

Once they made it into the park, they could see the light blue ground, some stands with some mini-games, and even some rides. Up ahead was a blue tower that had a bridge leading to another tower. They noticed that the sky changed from blue to pink.

"From what I can tell, I bet that the Star Spirits are up by those two towers," Chopper said, pointing up at them.

"Well, we better start checking out this place then," suggested Koopla.

They both saw that the area only had a stand with whacking moles. Moles appeared from the holes, so Chopper rushed over to some of them and whacked them, which began to remind him a bit of the Fuzzies he had to whack back in Koopa Village.

"Congratulations! You win! Now take your reward! …NOT!" a Koopa and a Bob-omb jumped off the stand and attacked Chopper and Koopla.

"What the… How did they…" Chopper stammered.

Chopper simply flipped the Koopa over and stomped on his belly. At this point, only the Bob-omb could make a move. Koopla attacked the Koopa with her Shell Toss, and then retreated back to Chopper. The Koopa attempted to get up, but failed.

The Bob-omb jumped onto Chopper with a body slam, and it successfully hit him. Koopla went first so she could use her Power Shell on both, beating the Koopa, but also making the Bob-omb mad.

"Uh oh… That can't be good." Chopper can see that the Bob-omb was about to explode, which was not a good sign. "I'd rather not use a physical move. I could probably get hurt."

Instead, Chopper blew up the Bob-omb with his Beam attack. Once Chopper got his 4 Star Points, and waggled his finger, he saw a pink key drop.

"I think this is a Park Key. It might help us go to the next gate up ahead." Koopla informed.

Chopper unlocked the gate, and the two of them headed to the next part of the park. They saw a door up ahead, since this area wasn't so big. There were only two Bob-ombs patrolling the area.

"I guess we might as well handle those two Bob-ombs," Chopper declared. Koopla agreed, and they blew both of them up easily. There was a ledge that was small enough for Chopper to jump onto, but there was a crack on the ground that didn't seem like he could break.

So instead, they headed to the next door, and it seemed that Green Koopa was talking to a regular Koopa. Green put a key down by the small stairs that was right by a crack on the ground, and then a cage came down to block the key there.

"Ha! Let's see that little eight year old get any farther now!" Green grinned.

Green turned around and saw Chopper, and he jumped up in shock. "Yeeek! You're here! You, uh… We've been waiting for you! You'll never find your way through this park! Umm… It looks like there might be some fighting here. How exciting! See ya!"

Green immediately ran, and the Koopa attacked. But, Chopper and Koopla were able to take it down easily by flipping it over and attacking with a Shell Toss.

Sighing in relief, Chopper and Koopla saw three curtains that resembled doors. Chopper checked the first one, and a Koopa came out to attack. But, Chopper was able to defeat it with his beam attack from the wand from his Beam ability.

"Sheesh! All there is is just Koopas and Bob-ombs! C'mon, this isn't challenging at all!" Koopla frowned.

Chopper looked up, and he saw that robot, C-2 Choppor flying over the park. He was actually surprised that it was already here at this point when Chopper was taking care of a few things beforehand.

"Hey, it's that robot again. So he came here…" Chopper trailed. "I still can't question on why he looks kind of like me?"

"Things are always different. I mean, not all females are girly. I like how I am. I'm a lot different than most females in the Mushroom Kingdom."

"I suppose that's true. Although, I haven't seen many girls for four years."

"…What are you again?"

"I don't know what I am, honestly. My parents never told me."

"Oh…"

"Anyway, let's check what's in the second curtain," Chopper opened the second curtain, and a pink shoe Badge happened to be behind it.

"I think that's the Power Bounce Badge," Koopla informed. "Very helpful with some dangerous things you have to deal with around here, since you can stomp on them as much as you can."

"Oh, really? Wow, I really need to equip this Badge!" Chopper equipped the Badge, allowing him to jump on an enemy as much as he could.

"Let's see what's in the next curtain…" Chopper opened the other curtain, and a Bob-omb came out to attack.

…But Chopper blew it up easily with his Beam ability. With that taken care of, Chopper decided to remove his Beam ability for now.

"Don't worry. I can put the ability back on if I really need to." Chopper informed.

There also seemed to be some kind of crack behind the curtain with the Bob-omb. It reminded Chopper of the crack he saw previously. Chances are they couldn't break through it.

They decided to leave this area and head to the next area. They noticed that there were rockets floating above them. When Chopper walked up to one, he noticed that there was a handle that allowed him to grab onto it.

"I think we better go grab that rocket…" Chopper said as he jumped and grabbed onto it, while Koopla grabbed onto Chopper's feet.

They were able to reach a high longitude, but once it popped, they began to plummet to their doom.

"What the heck?! They can pop?!" Koopla gaped.

"Hold on! I see another one!" Chopper grabbed another one nearby, which began to launch them up once again.

Going higher up, the rocket hit a blue ! block. The rocket popped and the duo fell to the ground. They had a small injury, but nothing big. However, the upper left area of the ground now had stairs, to their surprise.

"Huh… That's interesting. Let's just head on down." Koopla suggested.

They went down the stairs, and to the left, they saw a gate. So they went through there, and when they came out, they saw some kind of train ride, a pie throwing contest, and also a hot dog stand.

At the hot dog stand, a Koopa with a mustache on jumped up. He had a yellow shell and yellow boots.

"What the… You made it! Err… I mean, hello, customer! Would you like a hot dog?" the Koopa asked.

"Uhh… Sure, I guess?" Chopper walked over to the hot dog stand. While he did that, the Koopa got a hot dog bun and stuck some dynamite in it while snickering.

"Here you go, kid! Enjoy!"

"Oh, boy! Thanks!" Chopper took the hot dog and prepared to eat it. However, he paused for a minute. "Wait… I have to pay you first! Here, take the hot dog, sir."

"Oh, all right," the Koopa took the hot dog from him and smiled as he watched him check his inventory for coins. He looked over at the hot dog, which apparently still had a fuse running.

His smile change to a straight face.

When Chopper pulled the coins out, he heard an explosion in front of him. He noticed that the Koopa was covered in nothing but soot.

"What happened to you?" Chopper asked.

"Uhhhhhh…" the Koopa began as he shook the soot off him. "How about you go on that train ride? It's free!"

"Ummm… Sure!" Chopper and Koopla followed the Koopa on the train. Little did they know that there was a Bob-omb on the tracks.

"_Once I get to those Bob-ombs, I'm gonna get off this thing! Then, Chopper blow up along with the train! I'm such a genius! That's why I'm the coolest of the cool!"_

Yellow started the train and made it move, but he turned his head when he heard Chopper saying something while getting off the train.

"Ehhhh… Now that I think about it, I'm not really interested in any of these rides…" Chopper trailed. "They're really not that great."

"If that's what you think, that's fine," Koopla nodded.

"_What the… Oh… You gotta be kid-" _the train blew up, and Koopa Bro. Yellow (who was apparently disguised with a fake mustache) flew up high, going through the underground ceiling and flying toward the two towers.

"Gee… That was kind of weird. Where'd that guy go, anyway?" Chopper asked as he picked up a Park Key it happened to drop.

"Uhh… I don't think we gotta worry about that guy right now. We got three Bob-ombs here." Koopla warned, noticing them get closer.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of them easily," Chopper assured as he inhaled one of them and spat it at the other, lightning their fuses. Koopla used a Power Shell to blow two of them up and light another's fuse, which exploded in Chopper's face.

"Ow… That hurt."

With that taken care of, they headed back up, and they unlocked the door to the next gate to head through the next area.

When they came out of the door, there were some springs on the ground. There was also a Save Block and Heart Block, so Chopper hit both.

"All right, let's see what we got up ahead," Chopper and Koopla got onto the spring to launch them over some of those rockets. When they landed back onto the ground, they could see a door further up ahead.

…But they could hear something else.

"Target identified. You are Chopper, are you not?"

Chopper: ?

C-2 Choppor slowly flew to the ground, and his bright red visor looked at Chopper. "Chopper… I have come to destroy you by orders from King Bowser." he raised and aimed his arm gun straight at Chopper.

"What in the world? Why does this robot look just like you, Chopper?" Koopla asked.

"I…don't know! Here I thought that this was just a harmless robot carrying things!"

"Scanning life forms," C-2 Choppor stated as his visor flashed. "Chopper, you are an eight year old boy who has come to get the Star Spirit. Koopla, you are Koopa that has a tough shell."

"Well that makes a lot of sense..."

"OK… So, who the heck are you?" Chopper asked.

"I am the second of the C units. C-2. Codename: Choppor. My name is C-2 Choppor. I was named after you."

"So your name is C-2 Choppor, huh?" Chopper got in a fighting stance. "Well, there's no way I'm letting you stop me from saving that Star Spirit! The Star Spirits wanted me to save them, and that's what I'm gonna do!"

"Careful, this robot looks a lot more threatening than the enemies we faced, Chopper," Koopla warned, now calming down. "So… I don't think this will be such an easy battle."

"Initiating battle mode," C-2 Choppor hovered up with his jetpack on his back. At this point, there was no way Koopla could hit him.

**Tattle: **_That's the second of the C units, C-2 Choppor. What the… His name sounds kind of like yours, Chopper! That's not right! Max HP: 15, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. While he's hovering, ground attacks aren't going to work. But, if you stomp of him, he's sure to come down. Be careful, Chopper, his attacks involve a small laser coming from that visor, and firing an blast at you with his arm gun. And they can be pretty tough as well. But, he shouldn't be a big problem if you know what you're doing, Chopper. But still… I can't understand why his name is like yours…_

Chopper started off with a Jump attack, since that's all he could do at the moment to fight. He stomped on C-2 Choppor, and then came back up to stomp him again for 2 damage.

C-2 Choppor ended up coming down now that his jetpack wasn't functioning. He had to resort to fighting on the ground for the moment.

"All right, robot! Let's see what you got!" Koopla got in her shell and used her Shell Toss attack to knock C-2 Choppor back.

"Scanning target!" C-2 Choppor began to scan Chopper. "Target marked! Fire!" He fired a yellow blast at Chopper, which took away 3 HP from him. He held his arm in pain as he coughed.

"Oof! That really hurts! I never knew this robot was so…strong." Chopper wheezed.

"Don't worry about it. Just strike the robot and let's get things over with." Koopla suggested. Chopper nodded, and walked towards C-2 Choppor with his hammer up.

He instantly brought it down on C-2 Choppor. Worried about getting hit again, he backed away from the robot.

Koopla did her Shell Toss again, and she successfully hit the robot for 2 damage. C-2 Choppor fired a missile at Chopper this time.

Chopper guarded the missile when it exploded, so he didn't take so much damage from it than the blast. He then noticed C-2 Choppor fly back up.

"All right… Time to get him down again." Chopper jumped on C-2 Choppor twice, which knocked him down.

Then, Koopla followed in and used her Shell Toss to hit C-2 Choppor. The robot aimed at Chopper again with his arm gun.

"Target locked: Fire!" C-2 Choppor scanned Chopper, and he fired another yellow blast. Chopper immediately guarded the attack to take less damage.

"All right, now let's finish up this robot!" Chopper stomped on C-2 Choppor again, and then came back down on him a second time.

Koopla got back into her shell and used her Shell Toss to hit C-2 Choppor. With that, C-2 Choppor knelt down, sparks flying everywhere

Chopper cheered as he got 20 Star Points from the battle and spun around to make a pose. Koopla simply nodded after winning, not being the cheery type.

"Mission…failed…" C-2 Choppor moaned.

"HA! Looks like you just lost!" Chopper said, giving him a smug look. "You see, I'm practically a hero back on my home planet! And heck, none of my counterparts where able to stand against me! Face it, there's no way that you'll win."

"…Initiating recovery mode."

Chopper: D:

"You shouldn't have said that, Chopper..." Koopla groaned.

C-2 Choppor got himself back up, and energy began to surround him. At this point, the sparks disappeared and he was fully healed. With that, he C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Chopper. Koopla was kind of shocked that he managed to recover easily.

"Wait… But we beat you! Oh, yeah… Robots can sometimes heal themselves. Well, this sucks, and I think we're both going to die." Chopper frowned.

"No duh…" Koopla face palmed.

"I must destroy you by King Bowser's orders. Those orders will then be fully complete." C-2 Choppor began to scan Chopper once and and fire...

"_**Don't you DARE hurt them!**_" Chopper saw a blue Bob-omb with a gray hat and a blue stripe ram straight into C-2 Choppor, pushing him straight to the gate.

"What the… That's a Bob-omb!" Chopper gaped as he got in his fighting stance.

C-2 Choppor was about to fire at the Bob-omb, but his gun malfunctioned. Nothing but smoke came out, which disappointed him.

"…You win for now," the robot declared. "I regret doing this, but I surrender. Chopper, I shall return, and then you will be eliminated. I will take a break, but don't think that you'll never see me again." C-2 Choppor flew up with his jetpack and took off.

"That sure was a close one there. But, that Bob-omb really saved us, there." Koopla noted.

"But Bob-ombs are bad guys!" Chopper denied. "You remember those Bob-ombs that tried to kill us before! I bet this one only attacked C-2 Choppor so he could finish me off."

"You've got it all wrong, boy!" the Bob-omb responded as he walked over to him. "Not all Bob-ombs are evil. If I were evil, I would'be just blown both of you up. All I did was use a body slam instead. Trust me, I'm on your side."

"Well, if that's what you're telling me... Fine. I guess I should introduce myself. My name's Chopper. Chopper of Planet Clara."

"Chopper of Planet Clara, you say? I see… My name is Bruce. I stayed at Koopa Village for a while, but then got captured by the Koopa Bros. to work here. Luckily, I was able to escape and find you. I also used to have a girlfriend. Her name was Bombette, but sadly, she headed to someplace else, I'm afraid."

"Hold on... Bruce?" Koopla gawked, remembering a name like that. "I swear I've heard that name before. You're that Bob-omb who was madly in love with another Bob-omb, right? Was that Bombette?"

"Yeah, it's her. How do you know?"

"Because... Well... I heard about her before."

"Oh, I see. So... What're you guys doing here anyway?"

"We're going after the Star Spirit, and also beat those Koopa Bros.," Chopper explained. "I don't know WHY they are trying to kill me, but I think they work for Bowser. So, it makes perfect sense."

"You want to defeat the Koopa Bros.? Well, I've always wanted to get back at them for capturing me! Yeah! That'll teach those Koopa Bros. for what they did to me!"

"Well, that's pretty good," Koopla grinned. "I won't be the only one traveling with Chopper. _Seriously, this kid can get a little annoying at some times..._"

"What was that?" Chopper asked, his antennas springing up.

"Umm… Nothing! _Good luck with him, Bruce._"

**Bruce joined your party! Press (v) to make Bruce walk for a short time and then explode! He can destroy cracked walls or rocks and activate switches. While in battle, he can attack an enemy on the ground with his Body Slam ability or damage enemies on the ground with his Bomb attack!**

"All right, then! Let's head off and…" Bruce noticed the gate was locked. "Oh, great. I forgot about the locked door! Well, we're gonna need to find a key…"

"Hmmmmmmmm... Maybe I have an idea! Come follow me!" Chopper suggested.

* * *

**Area with curtains-**

"So, you want me to blow up the crack through the third curtain?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, that's why we came over here," Chopper concluded.

"We tried to find a way to get past it, but it didn't work out for us," Koopla explained.

"Well, then leave that to me!" Bruce declared. "Chopper! I want you to throw me over to the wall and let me explode."

"Wouldn't you die, though?" Chopper asked.

"Nah, not for me. We Bob-ombs can sometimes blow ourselves up without actually dying. However, we only die when we use an explosion that's TOO powerful... Go ahead and try it!" Chopper threw Bruce at the crack, and he blew up, making a hole in the wall with a key inside.

"Well there's the key," Koopla said. "So, are we going back?"

"Yup!" Chopper nodded. "Let's get a move on!"

* * *

**Area with locked gate-**

Chopper unlocked the gate, allowing them all to head through. They noticed a couple of steam machines and balloons flying around the park.

He jumped on the top steam machine, allowing him to be taken up high. The balloons helped him go a little higher too.

"This is actually pretty fun!" Chopper cheered. Koopla and Bruce shrugged and followed him while using the balloons to reach a higher distance as well.

When they made it to the higher ledge to the right, they entered the door. When they came out, they were on higher ground, getting near the tower. In fact, up ahead was the first tower. However, it was locked. There was also a Ferris wheel right in front of the locked door, with Koopas and Bob-ombs.

"How do we find the key?" Chopper asked. "I mean, we never found any key around - except for that cage. Why don't we find a way to get that key?"

"What about that crack?" Bruce said, nudging Chopper to look down at the ground,

"Oh! I never saw that before!" Chopper threw him to it, and he exploded. With a large hole right next to them, they jumped down the hole, bringing them to an area with a cage blocking the way. But, not all hope was lost, because there happened to be a key in front of them.

"Well, don't just stand there, kid! Take it!" Koopla shouted.

"OK! OK! Calm down!"

Chopper took the key, and then they decided to use the spring right next to them to go back up. After jumping out, they headed to the Ferris wheel and jumped in one of the carts to reach up to the door.

"This should be pretty fun…" Chopper smirked.

Once their cart made it to the tower, they jumped off the cart, landed on the little platform stuck to the tower, and unlocked the door.

* * *

**Inside-**

They noticed in the tower that they could see a little pool, and a spiral path going around the tower. Chopper gaped as he saw a chest in the pool.

"I think I could go grab what's inside there. I'll be right back." Chopper announced as he jumped into the pool. When he slowly sank to the bottom, he opened the chest, and a Park Key came out of it, so he simply took it.

Chopper swam back to the surface, and jumped out of the water, shaking himself. Some of the drops got on Koopla and Bruce.

"It would've been better to shake yourself away from us," Koopla suggested. "Then again, I don't care about getting my clothes wet."

"Sorry about that," Chopper apologized.

"A key was in there?" Bruce gawked. "Well, I guess that should be a big help to us. Let's go head up to the top."

The trio began to go up the spiral path around the tower. There was a Koopa, but Bruce's Body Slam and Chopper's stomping and also Koopla's Power Shell basically helped them defeat the Koopa with ease.

They saw a door at the midway of the tower, but they saw the spiral path went a little higher, so they checked what was higher up, and they saw a Hammer Charge Badge...

With two Bob-ombs guarding them.

"I can handle this!" Bruce announced. "Chopper, throw me at those Bob-ombs and we'll see something pretty explosive."

"Umm… All right." Chopper shrugged as he picked up Bruce and threw him at the two Bob-ombs, resulting in the Bob-ombs exploding as well. He ended up coming back to Chopper, with no injuries whatsoever.

"Wow, you really do stay alive when you explode!"

"Yeah, it's impressive, right? I'm not the only one of my kind that can do that, though."

"But it's still pretty cool," Chopper grabbed the Badge and put it away for now. "All right, then. Let's go head on to the door…and get to that other tower. I think that's where the Koopa Bros. are right now."

Chopper's partners agreed, and they went down to the door. With it unlocked, Chopper slowly began to open the door, hoping to find what they needed through the towers.


	8. Here Come the Koopa Bros!

Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce were led outside on the bridge connecting to the two towers. After walking down two big steps, they could see the entrance to the next tower. They noticed that there were steps going down in the middle of the bridge leading to a Save Block and Heart Block.

All the way at the entrance to the other tower, Black, Green, and Yellow came out of the door, with Red coming out last and noticing their arrival.

"Well, well, well! Chopper! I wouldn't have bet you'd make it this far." Red mocked.

"Well, maybe you should've had better enemies to guard this place," Chopper smirked. "Here I thought this would be ab actual challenge!

"Pfffft… Don't get smug, pal! You just caught us off guard! Trust me; we'll mop the floor with you if we get serious! We're as cool as they come!"

"Yeah! We're as serious as, uh..." Three of the Koopa Bros. froze and looked over at Yellow. "We're as serious as pudding!"

"Shut up, Yellow!"

"Sorry, Red..."

"Anyway... Don't think we're gonna let you get the Bowser Card so easy, Chopper! We know everything about you, and we know just what your weakness is!"

"What? You gotta be kidding me..." Chopper groaned.

"I highly doubt that they even know," scoffed Koopla.

"I hear ya, sister," Bruce agreed.

"Before you do anything… Maybe I can be of assistance!" the Koopa Bros., Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce paused for a minute. They looked up and saw who it was.

Camikon was on his black broomstick while holding his wand. Chopper clenched his fists and gave the old wizard a glare.

"Huh? Who's that?" Bruce asked.

"Camikon," Chopper replied.

"Camikon? That's an odd name..." Koopla trailed.

"Hey, you're that old man that was with that demon knight! Maquano, wasn't it? Yeah! Why did you come here? We don't need any help!" Red scoffed.

"Yes, I knew you would tell me that. But, I came here to help you get prepared." Camikon assured. "I have something that might distract these three." he raised his wand and summoned two Darklings.

"Let these Darklings take care of things from here. And if that doesn't work, you can handle things from here. All right?"

"So we get to sit aside for once?" Yellow asked.

"No, Yellow. We're going back in. We've got _that_ to take care of too." Red replied. "Come on, my brothers! We must get ready!

Red, Black, Yellow, and Green headed back into the tower, while Camikon flew away, leaving the Darklings and the trio to fight.

"All right, let's do this!" Chopper stomped on the first Darkling, and then Bruce did a Body Slam on it, defeating the first Darkling.

The first Darkling (Which is left right now) fired a red orb of energy at Chopper. He simply Guarded it, which only made him take 1 damage.

The other Darkling did the same thing, and Chopper Guarded also. He whacked the Darkling in front of him with his hammer and then moved back.

"I'll try to attack both of them." Koopla got in her shell and she did a Power Shell attack on both, taking out the first one, with only one left.

The Darkling left attacked Chopper, but it resulted in him Guarding it. So, Chopper finished it off with a stomp, and it was gone.

Chopper got his 13 Star Points, and they proceeded towards the door. But, before going in, Chopper hit the Heart Block and Save Block.

"All right, are you all ready to head on in?" Chopper asked.

"I'm ready. Don't worry." Koopla assured.

"I'm definitely ready. I want to get back at the Koopa Bros. for what they've done to me and Bombette in the past! Chopper, let's go in!"

Chopper nodded, and they immediately made their way into the tower.

* * *

**Inside the tower-**

There were some balloons that were hanging down from the ceiling, with a light blue ground. There is a window that also shows the pink sky, and it looked pretty nice.

Black was the first to notice Chopper and the other two come in, and he jumped up in shock…for the second time.

"You guys ready?" Black shouted. Little did he know that Red was behind him.

"Hey, Black! What are you doing? Hurry, man! Shake a leg!" Red shouted, startling Black. He turned to his older brother and followed him to the back.

"What do you think they're doing back there?" Bruce asked.

"Well, from the sound of it, it sounds like it's messy," Koopla commented.

"Whatever it is, we better be ready," Chopper said, readying his hammer. "It could be _anything_ big."

"Ow! My shell! Get off!"

"Wait… Wait a minute…"

"_**Whoa!**_"

All three could hear the sound of someone falling over.

"Oh, for the love of… What are you doing, Yellow? That doesn't look cool at all!"

"But I like it…"

"Well, try to find a way to cover it!"

"OK, hang on… OK! I'm ready, Red!"

"Finally! Let's do this! Remember to look cool, guys!" That sounded like Red's voice…since he's the leader.

"_**Yaaaaaaaa!**_"

Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce saw Bowser that appeared to be…made out of cardboard... Chopper ended up laughing because of how horrible it was.

"Wow… Just… Wow…" Koopla face palmed.

"That's a terrible piece of cardboard right there," Bruce commented.

"Gah ha ha ha! I've been waiting for you, Chopper! Bwa ha ha ha har!" the cardboard Bowser cackled. "The strongest! And the coolest! Behold the glory that is the great Evil King Bowser! It's time for me to beat these foolish ideas out of you! Saving Peach and saving the Mushroom Kingdom? Please! Watch this and weep!"

**Tattle: **_What the heck is this? Is this really Bowser? He looks pretty crappy to me, here. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 1. I know he's already lame, but is he really THIS lame? I imagined him to be a lot scarier than this…_

Chopper started off with a Thunder Rage, and lightning struck Trojan Bowser, and it already left it with 5 HP.

"It had 10 HP to begin with, and now it's already down to 5. Yup. What a fight here."

Koopla followed in with a Shell Toss, successfully hitting Trojan Bowser. However, that only did a mere 1 damage to it because of its defense.

"Dang… I can't do much against it." Koopla groaned.

Trojan Bowser hit Chopper with his fist, dealing only a mere 1 damage to him.

"Gah ha ha ha! I am invincible!" Trojan Bowser cackled badly. "You are powerless before me!"

"Well, we'll see about that, horribly-made Bowser!" Chopper brought his hammer out and whacked the cardboard Bowser. Since it had one point of Defense, it did 1 damage.

"The 1 point of Defense is really starting to tick me off…"

When Bruce did a Body Slam attack on it, smoke began to emit from Trojan Bowser.

The cardboard Bowser attacked Chopper with its fist, but he was able to guard the attack with no problem.

"Look at you! You can't do a thing to defeat me! It's hopeless! It's so hopeless that this story should be called Paper BOWSER instead of Paper Chopper!"

"What?! Heck no!" Chopper retorted.

_"Heh heh heh… Chopper really thinks that we're King Bowser!"_

_"Shhhh! Chopper'll hear us!"_

"Oh yeah? Well we'll show you something interesting! Go get 'em, Bruce!" Chopper ordered.

"I'm on it!" With Bruce's fuse running, he charged straight at Trojan Bowser and exploded, making sparks fly everywhere on it.

"Oh, no! That costume was perfect! Bowser loved it!"

"I guess you can say that this Bowser is A-Troj-us!" Chopper smirked.

"PLEASE! Don't say any bad puns!" Koopla gagged. _"Now I feel like he's purposely being annoying!"_

"OK, that was pretty bad," Bruce groaned.

Trojan Bowser exploded, and from what Chopper saw, he noticed a poster of Peach on the inside. Maybe that was what Red was telling Yellow about before.

But they paused when they saw the Koopa Bros. fall from the ceiling and land on the ground. Their thumbs flashed as they brought them up.

"Here come the Koopa Bros.!"

Red ordered them to form a tower, and they did, with Green on the bottom and Red on the top.

"OK, you little pale green ball! Have a taste of this! The Koopa Bros. special: super spinning attack!" Red scoffed while pointing at them with a flashed finger.

All four Koopa Bros. began to spin in their shells and made a dash straight for Chopper. He was unfortunate to not guard the attack, and ended up taking 4 damage instead,

"Wow, that's gotta hurt A LOT. I feel kind of bad for you there, Chopper." Koopla said.

"See? That was our little special attack there!" Red scoffed as he pointed at them with a flashy finger as they formed a tower again. "That's what happens when you try to mess with the Koopa Bros.!"

"Yeah! Prepare to get shelled!" Yellow smirked.

"Yellow, did I tell you to shut up before?"

"Uhhhhh… Yes?"

"So shut up!"

**Tattle: **_Bad news, Chopper. The Koopa Bros. have formed a tall Koopa tower. I'm not sure about this… They do some kind of spinning attack with the whole gang piled high atop one another. Hit them with a Hammer or something to make them unstable. After that, any attack should knock them down. If you use an explosion, you can make them fall down at once. If you flip them over, the battle will nearly be yours! Beat them one by one!_

"Hmmm… Let me try to knock them all down." Chopper went over to the tower, and he brought his hammer down near them. It caused the Koopa Bros. to tremble a little.

"Whooooaa… We're going over!" Red cried.

"Let me do the honors!" Bruce used his Body Slam on the Koopa Bros. Tower, and all four of them fell over on the ground on their backs.

"Can't…get…up!" the Koopa Bros. struggled to get up, due to the fact that turtles have a hard time getting up on their feet once their on their back.

**Tattle: **_Those are the Koopa Bros. Red is the leader, Black is pretty fashionable, Yellow seems to remind me of mustard on my hot dog, and Green just looks like a regular Koopa. Max HP: 6, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 1. They each have a defense point, but flipping them over will allow you to keep attacking them. If you don't take them out fast, they might get back onto their tower and do that strong spinning attack._

Chopper stomped on Green twice first, while Koopla used her Power Shell to hit all four Koopa Bros. to reduce them to 4 HP, with Green only having 3.

"Ack! I think they're gunning for me!" Green yelped.

"Then we need to get up!" Red growled.

Using as much strength as possible, all four of them managed to get back up. They didn't have their chance to form a tower yet, but when Chopper walked over to them, he flipped Green over and left him with 2 HP.

"Guh… Sorry, Red… But I think I'm done for."

Bruce used his Body Slam on Green, and it was all over for him. This left only Yellow, Black, and Red left.

"All right, boys! Let's avenge Green!" Red announced.

"But he's just unconscious…" Yellow trailed.

"Yellow…"

"No, really. He is." Black pointed out.

"Well… Let's make them pay for knocking him out!"

Red had Yellow and Black form the tower, and he got on top. They began to do their spinning attack to hit Chopper. But, this time, Chopper guarded the attack, so he only took 2 damage from the attack. With that, the Koopa Bros. formed their tower again upon landing.

"I see now… They do less damage when one of them is defeated…" Chopper realized as he made the tower tremble a little with his hammer.

"Whooooaa… We're going over!"

"You're dang right you are! Get 'em, Bruce!"

"All right!" Bruce jumped as he charged at the tower with a Body Slam, causing the three remaining Koopa Bros. to fall over on their backs.

"Oh no! Not this again!" Red cried as he struggled to get up with the others.

Chopper stomped on Yellow, and then Koopla followed up with her Power Shell, hitting all three of them, and taking out Yellow.

"Gah! Sorry, Red! They got me!" Yellow wheezed as he was knocked unconscious. Red and Black simply got up and cursed.

"We're screwed if we don't do anything, Red," Black gulped. "We're already down to 2 HP!"

"All right, we got two of them left. This shouldn't be such a big problem. So… Let's wrap this up." Chopper declared.

"It's not going to be a huge problem, since their tower isn't going to do much, unfortunately for them," Koopla noted.

Chopper stomped on Black, flipping him over. His second jump hit his body, leaving him with only 1 HP left.

"I don't feel so good…" Black moaned.

Koopla decided to finish off Black with her Shell Toss, knocking him unconscious. Red gaped as he saw all free of his companions defeated.

"You may have beaten the rest of my team, but I'm still pretty tough without them! I'm cooler than them!" Red declared, pointing at them with a flashy finger.

"Red, you know we're still here. We're just…beaten." Black noted.

"Yeah, I know that."

"Well, watch and learn, boys! This is how a real Koopa gets the job done!" Red got into his shell, and he attacked Chopper, which did 2 damage. It wasn't as bad as their tower, though.

Bruce decided to go first,using his Body Slam to hit Red. Unfortunately for Red, he only had 1 HP left.

"Crud… This isn't good…"

"Time to finish this up!" Chopper stomped on Red, and he flipped him over. He stomped on him again, reducing Red to 0 HP. He smiled as he got 34 Star Points from the boss fight while waggling his finger at the knocked out bros. He also gained a level too, deciding to raise his BP.

"Urg… How could we lose…to an eight year old?" Red gasped. "I mean, we're the coolest of the cool…and we just…lost it."

"Don't think it's over for you yet!" Bruce growled. "I'm not done with you guys yet! Taste my explosion!"

Chopper smirked as he threw Bruce, making him blow up in front of the Koopa Bros, and making them fall off the bridge that they were on. When Bruce landed on the ground, he returned to Chopper.

"_**Whoa!**_" they all yelled, plummeting to their doom. Chopper had his thumbs up after the fight.

"Yes! We beat them!" Chopper smiled.

* * *

The Koopa Bros. ended up falling onto a Koopa coaster, and they noticed it going up a slope…

Which was soon ready to go down.

"Uh oh… This isn't good…" All four Koopa Bros. gulped as they saw the huge slope going down the roller coaster.

Once the Koopa Kart went down, they were all screaming, "_**Yaaaaaaaaghh!**_" as they were going down. In fact, Yellow ended up puking too.

"Yellow! That's disgusting!" Red gagged.

"It's not my fault! I always end up vomiting on roller coasters!" Yellow whined.

* * *

Back up on the bridge, all three of them saw a small ball of light, which ended up exploding in front of them.

But… The explosion formed some kind of a Bowser Card. But it was more than just a Bowser Card. It was a card…of Eldstar. Yes, the Star Spirit that first spoke to Chopper.

"What is that there?" Koopla asked.

"That's the Bowser Card," Chopper announced. "And, what do you know? It's the Star Spirit that first spoke to me!"

"So… What should we do with it?" Bruce asked.

"Take it, of course!" With that Chopper grabbed a hold of the Bowser Card and held it up.

The card began to spin around, and suddenly, the card was beginning to disappear, and coming from the card…was Eldstar.

"We finally got a Star Spirit!"

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_And so Chopper and friends beat the Koopa Bros. at their park and rescued the first Star Spirit. Still, six Star Spirits remain imprisoned, and they must save them as quickly as they can. The future of the Mushroom Kingdom, Star Haven and, of course, Princess Peach...lies in the hands of Chopper…and his new friends. Their adventure has just begun._

* * *

**Yep, this is a boss chapter. In my opinion, this would be considered one of my favorites...maybe on the top 10 or top 5. I just think that the Koopa Bros. are just awesome. One of my favorite bosses in the first Paper Mario (not my favorite, but maybe number 3 or 2). I also enjoyed doing this battle, too.**

**So, which partner is best for the battle? Well, for the cardboard Bowser, Bruce would be best for that since his Bomb attack works well on that. Koopla works well against the Koopa Bros. since she can attack multiple enemies on the ground.**


	9. Chapter 1 Interlude

Up in the sky, in Peach's Castle, Peach was listening to Twink explain to her who he found and what the person's name was.

"So… You're telling me that you found a boy from a different planet named Chopper to give the Lucky Star to?" Peach asked.

"Yeah, he even went to Koopa Bros. Park to get the Star Spirit there," Twink explained. "He also stopped that Star God, Staris from absorbing me. He's only eight years old, and surprisingly, he can put up a bit of a fight. ...But that was only Staris in his normal form."

"Oh, Twink… Thank you for finding someone to help. I really appreciate that. Hold on... Did you say this Staris person has more than one form?"

"Yeah, unfortunately, now that he has been corrupted with evil power from having the Star Rod stolen, he'll go after ANY Star! But, most of all, he would go after a Star Spirit. His power would be greater after taking its power. It's really scary!"

"Oh, my..." Peach gasped. "So you're saying that if he acquires all seven Star Spirits... He'll be..."

"Yes, I'm afraid so," Twink frowned. "The whole Mushroom Kingdom could possibly be destroyed with all the Star Spirits."

"Oh, dear... Well, we can't just sit here and let something like that happen! I think we should try to do something at this point!"

"But there are tons of guards just beyond your door… And it's impossible to escape through the window…unless you had a parasol…"

"Hold on, I think I can still use that secret passage that's covered by a picture right near the fireplace," Peach recalled. "I always used to use that to get out of my room whenever I'm trapped. It's a pretty neat passage, I'll admit."

"Cool! Great idea!" Twink agreed.

Peach walked to the picture by the fireplace, and she moved it aside, revealing a red button.

"Oh, yeah! I remember this! I think Bowser and Maquano still don't know about this secret little trap." Twink smirked.

The fire in the fireplace went out, and the bars came down, revealing a secret passage. Peach put the picture back in front of the button to make sure no one knew that it was touched.

"Yes! Cool! Now we can get out of this room!"

Peach took the secret passage and noticed that she was going through a familiar tunnel with a black and white checkered floor.

"Let's try to be quiet," Peach whispered.

"Got it!" Twink nodded.

There appeared to be another fireplace without the fire. But, there was a red button there as well. Peach pressed the button, and the whole fireplace area began to turn around to the other side.

"Ohhhh!" Peach shouted. The fireplace brought them to another room with a table to the left with a piece of paper left on there. The paper appeared to be red with black handwriting on it.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Twink asked as he floated over to it

"Hey! Look at this! It looks like somebody left some kind of evil plan just lying around. Should we look at this?"

"I suppose we could…" Peach trailed. "However, I don't think I can touch it. There's some dark aura that I'm afraid might do something if I touch it..."

"Ohhh… You like doing this sort of thing, do you? Tsk tsk! OK, then…let's quietly and quickly look at this. I'll just read it to you instead, all right?"

_"My plan for getting Bowser to steal the Star Rod from Star Haven worked perfectly! Working together with him may be a pretty good plan that I've come up with. Now that he's taken care of the Star Spirits, I can do all I can to get Staris to become invincible and work for me! Even if Chopper gets those Star Spirits, Staris can just absorb them and become even more powerful! So, basically…both ways make me win!_"

"These plans sound kind of like Maquano's… Should we read more of this?" Twink asked.

"I suppose. There might be some information on here that we can warn Chopper with." Peach nodded.

_"Well, after hearing that those Koopa Bros. got defeated by Chopper and freed the Star Spirit, I thought that maybe it would be the time to get Staris over there and absorb the Star Spirit. I'll even try to get Staris to take the Star Spirit that's in **Dry Dry Ruins**! I'm sure Bowser is pretty pissed off that the Koopa Bros. got beaten by Chopper. Chopper will have to solve the mystery of the sands to find those ruins in **Dry Dry Desert**. Reminds me of when Chopper would have to get that second Power Star piece in the desert on his planet. I'm not really worried about this. My plans are going perfectly anyway._"

"Dry Dry Ruins in the middle of Dry Dry Desert! One of the revered Star Spirits is being held there!" Twink gasped.

"Twink, do you think you can go find Chopper and tell him that?" Peach asked.

"Yes, of course, Princess Peach! I'll find Chopper right away… ?" he stopped when he saw Maquano walking in the room.

"I shouldn't have left my plans on the table," Maquano muttered. "If someone read that, they'd know what I'd be planning and…" he stopped when he noticed Peach looking over at the plans.

"What the… How did you get here!?" Maquano snatched the plans away from her and put it away. "You little sneak… You read my evil plans. And there's no need to hide, little Star. I know you're there."

"How did you know I was here?" Twink asked.

"I'm not stupid like Bowser. I know about that secret passage, and how you got through. I think I should take care of things right now. GUARDS!"

"What is your wish, Lord Maquano?" The first Hellspawn asked as two of them came in.

"Take Princess Peach back to her room NOW!" Maquano ordered.

"As you wish," Both Hellspawns picked Peach up, making her shriek in fear.

"Noooooo! Put me dooown!" Both Hellspawns left, and Twink managed to get out before Maquano managed to catch him.

"Now… I'm sure that robot didn't succeed in beating Chopper, but I believe Bowser is with him right now with something. Yes, those C units are complete. I suppose while he takes care of him, I'll go down and pay Chopper a little visit!" Maquano summoned his dragon. It was exactly huge, but it was bigger than Bowser. It was a black and red color like all Hellspawns.

Maquano got out of the castle by teleporting, and he got on his dragon to fly off down to the Mushroom Kingdom.

* * *

In another room in Peach's Castle, Bowser and Kammy were speaking to C-2 Choppor for the moment. The room they were in had a red rug and a window that looked like it was broken before.

"I understand that you didn't succeed in beating Chopper," Bowser began, looking down at the robot. "While I'm pleased with your failure, I will still give you a chance. If you want to stay here with me, you must be able to pass one last test. So pay attention to what I say."

C-2 Choppor simply gave him a nod.

"Now... Come forth, Mega!"

C-1 Mega slowly flew to the ground and landed in front of C-2 Choppor. Both of them met eyes and felt a little connection between each other.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Yes, I'm sure you're surprised that he looks a little like you! That's because he's your older brother! Meet C-1 Mega! He's the first of the C Unit, and is said to be much stronger than you.

"I'm putting my bets on Mega," Kammy declared. "But we owe you at least a fair chance, Choppor."

C-1 Mega started off by aiming his two arm guns at C-2 Choppor and firing a couple of missiles. C-2 Choppor instantly flew in the air, but tried not to actually hurt his brother with a small blast. It didn't deal much, but it did hurt C-1 Mega.

"Strange... I would've expected him to actually deal some damage to him." Bowser whispered.

"I don't get it either," Kammy whispered back.

C-2 Choppor looked at his older brother as he landed on the ground. C-1 Mega actually looked as if he really wanted to hurt him. Maybe it was how he was programed: to kill. But, C-2 Choppor couldn't dodge one of C-1 Mega's lasers, making sparks fly everywhere.

"You may be my brother, but that's no excuse for me to not hurt you," C-1 Mega said as he fired a couple of missiles at his brother.

C-2 Choppor destroyed the missiles with a blast, and then he fired his own missiles at C-1 Mega. However, some missiles managed to hit C-2 Choppor when his brother was able to whack them away with one of his arms. Nevertheless, he wasn't too far from being defeated.

C-2 Choppor fired one more yellow blast that left sparks fly everywhere around C-1 Mega. At this point, he had enough.

"Well, it looks like C-2 Choppor won the battle! I guess I was wrong." Kammy mumbled.

C-1 Mega got back up to recover. He didn't attack, but he knew that he lost the fight to his younger brother. But that didn't stop him from glaring at him.

"Gwa ha ha ha! You surprised me, Choppor! I had a funny feeling there was more to you than meets the eye. I hereby allow Choppor to serve me here on this castle." Bowser announced before C-1 Mega stepped right in front of him.

"What? You still want to come in after losing?" Bowser gawked. "Oh, all right... We could always use a spare set of parts, I guess. You have special permission. Now, Choppor…"

Bowser turned back to C-2 Choppor. "Your first mission is to find a red gem in the Dry Dry Desert. Other robots will be going as well, but let's see how you handle this. So, good luck!"

"Aye aye, King Bowser," C-2 Choppor simply nodded and flew out the window. C-1 Mega simply stood there, looking confused.. What did Bowser mean by special permission, though?

* * *

**Entrance to Koopa Bros. Park-**

Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce were back at the entrance of Koopa Bros. Park with Eldstar. They seemed to have a little discussion.

"Chopper, I believe you'll save us all…" Eldstar began. "From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate all you've done. Thank you. Since you have freed me from my prison, the seal on my power is broken, and I will recover it little by little. As long as an ounce of power remains in me, I shall help you."

Chopper soon felt some power inside of him as Eldstar rose his little arms.

**Chopper can now use the Star Spirit's Power in battle! **

"Hmm… I feel like I've gotten something that's REALLY good! What did you just give me, Eldstar?" Chopper asked.

"I've given you some of my power to help you," Eldstar said. "Using a Star Power though, requires Star Energy. Would you like to listen while I tell you how to use Star Powers and Star Energy?"

"Hmmmmmm... I don't think we might have time to explain all this. We don't have unlimited time here..."

"You sure about this, Chopper? I mean, it might be pretty helpful for us when we fight some enemies."

"I wish I could, but I probably can't. Maybe I'll learn it all on my own..."

"You probably might be a little confused when trying it out," Koopla noted.

"Oh, shut up."

"All right, if you say so," Eldstar sighed. "Chopper…listen carefully. You must save the other Star Spirits quickly! If the seven of us together, we'll be able to bestow upon you a Star Power called the Star Beam. The Star Beam is the only thing that can counteract the Star Rod that Bowser wields."

"Ah, so that WILL happen. Sorry, but I don't think things are going to work out with you at all!"

"Wait... Who just said that?" Bruce asked.

Everyone turned around and saw Maquano on his flaming dragon. Chopper instantly got in a fighting stance.

"Who's that guy on the dragon?" Koopla asked.

"Maquano! So you HAVE come here! What are you up to this time? !" Chopper growled.

"I'll show you what I've come up with, but it requires the Star Spirit's power!" Maquano grabbed a hold of Eldstar, who struggled to break free.

"Release me this instant!" Eldstar shouted.

"Oh, I don't think so... You see, when a Star Spirit is free, that means a special someone will try to find you. That's who I want to get right now!"

"Do you mean... Staris? Oh…no…" Chopper's face turned white as he heard the sound of a puddle slowly appearing. He noticed right in front of him, the Star God Staris slowly began to rise from the puddle. Koopla and Bruce instantly gaped.

"Wh-What is THAT? !" Bruce stammered.

"This is the Star God, Staris! Because Bowser stole the Star Rod, he has become corrupted with evil power! This will force him to become stronger by taking the power from Stars! But, with the Star Spirits' power, not only can he become stronger, but he can transform! See for yourself!"

"No! You can't do this! Staris! This is not you! Snap out of it!" Eldstar cried. Unfortunately, his words were merely nothing as Staris stretched both of his arms and took Eldstar out of Maquano's grasps. A bright yellow light emitted from Staris as Maquano began to cackle.

After that, Eldstar was knocked back, and Staris reappeared, with his right arm having some kind of bone with a yellow star in the middle of the bone. He was actually taller as well, and he seemed more threatening.

"Oh no… He looks a lot different than before... So this is how he changes when he takes a Star Spirit?" Chopper gaped.

"Yes… Once he's taken the power from all seven Star Spirits, he will become invincible! And then he shall work on my side to destroy the Mushroom Kingdom! Thankfully, now that I offered him a bit of a Star Spirit's power, he will come to my side now! I suggest you hurry, before Staris gains more power!"

"Well not if I could help it!" Chopper ran straight for Staris, ready to attack him with a jump, but Staris was able to send him flying back with his right arm.

"See you next time, Chopper! Maquano flew away on his dragon, and Staris escaped by disappearing through a puddle.

"Oh, no… This is terrible!" Eldstar gasped. "Chopper, I wish I could do something to help you now, but sadly, I don't think I can. Thankfully, only some of my power was absorbed, so I can still use my power to give you aid if you choose to summon me. Right now, I must go back to Star Haven. But, don't worry. I will always be watching you! Please, save us all, Chopper!"

Eldstar immediately flew back up to the sky, heading off to Star Haven, while Chopper turned to his two friends.

"All right, you heard him. We have to go find the next Star Spirit!" Chopper declared.

* * *

**A couple of minutes later-**

"Whew! We're finally close to the exit of this place!" Chopper sighed as he crossed over the river. "Have you guys ever been to Toad Town?"

"Nope, I haven't," Koopla shook her head.

"Never before, sadly," Bruce added.

"Oh... Well that's a shame. I haven't got to explore much of the place, but it's pretty nice. Anyway... We ought to get going now before..."

"Hold it right there, Chopper! I've been waiting for you!"

"Huh? Who said that?" Chopper began to look around, and then he saw Jr. Troopa come out of the bushes and jump right in front of them. "Oh, great... Now this guy..."

"I told you I'd be back! Now I'll get my revenge! Here it comes, baby! Check this out!" Jr. Troopa began to charge at Chopper, but he missed and began to trip over towards the river.

"Dwaaaahhhhhh! Not again!"

"D'oh! He missed!" Chopper smiled.

Jr. Troopa fell into the river, but then he climbed back out of it, soaking wet. He growled as he got back to Chopper.

"Chopper! I'm talking to you! I promise you, this fight will be much different from before!" Jr. Troopa declared.

"Who the heck is this little guy? In fact, why does he hate you so much?" Koopla asked.

"I don't think someone your age should be running around these parts on your own… It's quite dangerous." Bruce noted.

"Hey, we had enough, thank you very much," Chopper said, crossing his arms. "I already had to fight four Koopas that looked like ninjas! I'm not going to face YOU!"

"Shut up! All of you! You! Chopper! Of course you remember me!" Jr. Troopa asked.

"Umm… No. Not really."

"But you just..."

"Shhhhh! Quiet, Bruce!"

"Whaaaat! Darn it! You don't remember me? Listen, you…you small fry! My name is Jr. Troopa! Remember it and tremble! After this beating, you'll definitely remember it!" Jr. Troopa charged at Chopper, but he tripped once again.

Chopper and the others stepped back from him, and he got up, panting a little. He pointed at Chopper once again.

"Get ready for hurt, Chopper! I'm gonna show you a new skill I just picked up!" Jr. Troopa began to run in place really until he used the top part of the broken egg on his head to protect himself.

"Umm… OK… So that's your new attack?" Chopper asked, looking irritated. "It's just you inside of an egg..."

"Yeah! Check that out! You've never seen anything like it before, have you? Your attacks are useless, now!" Jr. Troopa scoffed, despite his voice being muffled.

"What? We can't hear you!" Koopla shouted.

**Tattle: **_Hmm… What was his name again? Oh, yes! Jr. Troopa! Even though he seems to be rather annoying with ambushing, you gotta admit he looks adorable hiding in his shell. Max HP: 15, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 1. He's not so tough. I'd say C-2 Choppor is tougher than him, really. But, he's got a point of Defense…so that might be annoying._

"I'm sorry, what? Oh, well." Chopper became Beam Chopper and he swung his wand, firing beam energy at Jr. Troopa, which made him come out of hiding.

"Yeeowch! Who knew that Chopper had such battle skills? Grrr…it's not over yet, though! Yaaaaaaaahhh!" Jr. Troopa immediately hid in his shell again.

Koopla got into her shell and used her Shell Toss ability to hit Jr. Troopa, which only did 1 damage.

"Damn... That point of defense is something I can't stand." Koopla grumbled.

"I don't know if you should be swearing..." Bruce noted.

"I don't really give a damn whether or not I swear."

Jr. Troop went toward Chopper and jumped on him. He knocked away his ability, unfortunately, making Chopper mad.

"All right. That's it!" Chopper brought his hammer out and whacked Jr. Troopa, even though it did the same as Koopla's Shell Toss.

"Maybe I can do something, here," Bruce walked toward Jr. Troopa, with his fuse ready to go off. He exploded right in front of him, and it left Jr. Troopa with only 8 HP left. The little Koopa went over to Chopper and jumped on him, with him guarding the attack.

Chopper went toward Jr. Troopa to whack him with his hammer, while Bruce used his Bomb attack on him once again. This left Jr. Troopa with only 3 HP left.

Jr. Troopa attacked Chopper, but he guarded it. Meanwhile, Chopper's hammer was able to deal a point of damage, as well as Koopla's Shell Toss.

"Oof… This isn't over yet!" Jr. Troopa jumped onto Chopper, who failed to guard the attack and took 2 damage.

To finish things off, Chopper whacked Jr. Troopa once last time with his hammer, and he was knocked to the ground, dazed.

"Yay! 20 Star Points!" Chopper cheered, and then he and his friends turned their attention back to Jr. Troopa, who was still lying on the ground.

"Hmmm…" Chopper stomped on Jr. Troopa again, and it made things worse for him.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" Chopper looked at the others, and then back at Jr. Troopa. He whacked him with his hammer, and he screamed once again.

"No need to just beat him up. Let's just head on off." Bruce suggested.

"Fine..."

* * *

**Toad Town-**

"_**Chopper!**_" Right before Chopper could do anything else, he looked around to see who it was. When he looked up, he saw Twink float down.

"Oh, Twink! It's you!" Chopper gasped.

"Twink? That's the Star's name? Never knew you had a new friend, Chopper." Koopla gawked.

"Chopper! Chopper! I knew you'd remember me!" Twink squealed. "I heard you saved the honorable Star Spirit who was captured by the Koopa Bros.! Bowser and his gang are so angry about it!"

"I wouldn't say that to Maquano. He came down and summoned Staris to absorb some of the Star Spirit's energy!"

"What? So… Staris managed to transform? Oh no… That's really bad."

"But, as long as we're quick, Staris won't transform," Chopper assured.

"Yeah, that's true... But luckily, I got some important information to tell you. It seems that one of the Star Spirits is being held captive somewhere in Dry Dry Desert. Maquano wrote that in his evil plans. Some place called Dry Dry Ruins. The princess braved the dangers of the castle to get you this clue, Chopper! If we find anything else, I'll hurry back to tell you. I have to go back to Her Highness now. She's so brave! I hope this news helps!"

And with that, Twink flew off.

"Hmmm… I wonder how we could get to Dry Dry Desert…" Chopper wondered.

"I heard there's a train here," Bruce recalled.

"You said you never came here before..."

"I never came here, but I did hear about some stuff here... You can find a train south from here, I believe."

"Well, we might as well go then," Chopper decided to head down south of Toad Town, but some small dog-like person called a Doogan with sunglasses went to him and his party members.

"Hey, little boy!" the Doogan named Rhuff greeted. "My dad's opened his shop. Don't you wanna take a look? It's really cool. It's a Badge shop. For Badges. Come on, check it out."

Chopper and his party members followed Rhuff to the shop with a stand opening, and a taller and more grown up dog-like person in it named Rowf.

"We have lots of rare Badges, so take a verrrry close look," he said as Chopper saw a purple Hammer Badge called the D-Down Pound, so he decided to point to it.

"Uh-huh! I knew it, Chopper. That's your name, right? I knew you had a keen eye for Badges. That's a good one. You need 75 coins for 'D-Down Pound'. The BP you need in order to use this Badge is '2'. Would you like to buy it?" Rowf asked.

"Sure! I'll buy it!" Chopper paid him 75 coins.

"Thanks! I change my stock of Badges now and then, so please check back occasionally." Chopper took the Badge, and he waved goodbye as they headed down south.

They saw that to the left, there happened to be a path leading to a harbor, and to the right there was a bridge that led to some dark and creepy forest. A Toad with a spear was there, who happened to be the one who got burnt by Bowser!

"I don't think the desert's that way… It would have to be…dry. Anyone know where we could get to Dry Dry Desert?" Chopper asked.

"Not so sure…" Koopla then saw a Paratoopa that looked like a postman flying over them. It looked like he was heading down south.

"Maybe that mailman knows where Dry Dry Desert is!" Bruce blurted.

"You know, I think I remember seeing that guy..." Chopper trailed. "I bumped into him before..."

"You did? Well that's strange... So, how're we gonna get to Dry Dry Desert?"

"Well, getting to Dry Dry Desert…isn't easy," Koopla started. "Well, you'd have to go to **Mt.**** Rugged**, but I heard there's some kind of bird there that stops you."

"A bird?" Chopper gawked. "Is it big?"

"Yeah, he's a big one. He's more of a vulture, if you ask me. He doesn't take kindly to people who cross his turf. But, sometimes, he usually ignores people crossing his nest."

"Does he...work for Bowser?"

"I think so..."

"Then we better be ready for him. Anyway, let's go follow that postman."

They headed down south again until they got to another are of Toad Town that had train tracks and a train. They saw the postman flying to the right where the train tracks were. To their left, they saw black train, but there is a rock blocking the tracks. So, Chopper decided to throw Bruce at the rock to blow it up.

Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce then went over to the conductor, who seemed to be wearing black, with his mushroom cap having light gray polka dots on them, who seemed grateful for their actions.

"Thank you for destroying that rock!" the conductor thanked. "You must be the new kid around here, right? Is it Chopper?"

"Yeah, that's my name!" Chopper nodded.

"Ah, yes! Good! Now the train's back on track! All aboard! This train is bound for Mt. Rugged. Are you heading there, Chopper?"

"Wait, Mt. Rugged! Chopper, that's where we need to go to head to Dry Dry Desert! Of COURSE we're going on the train!" Bruce declared.

"What the Bob-omb said. Yes." Chopper nodded.

"All right, the train is about to depart. Please board quickly." the cart door opened, and all three of them got in the red train.

Chopper was near the seat where the driver is, and Koopla and Bruce were in the back. Koopla kind of wished she was at the front, since she doesn't like the back that much. But, knowing that this was the only time she had to do it, she didn't care.

"Sit tight, folks. Now departing for Mt. Rugged." the driver announced. With that, the train took off.

After a little while, all three of them began to see some dark yellow sand, some mountains in the background, and some dry green bushes.

"Well, now here's something that might be a little more difficult than Koopa Bros. Park," Koopla sighed. "I don't like the desert that much."

"You don't like the desert?" Bruce gawked.

"It's too dry, and it makes me want to get some water. Plus, it's too hot for my liking. Koopa Village was just fine."

"I just hope the heat doesn't light up my fuse!"

"The desert reminds me of when I was going through the second continent on my planet," Chopper recalled. "That place was a desert, and I had to fight some kind of rock named Stoneard. He talks in third person a lot…"

Chopper noticed that they were getting closer to town. "Yep, we're getting near. It's time to find the second Star Spirit, Koopla and Bruce!" Chopper declared.

What would lie ahead for them, though? Those answers would be revealed to them as soon as they got off the train.


	10. Parakarry's Missing Letters

**CHAPTER 2**

**-The Mystery of Dry Dry Ruins-**

The train stopped at a station, and the door opened. Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce jumped out of the train. Chopper stretched out his arms, Koopla continued to sweat, and Bruce felt fine with his hat protecting his head. They could see the dark yellow ground that appeared to be kind of rocky. They can see the blue sky and some mountains. They were on some kind of board walk, but it wasn't necessarily small.

"Mt. Rugged! Mt. Rugged!" the conductor cheered. "Passengers heading for Dry Dry Desert or **Dry Dry Outpost**, should proceed directly over Mt. Rugged from this station."

Chopper and the others headed to the left, and then went up north. When they saw a red arrow pointing left, they simply moved to the left this time.

"Man… It's so hot here. I wish I had some water to cool me off. I feel like I'm going to DIE here…" Koopla wheezed.

"Calm down, Koopla. We're not going to die just now." Chopper said before he heard his communicator go off. He took it out, and he saw that it was Professor Toadsmeth.

"Professor Toadsmeth? What do you need?"

_"Good news, Chopper!"_ Toadsmeth announced._ "I think I may have found how to get to the Dry Dry Ruins in the Dry Dry Desert! Chopper, you need to head to the outpost, and find a mysterious mouse. He's not hard to miss!"_

"Oh, really? That was really helpful of you! Thanks!" Chopper then put his communicator away.

"Who was that?" Bruce asked.

"That was Professor Toadsmeth. He's…uh...a professor. He managed to help me out when I was in danger, and it was pretty good of him to do that."

"Oh, I see. But, enough talk. We gotta go hike our way up Mt. Rugged," Koopla suggested. "Let's hope we don't find any rattlesnakes around these parts." she shivered from the word "rattlesnake".

"Umm… I don't think rattlesnakes are in the Mushroom Kingdom." Bruce noted.

"Oh, thank goodness. I'm not afraid of them or anything. I mean, I'm pretty tough and all. The real reason is that they're poisonous."

"What's a rattlesnake?" Chopper asked.

"You don't know what a rattlesnake is?"

"No. I've never heard of something like that all my life."

"Wow... You sure must live somewhere far from here."

"I'm from Clara..."

"Yeah, I know. I was just joking. However, maybe it's best that you didn't know."

"Fine... Let's just climb our way up." Chopper began to jump onto the steps on the mountain, while Koopla tried her best to help Bruce up, since he had no arms to help pull himself up.

They saw a gray block to the left when they got to the top. Chopper tried to smash it with his hammer, but it didn't work.

"Well, that didn't help at all… Oh well. Let's just keep going." Chopper said. They jumped up a little more to the right, and Chopper hit a Heart Block, recovering his stats.

Once Chopper took a step, he heard a voice. "Ah… No… Confound it! Where could it be…?"

"Huh?" Chopper began to look around for what that voice was looking for. But, someone ended up bumping into him and knocking him to the ground. When Chopper got up and turned around, he saw the same mailman that he saw before back by the Post Office.

"Oh! Sorry, folks! Very sorry!" he apologized. "I was looking for something and not watching where I was going."

"That's all right, sir. Say... You look just like the postman I bumped into before!"

"Wait a minute, I recognize you too," Bruce realized. "In fact, I thought I saw you traveling with my ex-girlfriend, Bombette."

"Oh, yeah! You're the one who delivered my mail! Who could ever forget you saying, 'Mail call!'?" Koopla realized.

"Why, yes… That would be me! Yeah, I think I recognize you, young boy. I don't think you ever told me your name before!" the postman recalled.

"My name's Chopper. I'm only eight years old, though." Chopper introduced.

"Eight years old? Shouldn't your parents be with you or something? I mean, an eight year old shouldn't be out on their own!"

"My parents died when I was four," Chopper frowned. "So… I've been alone for a long time."

"Oh my… I'm sorry to hear that. At least you have two people accompanying you for the moment."

"So... What's your name anyway? You never told me before."

"The name's Parakarry. I, of course, deliver letters. Um… I'm normally a letter-perfect postman, but I'm having a bit of trouble with a lost letter. Wouldn't you know it—I dropped it on Mt. Rugged and now I can't find it…"

"So much for being perfect..." Koopla trailed.

"If you happen to stumble upon a letter anywhere around here, please tell me, all right? My job could depend on it! I'll be searching this area thoroughly for a while…"

"All right, we'll let ya know if we find any letters," Chopper nodded.

"I guess it could be something to do here…" Koopla trailed. "Oh, and do you have any water with you, Parakarry?"

"Well… I have this one container, but there's barely anything in it," Parakarry frowned, holding an empty container with him. "I'm sorry. But, I might know where you can find water in the desert."

"Then we gotta hurry! Chopper, let's not waste any time right now!"

"All right! Sheesh!" Chopper groaned.

Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce headed through the next area, and once they got there, they had to climb up a couple of more ledges. They saw a slide going down to the left when they made it up to the highest cliff of the area.

"I guess that's a shortcut for us if we ever have to go back," Chopper said.

At that point, two Monty Moles popped out of the ground, making the trio get themselves ready for battle.

Chopper started off with his jump attack, and then Bruce used his Body Slam on it, defeating the first one.

The Monty Mole grabbed a rock and threw it at Chopper. But, Chopper guarded it, making him only take 1 damage.

Chopper stomped on the last Monty Mole, and Koopla finished that one off with her Shell Toss, and it was gone. Chopper had his thumbs up once he got 4 Star Points, and he saw those enemies dropped some coins, so he grabbed them.

"Easy pickings!" he smiled.

They saw some steps heading down to the lower part of the mountain, and they also saw a red arrow pointing to the right down those steps. So, they headed where the arrow was pointing. Once they made it to the next area, they could see a waterfall. Koopla instantly bolted over to the waterfall, cheering with glee.

"A waterfall! YESSS! It's about time we find some water!" Koopla squealed as she drank from the waterfall.

"Odd... I don't think we've ever heard you squeal." Bruce realized.

"Shut up."

"Ehh… I guess I'll get a drink as well." Chopper said as he drank from the waterfall. "Hey! The water's not too bad!"

"Too bad I can't drink that," Bruce frowned.

After that, they headed down a couple of rocks, where they found some more Monty Moles. They beat them, and they kept moving.

Koopla then noticed in the area that on a platform of the mountain, a letter.

"I see a letter up there!"

Chopper and Co. climbed up a little, and when they saw a letter on the stump across the gap. Chopper knew he couldn't reach it.

"Let me get that," Koopla suggested.

Chopper kicked her while she was in her shell, and she grabbed the letter in the process. Koopla gave the letter to Chopper, who held onto it for now. But, it didn't feel like it was just one letter missing. So, they headed to the next area.

They had to go up some ledges in the next area to the upper right, and they saw a red arrow pointing northeast. So they went up the slope, but some kind of enemy disguised as a rock and ambushed them.

"Oh, great… We got Clefts. They got some pretty high defense, and our attacks really won't do much." Koopla groaned.

"Let me try something…" Chopper began to inhale the Cleft, and he successfully got it, due to it being heavy. Once he swallowed it, he was wearing a navy blue samurai helmet with a red tuft of hair on top of the guard on the back, and with a star on the forehead piece. His skin is now a light brown tint, and his shoes are brown.

"Hey, I've become **Stone Chopper**! I think I'll be tough enough to hit those Clefts." They moved up the slope, and they saw a path with a red arrow pointing to the right, but there was another path to the left that they could take.

"I say we go to the left. Maybe we'll find something." Chopper suggested. The others agreed and followed Chopper to the left, and they all saw a slide that moved upward as if it were a ramp. There was a small branch that acted like some sort of gate in their way.

Chopper pushed it aside, and he began to slide down. Koopla and Bruce went down with him as well, and they ended up landing onto a higher cliff to the left. Chopper got up and quickly shook his head, feeling dazed. The others got up also and followed him to the next area to the left.

In the next area, they looked up at the large cliff above them and saw a letter. Chopper tried to grab a hold of it, but it was too high for him to reach.

"Aha! We're getting close to another letter!" Bruce gasped.

"Too bad I can't reach it..." Chopper grumbled.

They headed down a couple of steps, and they found a Cleft that was about to charge at them. Chopper simply jumped above the Cleft and turned into a statue of Eldstar, which dealt 2 damage to destroyed the Cleft at an instant.

"Uh oh... I just killed a rock!"

"Settle down, kid," Koopla suggested. "It was about to kill ya."

"...Well, it didn't exactly make me feel good."

A yellow ? block was by some more steps going up, so with a punch, a Mushroom was revealed to be inside. Chopper decided to take it and head up some small ledges with Koopla and Bruce.

Chopper noticed a spring up ahead, so he and the others jumped on it to get to a higher cliff on the mountain, where there was a yellow ? on the ground. There was also a slide as well, which could take them to the letter.

"All right, now let's go grab that letter. I HOPE it's the last one…" Koopla hoped. They opened that gate, and they used the slide to reach the ledge and grab the letter.

Chopper quickly grabbed the letter, and they jumped down and left the area. And they found a slide to help take them down.

They followed another red arrow that eventually led them to an area with a broken bridge. Chopper couldn't even get over there. Not even Koopla and Bruce could either.

"Well… We're trapped. We can't get across there, and there's no letter." Chopper sighed in disappointment.

Bruce looked down and gasped when he saw a letter below. "Chopper! I think I see one more letter! We gotta go jump down!

"Really? Another letter? All right, let's head on down."

"Oh, and there's a Cleft too."

"Aw, come on! Well, we might as well..." Chopper jumped down and transformed into a stone of a Thwomp and destroyed the Cleft with ease.

"All right, maybe I should take this power off," he removed his Stone ability and grabbed the letter. Luckily, there was a spring to take him back up, so he used it.

"So, you got the letter?" Koopla asked.

"Yeah, the letter's right here. Since we got three letters... Maybe we ought to go back to Parakarry and deliver these letters to him. He said that it would cost him his job if he didn't have his letters with him."

"Oh, yeah. We need to return them to Parakarry." Bruce realized. "I suggest we head on back right now and not waste our time with the enemies."

"Wait... We have to backtrack..." Koopla trailed. "That's gonna be a pain. And, why didn't Parakarry just look for these in the first place? I think flying around would've been easier."

"Come to think of it... I wanna know why too!" Chopper remembered. "What a... Oh, it's not worth it. He's a kind person, so we shouldn't get angry at him for it."

"So... Should we head back now?"

"Yup!"

* * *

**Back by Parakarry-**

After Chopper fully recovered thanks to the Heart Block, he and the other two walked over to Parakarry to present one of the three missing letters.

"Oh! That's the one!" Parakarry gasped. "Aw, thanks for finding it! I'm so relieved. Uh… Actually… I'm also looking for two other letters I may have lost. It wasn't my fault, really! If you find them, could you…?"

"No need to finish that sentence, Parakarry!" Chopper assured, pulling out the second letter. "We've got another letter for you right here!"

"Oh! There we go! That's one of the ones I dropped by accident! Thanks so much! Really! Of course, there's still one more letter left… If at possible, could you please find it, too? I'm really scouring this area down here, but so far I haven't had much luck…"

"You mean this?" Chopper pulled the final letter out and handed it to him.

"Ah, thanks! You found it! Now I have all the letters that were lost…today. Oh, thank you so much for your help! You guys are a lifesaver! I guess that's why you're a hero on your planet, Chopper."

"Truth be told, anyone could be a hero," Bruce noted.

"Yeah, so that makes us all heroes!" Chopper smiled.

"Yeah, you guys really are heroes for helping me. I just wished there was some way I could repay you for your help..."

"I don't know how you could, really…" Chopper trailed while tilting his head. "I really got nothing I would want you to do for me."

"Actually… To be honest… I haven't just lost letters on Mt. Rugged… I may have sort of dropped some all over the Mushroom Kingdom while I was flying."

Everyone face palmed at Parakarry while he sweat dropped.

"Heh heh…yeah. You know, you're good at finding letters. Do you think you can keep an eye out during your travels? In return, I would offer you whatever help I can."

"All right, that sounds good to us!" Chopper smiled. "I always wondered what it would be like to travel with a postman."

"Oh, praise the Stars! I wasn't looking forward to having to find those letters all by myself, no sir. I'll do my very best to help! You shall not regret this!"

"Ah, yes! Now there are three people helping you, Chopper! You should be feeling pretty lucky now!" Bruce smiled.

"Yeah, that sounds great," Koopla nodded. _"Well, let's hope that this postman is actually sane, because I don't want another crazy person here. And it's strange I'm the only girl here so far..."_

**Parakarry joined your party! Press (v) to have him carry Chopper and fly for a short time! He can carry Chopper over short gaps that he couldn't jump across by himself. While in battle, he can attack with Sky Dive or smash into enemies using his Shell Shot ability!**

"Now! Onward!" Parakarry said in a dramatic voice, but then he stopped for a second. "Oh, but hey… By the way, if you want to deliver a letter to someone, just speak to that person. I have to be next to you at the time for it to work, though. Keep in mind, all right?"

"Of course I'll keep that in mind!" Chopper nodded. "Even if you're a mailman, you're pretty cool. You're like a hero…to the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"Yeah, I actually have to agree with that." Koopla nodded.

"Aw, thanks for the compliments! Chopper, for some reason, I kind of get a Mario vibe from you. I don't know why, but I just get it. Maybe it's because he helped me find a couple of letters like you? It could be..."

"I probably won't be like Mario. Ever." Chopper denied. "Why? I'm probably more annoying than him."

"Yeah, that's kinda true..." Koopla trailed.

"Really?"

"Errr... Never mind!"

"Oh, whatever. I really shouldn't be putting myself down like this. It's better that we just get a move on... Although, I have no idea where to go."

"Hold on a second…" a light bulb suddenly struck Bruce, giving him an idea. "Chopper, remember that gap we couldn't cross before? Since Parakarry has wings, he might be able to help!"

"Gap? Why don't you show me it, guys." Parakarry suggested. "I think I might be able to help you guys."

* * *

**Area with broken bridge-**

Chopper grabbed a Badge called the Quake Hammer before going (Which required Parakarry to get). Afterward, they made their way back to the broken bridge.

"Is this the one?" Parakarry asked.

"Yup. This is it."

"Oh, this isn't a problem at all. Don't worry, Chopper. I can get you all the way over there."

Parakarry grabbed Chopper's arms and started to fly over the gap. Truth be told, because of Chopper's weight, he didn't have a huge issue.

"_Well, I guess this isn't too bad," _Parakarry thought. _"Here I thought he would probably be heavy! I guess I was wrong there..."_

"Whoa... Try not to drop me." Chopper gulped as he looked down.

"Nonsense! I see no reason to drop you! Letting someone fall is not something I'd like to see!"

Parakarry made it to the other side with Chopper, and he helped the others across as well one at a time. They could see a bridge up ahead with a vulture over on a small mountain in its nest.

"Heads up, Chopper... That's the vulture I was warning you about." Koopla noted, pointing over at the vulture.

"Oh... Well, he doesn't appear to be paying attention to us." Chopper noticed. "Maybe if we walk quietly, we would be able to get past him without any worries."

"Yeah, we should do that," Parakarry nodded. They tried to cross the bridge as quietly as possible, but it all turned out in vain when they heard a voice of a vulture.

"Hey there! Hold up a sec, pardner! Jest a dern minute… I've seen you somewhere…"

"Oh, great... He spotted us..." Koopla groaned. "Well, so much for your little plan, Chopper..."

The bird, known as Buzzar, flew down right in front of the four and took out a little sketch. He began to study it carefully.

"You've seen me from somewhere? How is that possible?" Chopper asked.

"Yep, verrrry similar!" Buzzar confirmed as he put the sketch away. "You look a lot like this little feller Chopper who's on Bowser's wanted poster…"

"Wanted poster? What do you mean by that?" Koopla asked.

"Bowser gave me a li'l poster a while back about someone named Chopper who would walk by here. He's givin' out a good reward fer gettin' 'em!"

"Gee... That's...interesting..." Bruce trailed.

"Now give! What's yer name?, kid?"

"Ummm…" Chopper pondered while sweating. "Who, me? I'm…Flyer! Yes, I love to make machines!"

"What's that? Flyer! You take me fer a fool? That name sounds like you'd be on some kinda fly'r! You reckon I don't know that? Yer askin' fer it, you big fibber! I'm thinkin' yer Chopper!"

"I am not!"

"Prepare fer yer whuppin', kid!"

"Oh, great… I thought that would work… Looks like we gotta fight him." Chopper face palmed.

They all noticed that the Buzzar was flying, so no ground attacks would work. What made things worse was that Koopla and Bruce could only use ground attacks.

"Looks like I'm no help to you here, Chopper," Koopla declared, throwing in a non-existent towel. "He's high, and I can't reach flyin' enemies."

"Yeah, same here," Bruce agreed. "You're probably gonna have to have Parakarry help you here. He's the only one besides you that can attack enemies on air."

"Well, then it looks like it's up to us to fight him," Parakarry declared. "I'll do my best to help you, all right?"

"All right, then. We can do this, Parakarry. I know we can." Chopper declared.

**Tattle: **_This bird's Buzzar. He guards Mt. Rugged. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. Would you look at that. That's one big bird! If you get caught in the clutches of his sharp claws, you'll lose 4 HP! Try to wriggle out of his grip. His special attack is flapping his wings to create wind. This attack damages your party members, too. But he was hatching eggs, wasn't he? Is it possible that he's really a she? These are starting to make me wonder if males actually DO lay eggs… But, if this is a guy, then maybe he's just watching over them. It's obvious that male birds can't lay eggs. ...Right?_

"Well, this guy's a lot stronger than the Koopa Bros., that's for sure," Koopal noted. "So, you might wanna be careful."

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce. He was able to keep jumping on him, but after his seventh stomp, he got a little tired and stopped.

"Well, I sure did some damage there!" Chopper gaped.

"Power Bounce? Yeah, that attack can be pretty effective." Bruce agreed. "You jump on him more times, you deal more damage."

"I'll add a little more to that," Parakarry said as he flew up to Buzzar and used his boots to attack him while diving down at him from an angle.

"Oof! Well, Bowser said you'd be pretty dern tough, so gettin' a reward wasn't goin' ta be easy." Buzzar grumbled.

Buzzar flapped his wings and a bunch of wind began to blow at Chopper. He tried his best to not get blow away, while Parakarry tried as well. But, both of them still got hit, doing only did 1 damage.

Parakarry fell to the ground, injured. He couldn't get up for a little bit, unfortunately. This was pretty bad for Chopper, who sweat dropped.

"Crud… This is REALLY bad. I better Power Bounce him again." Chopper used his Power Bounce, and he stomped on Buzzar ten times this time.

"Don't worry, Chopper. I'm feeling perfectly fine now." Parakarry assured as he got himself up. That said, he was unable to make a move.

"That's good," Chopper saw Buzzar fly over to him, who was trying to pick him up. Chopper used all the speed he could to break free. Luckily, he was able to get out of Buzzar's grasps.

"Dang it..." Buzzar grumbled.

Chopper used another Power Bounce, and it would probably be his last one, since it left him with only 1 FP. He stomped on Buzzard seven times this time.

"Dang... I'm already down to 1 FP. I guess that means no more Power Bounces for me." Chopper frowned. Parakarry, in the meantime, attacked with his Sky Dive attack, hitting Buzzar easily. This made the Buzzard pretty mad at this point.

"Not bad!" he frowned. "I thought you wouldn't put up as much of a fight! But, let's see how you deal with THIS!" Buzzar flew toward Chopper and dove down at him. Chopper failed to guard the attack and took 3 damage.

"Yeah, that's pretty tough…" Chopper coughed as he stomped on him. Parakarry brought Buzzar down to 8 HP with his Sky Dive attack.

Buzzar tried to grab Chopper with his talons, and it forced Chopper to immediately escape, which he was successful in doing once again.

Chopper stomped on Buzzar, and then Parakarry followed in with another Sky Dive attack. This left Buzzar with only 4 HP now.

"We're getting him now. Two more attacks and he's done for." Chopper informed.

Buzzar flew toward Chopper, and he shot a feather at him like a ninja star. He guarded the attack,only taking 1 damage.

"All right, let's do this!" Chopper walked toward Buzzar and stomped on him, and to finish him off, Parakarry used his Sky Dive attack. Buzzar was instantly finished.

Chopper got 15 Star Points from the fight, making him sigh in relief after the fight. All Parakarry did was cheer for victory.

"Yow! I got whupped!" Buzzar cried as he fell off the mountain. Chopper simply gave a thumbs up as he smiled. He, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry began to head down to the lower left, and then to the right, according to the red arrows.

They headed to the next area, and they began to see that the whole place no longer had mountains, but a flat surface. They have made it over Mt. Rugged. Chopper went down to the flat area, and he hit the Heart Block to recover his HP and FP and the Save Block to save their game.

"Well, looks like we made it through Mt. Rugged!" Chopper announced. "This should be swell! Though, we're going through a desert, though."

"Mountain climbing for me is tedious," Bruce sighed. "Without arms, I can't do much. So, this part shouldn't be so bad for me."

"Oh man… We're going to be going through the desert." Koopla groaned as she began to sweat. "It's so…dry there. And with it being dry, there's no water to drink!"

"Relax. I've been through Dry Dry Desert, and I certainly know that it's not as bad as you think, Koopla." Parakarry assured. "Chopper, let's head into Dry Dry Desert!"

"All right, Parakarry. To Dry Dry Desert!" Chopper declared as all four began to head to the path east that would lead them into Dry Dry Desert.

But, they didn't notice a certain C Unit flying over to Dry Dry Desert too.

* * *

**Eh... I can't really say if I like this chapter or not. It's in the middle for me, in my opinion. And no, not this first part. I'm talking about ALL of Chapter 2.**


	11. Goodbye, Mountains! Hello, Desert!

**I actually looked at the map of Dry Dry Desert, and I noticed a little something... There are about 49 areas that you ****can explore! No, I'm not kidding! Just a little note I should say now that we're in Dry Dry Desert.**

* * *

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry now found themselves in a huge, barren desert. The sand was just a yellow color; nothing special. There were also some big rocks on the ground too. Each area of the desert was shaped like a hexagon, from what Chopper could see so far for the first area. Overall, it was a large area, and it can surely get you lost if you take the wrong way.

The sun was bright here, now that the mountains weren't around to block the sun. They can see a light yellow path that led across from the desert. There were other paths to take, but this one actually seemed to lead somewhere more important.

"It is so hot here… This is worse than Mt. Rugged…for me! I wish we had some water…" Koopla wheezed. "Water… I need water…"

Chopper looked down at the Koopa, but then he looked ahead, and to their right, they saw a tent with three Koopas in archaeology clothing. But, there was this one Koopa with a black mustache that looked familiar to Koopla. However, she was too thirsty to speak for the moment.

"Hey, there's three Koopas over there!" Chopper noticed. "I don't think they're enemies, right?"

"No, they don't look like enemies at all," Parakarry said.

"Let's go talk to the one with the mustache," Chopper decided as he walked over to the Koopa. He took notice of Chopper and his friends and seemed surprised, but not afraid to speak.

"Huh? What's this? Is it me or am I seeing a brand new species here!" the Koopa gaped. "What a discovery!"

"Calm down, sir. I'm not going to hurt you. Besides, I'm only a kid."

"Oh, don't worry. I was only joking! You look like you and your friends are exploring this place! How goes the travels, eh?"

"They're...going fine?"

"Ah, good! Now, on a serious note, I want to know who you are and where you came from. I could actually tell the other archaeologists about seeing a new species here!"

"Ummmmmmm... OK. I'm Chopper of Planet Clara. You can just call me Chopper if you want. I always just say that so I don't have to answer the question on where I live."

"Chopper, eh? Well, it's an honor to meet somebody from a different planet. I am known as Kolorado."

"Lemme guess, you're an archaeologist that goes around the world, right?"

"Correct. I travel the world." Kolorado nodded. "At the moment right now I'm turning Dry Dry Desert upside down to find the Dry Dry Ruins…and hopefully I succeed this time. My assistants have attempted to gather information in Dry Dry Outpost, which is near here. Sadly, as of yet, we're having little success. All I need is a clue and we'll be golden!"

"Uncle Kolorado? I didn't expect you to be somewhere around here." Koopla gawked. "I thought you would be someplace else…like at uh… I dunno. Let's hope you don't get yourself hurt again after going to Lavalava Island. Don't expect me to help you, though. I'm already on an adventure with Chopper. I promised him that."

"Ah, Koopla! It has been quite a while, hasn't it? I had to come here after hearing about a red gem being buried somewhere around here. And don't worry about me getting hurt. That is the last time something like that ever happens to me. But, for now, you should concentrate on your adventure with Chopper. I will keep searching for that red gem…" the archaeologist began to investigate the sand again.

"Well, all we can do right now is just move on. Let's leave Kolorado to do his work." Bruce suggested.

"Wait a second... You tried searching for that gemstone before!" Koopla realized. "Why are you searching for it AGAIN? !"

"You see, Koopla... I've heard that something spectacular occurred here! It was so great that we had to come back here and discover that gemstone! I believe it was somewhere in Dry Dry Ruins..."

"Which, of course, you failed to find last time."

"Not now, Koopla. Let your uncle get back to work!"

"Fine..." Koopla turned back to the boys. "Can you believe him? He spends most of his time trying to find treasure, and he never even finds it! Did you know that he pays more attention to finding treasure than spending time with his wife?"

"Wow... Who ever knew that this guy spends his entire life trying to get treasure?" Bruce gawked.

"No comment..." Chopper said.

"Same here," Parakarry agreed.

They all proceeded, following the path. Chopper kept using his Speed Dash in order to go faster faster, while Koopla moved as fast as she could to catch up with him. Parakarry was going faster than Chopper's other partners, with Bruce going the slowest.

"Can't you guys slow down? We Bob-ombs aren't so fast like you guys…" Bruce sighed. He noticed an enemy that resembled a Shy Guy, but taller with a smug expression chasing after them in a fast manner. However, Chopper was able to outrun them with his Speed Dash.

"Don't let 'em take your coins!" Parakarry warned. "It's something they enjoy doing!"

"And could you guys help me too?" Bruce cried.

"OK, OK!" Chopper grabbed Bruce and used his Speed Dash to continue on through the desert. There were a couple of spiked enemies called Pokeys in the next area, which looked like only Chopper and Koopla could attack with their normal attacks. As for Bruce and Parakarry... Chances are they wouldn't be able to hurt it.

Parakarry beat down a Bandit with his Sky Dive, while Bruce used his Body Slam. After Koopla Shell Tossed it, it was gone, dropping the coins stolen from Chopper to recollect.

"Ugh… This place is just so hot…" Koopla mumbled. "I wish I had some water right now. PLEASE! There MUST be water around here…"

"Maybe if you stopped COMPLAINING about it, we could find something special..." Chopper said as he rolled his eyes.

After a couple of more areas, they saw a stone cactus. At this point, Parakarry began to remember seeing it.

"This reminds me of when I went through the desert with Mario," Parakarry recalled. "It sure was a great experience…"

"I bet it was," Bruce said as Chopper saw a tornado with an evil face. It looked like it was going toward them.

"We better run from that! Hurry, people!" Chopper shouted as he held Bruce up like he was carrying a vase while using his Speed Dash. "Don't worry, Bruce! I won't let you go!"

"You better not! I don't want to be left behind!"

They all managed to escape from the tornado, and they made it to the next area. They saw a palm tree with a blue mouse called Nomadimouse, who happened to be carrying a sack with him.

"Hmm? Who's that mouse guy over there?" Chopper asked. "Sorry, but I'm new to the Mushroom Kingdom, so I don't really know what everything is. I only know about Goombas, Koopas, and I guess Bob-ombs."

"Not Paratroopas?" Parakarry gawked.

"Well, you're still considered a Koopa, right?"

"Oh, yeah. I guess that's true."

"Anyway, what is that thing?"

"That's a Little Mouser," Bruce explained. "Well, they're called Nomadimice here. Let's go talk to him and see what he has to say."

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry walked up to the Little Mouser, and he looked up at them, noticing all four of them arrive.

"Hey there," Chopper greeted.

"Why, hello there, fellow travelers," the Nomadimouse greeted. "I'm in the middle of a journey, just as you appear to be. Other travelers I meet are like brothers and sisters to me. If a town is what you seek, follow this path to the east. A desert town called Dry Dry Outpost waits at path's end."

"Thanks for the help, uh… Little Mouser. Let's go on ahead and get to that town." Chopper suggested as he began to keep going east, with the others following.

They saw some more palm trees around while some Bandits tried to go after them. Luckily, Chopper was too fast for them, and when they tried to jump him, they missed and fell flat on the ground.

"Ha! Serves you right!" Chopper smirked.

They made it into the next area, and they saw more palm trees by the path. They could see a sign up ahead as well.

"Let's go check what that says. It might be the sign that leads up to Dry Dry Outpost. C'mon, let's go!" Parakarry smiled.

Chopper put Bruce down, and he quickly went to the sign. Parakarry followed up, and Bruce came next. Koopla was so sweaty that she was moving slower than usual.

"So…hot… I wish I asked my uncle for some water. I'm DYING because of this heat…" Koopla wheezed.

"Here, you can use this like a fan," Parakarry took a letter from his mailbag and gave it to Koopla. "Don't worry, the letter is nothing special, really."

"Thanks, Parakarry… Too bad none of us here HAVE a fan… I wonder if we'll actually meet someone with one, actually." Koopla said, using the letter as a fan to cool her off.

"Actually, I happen to know someone wh-" But, his words were interrupted when he realized that no one was actually listening to him. "Oh..."

"Um… Let's discuss that later. I wanna see what we'll find up ahead." Chopper said as he began to read the sign.

_Welcome, travelers! If you want to go to Dry Dry Outpost, head to the right. We have many things there for you._

"Many things? What exactly do they have, though?" Bruce asked. "Well, it's best if I don't question that. We should just head on into Dry Dry Outpost. Thank goodness I got this hat, too. I'm not feeling hot at all because of it."

With a smile, he began to head into town.

"I suppose I should go ahead and follow him. So… I'll meet up with you pretty soon." Parakarry flew ahead into town as well.

Chopper turned to Koopla, who was still fanning. "Are you even coming? We gotta head on into town."

"Oh, all right. It's just so hot here. Here, take the letter if you want it. I'm already done…for now. Wait, no. Let ME hold onto it…"

Koopla began to head on into town, and Chopper simply shrugged. He headed into town as well. C-2 Choppor happened to be watching them on a palmtree.

"Must find data on place. Scanning…" C-2 Choppor began to scan Dry Dry Desert. He seemed to notice something in town.

"Object detected in town. I cannot simply go into town and force them to give me the gem. No… I would not like that. But, King Bowser gave me orders to get it…and I simply must get it before C-3 Cosmo, C-4 Crater, and C-5 Nebula."

"Thinking…" he pondered. "I shall come back when the time has come. I have no orders to annihilate Chopper, so I will leave him." C-2 Choppor flew up and went somewhere else in the desert. Probably far from Chopper and his friends.

* * *

**Dry Dry Outpost-**

As the group made it into Dry Dry Outpost, they could see some small houses and also some desert pots. There seemed to be a brick path on the ground. The Toads were in these robes that covered everything but their eyes. It definitely looked kind of weird, in their eyes. From looking at their eyes, they could see that their skin was more of a darker color. There were also some Little Mousers around as well. They also saw some melons on a couple of carts.

"So this is Dry Dry Outpost, huh? Well, it's kind of uh… Fitting for a place like this, since it's dry." Chopper mumbled.

Once he said that, it made Koopla feel thirsty again. Chopper turned to her and he sighed. "Would you quit it with that? I know you need water, but you're not going to die at this second."

"Yeah, I know. But I REALLY need something to drink. My mouth feels so dry. Maybe there's some water here, though. But, I wouldn't count on it."

The four stopped when they heard a Toad singing a little song. It sounded like it had to do with someone.

"Guys... Listen to that." Chopper suggested as they stayed quiet.

"Master Mr. Moustafa is the main man, yeah! Master Mr. Moustafa is the main man, ooh! Where's the man? No one knows! He stays hidden from his foes."

"Hmmm… Maybe this Moustafa can help us!" Bruce realized. "Let's go look around for him. His name sounds like he's a mouse."

"No dip," Koopla muttered.

All four of them began to look around in Dry Dry Outpost, and when they got near the shop, a purple Little Mouser came out of the shop, and began to head deeper into the outpost to the right.

"That mouse sure was in a hurry. Perhaps we should follow him and see where he's going." Parakarry suggested.

They followed the Little Mouser into the next part of town, and at the end, where there was a brown fence, the Little Mouser went into a small aqua blue house before anyone could notice, and then he quickly got out.

"Well, that stinks. He got away…" Chopper frowned before noticing a green Nomadimouse by the door in a brown cloak that covered his body and only showing his eyes and nose.

"Why don't we see what he's got to say. Yeah, maybe he knows something." Bruce suggested. All four of them walked to the Nomadimouse and spoke to him.

"Someone who gives things is nice, yes, very nice," the Nomadimouse said. "Nice guys get told nice stuff."

"Umm… Here, take this." Chopper pulled out an egg and gave it to him. "I don't really need it..."

"Ah! You give me something! You might be nice. If you're a very nice boy from a different planet, you'll give me something more."

"Ummm… Hmm… All right, take this, too!" Chopper took out Honey Syrup and gave it to him.

"Ah! You give me something! Hmmmm... You might be nice. If you're a very nice boy, you'll give me something more."

_"Man… It's like he's trying to take all my items away for some reason… This could be a little…tough for me." _Chopper thought.

"Have this. I think this'll be good for you." he took out a Mushroom and gave it to the Nomadimouse.

"You give me many things. Very nice boy, yes, very nice. My name is Sheek. I trade in information, things others do not know. So, nice boy…what would you like to know?"

"Umm… Maybe about Dry Dry Desert. That might be a good question to ask you. What's it like and all that?"

"Dry Dry Desert is a vast and everlasting sea of sand. Under this sea, many secrets lie buried. More secrets than there are Stars in the sky. The legend of Dry Dry Ruins is one of these secrets. These secrets have been revealed by a man in a red cap seven months ago. But, those secrets have gone away, and only Mr. Moustafa knows where the legend rests. If you still seek knowledge, you must give me something more, yes, you understand?"

"I'll ask something else. Take this, if you want it." Chopper gave Sheek a Sleepy Sheep. _"Well, turns out this was put into more use than I thought!"_

"I thank you for giving things," Sheek thanked. "To show I am truly thankful, allow me to tell you something. What would you like to know?"

"Where does Dry Dry Ruins rest?" Parakarry asked.

"Parakarry..."

"What? I think it's a good question to ask! Right, Chopper?"

"You must see Mr. Moustafa to find the resting place of Dry Dry Ruins," Sheek answered. "Mr. Moustafa is a descendant of the great robbers who built Dry Dry Outpost. He is somewhere in the town, yes…but exactly where, only his close followers know. I could tell his secret, but only to the nicest of nice guys, yes. If you still seek knowledge, you must give me something more, yes, you understand?"

"You can take this, too…if you REALLY want it," Chopper frowned as he took out a Dried Shroom and gave it to him. "Although... It's kinda bad."

"It's very nice, yes. I thank you for giving things. What would you like to know from me, little boy?"

"Uhhh… Your favorite food, perhaps?"

"My favorite food starts with an L and ends with an N. It's a yellow fruit…so sour. Such a nice fragrance… Its tree only grows in the desert oasis outside town. If you were to go to the oasis and get one for me, I might believe you're a true nice boy. For, of course, only the nicest of nice guys can meet Moustafa…"

"Well, thanks for all of the info. We'll be off for now." Chopper said while sweat dropping. Sheek simply waved goodbye, and all four of them left town to go back into Dry Dry Desert.

* * *

**Dry Dry Desert-**

"Any reason why you took us back to Dry Dry Desert, Chopper?" Koopla growled. "It's REALLY hot here, and it felt a little fine back at Dry Dry Outpost. What gives?"

"Because Sheek told us there's an oasis in this desert," Chopper retorted. "If we find that oasis, we can find that sour fruit. And, you know... An oasis would have some water, that's for sure."

"OK, we're going."

"But... Where do we go?"

"I think I remember," Parakarry recalled. "We just have to go south from here. Once we're in that area, we gotta head south again. We might find an oasis. I remember finding one there, that's for sure."

"Really? Let's go check south, then." Bruce suggested. Chopper picked up Bruce, and he began to use his Speed Dash to head down south to the next part of the area. Koopla and Parakarry followed up.

This area was the same, but by the south, they see that it's starting to turn green. So, they were actually getting a lot closer than they thought. They decided to go south again. And, what do you know? They saw green grass and some green bushes. There was also a freshwater pond in the center of the area and two trees. They also found a Heart Block and some trees. There were two big ones next to the pond.

Once Koopla saw the pond, her eyes sparkled with happiness.

"At long last… _**WATER!**_"

"See? What'd I tell you?" Chopper smirked.

Koopla rushed toward the pond, and she put her entire head in it to drink some of the water and to clean the sweat off, not caring about getting her hair wet. Chopper hit the Heart Block to heal up, and he also saw a block with a bright light blue core.

"What's this?" Chopper gaped. "This is strange..." he decided to hit it with a single punch

**This is a Super Block. With this, you can upgrade one of your party members. The member you upgrade will gain attack power. The party member will also master a new ability. Which party member do you want to upgrade?**

"Parakarry, come over here right now. I'm going to get you upgraded."

"Oh, really? Why thank you!" Parakarry flew over to Chopper.

"What? Nothing for me?" Bruce frowned. "I would love to get an upgrade too, you know!"

"Well, maybe next time, Bruce," Chopper assured.

The light blue core's power went into Parakarry, and he became a lot stronger than before, gaining a Super Ability. Koopla finished drinking the water and felt hydrated again.

"Let me go hit one of those trees," Chopper went to the left tree and whacked it with his hammer. A Lemon came out, to his surprise.

"Hey! That's the Lemon that that Sheek guy needed, right?" Koopla recalled. "We oughta take it and bring it to him."

"Yeah, that's what I wanna do," Chopper said as he grabbed it. "Maybe we'll actually get some information with this."

"All right, let's go then. The sun will dry my head off, so don't worry about my wet head."

* * *

**Dry Dry Outpost-**

All four of them headed back into Dry Dry Outpost and went back to Sheek. Chopper showed him the Lemon, making him gaze in awe at the delicious fruit.

"Oh, heavenly! A Lemon!" Sheek squealed. "The nicest of nice things! You have proven you're nice by giving me my favorite thing. And since you're so nice, yes, I'll tell you something really nice."

"Well, how can we go see Moustafa?" Chopper asked. "That's what we need to know the most."

"To find Mr. Moustafa, go to the shop of this town. First buy a Dried Shroom. Then buy a Dusty Hammer. You must buy them in the correct order, yes? Remember, Dried Shroom first and then Dusty Hammer. This is a secret sign known to those loyal to Moustafa. If you buy these things in the correct order, the owner of the shop will let you see Mr. Moustafa. Remember, you must not buy them in the incorrect order!"

"All right," Chopper nodded and was about to leave before hearing the Nomadimouse's voice again.

"I wish you luck in finding Mr. Moustafa, nice little boy," Chopper and his friends headed to the shop, where they saw that Little Mouser from before.

"I wonder if he noticed us following him before..." Parakarry wondered.

"Doesn't look like it," Bruce replied.

Chopper bought a Dried Shroom first, and then a Dusty Hammer in the order that Sheek told him. Together, those cost only 4 coins. Not that much. Once he put away those items, the Little Mouser seemed to realize something.

"_Could he really be? Naw… That can't be right. Maybe…I should tell him? I guess I should." _the Little Mouser thought. "What ho! Buying a Dusty Hammer after a Dried Shroom…is a secret sign that only friends of Mr. Moustafa know! …That means… You're in with Moustafa!"

"Yeah, I guess I am," Chopper nodded, rubbing the back of his head.

"Hey! Brother! Good to meet you!"

"What? You're my brother? !"

"No, Chopper. He's not your actual brother..." Koopla groaned. "Well, I hope he isn't."

"Doubt it," Bruce said.

"Well, have any questions you need answered?"

"Well, I would like to see Mr. Moustafa…" Chopper trailed.

"…So you want to see Mr. Moustafa? He's usually up on the highest part of Dry Dry Outpost. Just keep going up, my boy!"

"All right, then. ...Wait, did you just call me 'your boy'?" Chopper gawked before he and the others headed back to that building Sheek was at, but he noticed he was gone. Luckily, the door was slightly open.

"The door's open a little. We should go see what's in there." Bruce suggested. They all headed into the building, and there was a passage that brought them outside, where there were some boxes to jump on.

They used the boxes to get up onto the roof and continued on to the left on the roofs, and they happened to find a letter addressed to a traveling Nomadimouse on the road. Parakarry smiled as he grabbed it and put it in his mailbag.

"Finally! I've found another lost letter!" Parakarry sighed. "That's one letter down."

"I see a door on some balcony. Let's get on there." Chopper suggested as he jumped down to the balcony of a green building, with the rest of the group following.

Chopper opened the door, and found a small room with a red rug, white walls, and a couple of books. They saw that Sheek was in the room.

"Sheek? What are you doing here?" Koopla gawked. "Is this where you live or something?"

"Hello, nice people, we meet again. I'm glad you found me. And yes, this is where I live, Koopa. Allow me to introduce myself…"

Sheek took off the cloak, and he seemed to be a tan green color with orange feet. He got off a drawer and jumped down to Chopper.

"What the… You took off your cloak, Sheek? I'm a little confused..." Chopper sweat dropped.

"My name is not really Sheek. I'm Moustafa. I'm the one you've been seeking all this time. When I'm out and about in Dry Dry Outpost, I use the name Sheek. It's always good to meet a genuinely nice boy. I meet people all the time, but you are by far the nicest little boy from a faraway planet I've met so far. Actually, you're the first person from a different planet I have met."

"Oh, wow… So you were using the name Sheek so people wouldn't know you're really Moustafa?"

"Correct. Now, your name is Chopper, yes? I heard that you want to go to Dry Dry Ruins. I have a feeling that you are on an important journey, so I will tell you the secret. Dry Dry Ruins is a very important place. My ancestors have watched over it for many generations. If I do not keep those of evil out of the ruins, who will? You must promise me that you will tell no one this secret!"

"I promise, Moustafa," Chopper nodded. "No, WE promise."

"Yeah!" Bruce cheered.

"That was...a little unnecessary..." Koopla trailed.

"I'll give you this. Here, take it." Moustafa gave Chopper a red gem called a Pulse Stone. He felt some kind of strange power within it.

"This Pulse Stone is the key to finding Dry Dry Ruins," Moustafa explained. "Take it to the desert, yes? The Pulse Stone will flash above your head as you get close to the ruins. The closer you get to the ruins, the faster the Pulse Stone will flash. Follow where it leads you! Find the place where the Pulse Stone flashes the fastest and use it to open the way."

"Wait... What happened to the ruins last time?" Koopla asked. "They rose before, but how come they went back in the sand?"

"The evil that lurks in there used his magic to make the ruins burrow back in the sand. Thankfully, I managed to get the Pulse Stone back before a Bandit could steal it. As for you, Chopper... I want you to be careful in the ruins. With that evil back, I'm not sure what could be in there..."

"Thank you, Moustafa. I'll see you some other time I guess. Let's go, guys!" Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry left Moustafa's house, and also Dry Dry Outpost, returning to Dry Dry Desert. They noticed…that it was nighttime now, which surprised them all.

"Wait... It's night now?" Bruce gawked.

"I could've sworn that it wouldn't get this dark so soon..." Koopla trailed.

"Hmmmmm... Yeah, that remains a mystery." Chopper agreed. "Anyway, I'll see where this Pulse Stone will lead us to. Just keep close, all right?"

"Not TOO close..." Parakarry noted.

"Oh, yeah. Definitely not too close." Chopper agreed as he began to use his Speed Dash to travel across the desert, with the rest of the group following. Unfortunately, Bruce's stubby feet prevented him from even catching up.

"Chopper! Don't leave me behind! Don't you remember that I'm not as fast as you guys?" Bruce cried

Koopla went back and grabbed Bruce, carrying him through the desert. They had to go west, since that's where the Pulse Stone was flashing the quickest.

"OK... Now north!" Chopper informed.

They headed north, and then west again, avoiding the Bandits and Pokeys that were going after them. But, Koopla's Shell Toss did give those Pokeys what they deserve when they got in their way.

Chopper went north again, and also west, avoiding the tornado that was going after them. They went west two more times and found a small rock on the ground with a little opening.

"Hmmm… The shape on this rock seems to have the same shape as the Pulse Stone," Chopper noticed. "Maybe it might work…" he put the Pulse Stone in, and the rock began to burrow into the sand, making a scary tornado appear in front of them

"What in the world is going on?!" Bruce gaped. "This is pretty freaky!"

They noticed something was beginning to rise from the ground. Everyone, including Koopla, began to panic from the tremor. Even the Toads, Kolorado and the other archaeologists were panicking, feeling all of this shaking.

What was about to happen? This Pulse Stone has really made something big happen…


	12. Secrets of Dry Dry Ruins

A huge old building began to rise up from the desert. It looked to be the color of the sand. There was some a light emitting from inside, showing that there may be light inside. It must've been coming from the entrance. By it, there was a block that flipped over to change into stairs. The pillars around had Chain Chomp statues. A Heart Block also appeared to the left.

Everyone was silent...

"So this is Dry Dry Ruins, huh? Looks pretty interesting here…" Chopper trailed. "Let me heal up before we head on in."

Chopper walked to the Heart Block, and he gave it a little punch, recovering all of his HP and FP. He then returned to the other three.

"We're finally going back into Dry Dry Ruins…" Parakarry mumbled. "I wonder if it's still the same as before, since I've been inside of here once."

"All right, guys. Let's head on in." Chopper announced as he went up the stairs and into the ruins. Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry followed inside as well.

However, C-2 Choppor managed to fly over to the ruins, and it seemed like he was locating something on the roof.

"Scanning object… Object identified as the Pulse Stone!" C-2 Choppor said as he flew down to the roof. "Goal: Find the red gem for King Bowser. This must be the one…"

"Now I must return to King Bowser," he said as he grabbed a hold of the gem. For some reason, the ruins didn't burrow into the sand. "I wonder how the others are doing... No, it does not matter now. I must get going."

C-2 Choppor flew back up and began to head up to Peach's Castle once again.

* * *

**Dry Dry Ruins-**

Once inside the ruins, they all noticed that the walls, the ground, the ceiling and the pillars were a dull gold color. There were windows, which showed the dark sky.

"Well this seems interesting…" Bruce trailed. "We're now in Dry Dry Ruins. Never knew this place would be like this, though."

_"Bleeag, Blooooaaaagh!"_ All four paused as they heard a ghastly voice echoing through the ruins._ "I am the huge, scary Tutankoopa! Remorseless king of the desert! Who dares set foot in this, my palace of the sands? Speak and be known! Begone from this place! Now! Or disaster will befall you!"_

"Did you guys say that? Or was that just someone trying to get us out of here?" Chopper asked, only to receive shrugs. "Well, who cares what he thinks? We're going through here no matter what!"

"This Tutankoopa doesn't sound so threatening…to me, that is," Koopla scoffed. "Let's ignore his signs and get going!"

Chopper hit the Save Block in the room, and they all proceeded into the next room, which contained some coffins sitting on the walls. They had eyes and a mouth of a Pokey and also those three spikes on the top.

Once Parakarry got close to both coffins, they opened, and two blue green Pokeys called Pokey Mummies came out of the coffin.

"Uh oh… Not good." Chopper immediately whacked a part of a Pokey Mummy off, which hit the other Pokey Mummy. Koopla, meanwhile, used her Power Shell to hit both of them, and after a couple more attacks, they defeated both Pokey Mummies.

In the second coffin, there was a badge with Chopper's head on it, with green spikes surrounding him. Chopper took it, and it was the Spike Shield Badge.

"Whose idea was it to put a Badge with my face on it?" Chopper asked.

"Not my idea, that's for sure," Bruce said while shaking his head.

There was another coffin nearby, and another Pokey Mummy came out. Chopper decided to become Stone Chopper and crush the Pokey as a statue of a Goomba.

"Man, this ability sure is useful!" Chopper smiled as he transformed back to himself. He noticed two staircases up ahead. There was one to the upper right going up, with a locked door, and a doorway to the lower right.

"Since we can't go up into that door, all we can do is head down the stairs to that doorway down there," Koopla suggested.

They all headed down the stairs and headed through the doorway into another room of Dry Dry Ruins. The room was small, and it had two torches lit up. Up on some pedestal was a Ruins Key, so Chopper took it.

"That was a lot easier than I thought! Let's go unlock that door, now!" Bruce smirked. "Way easier than Koopa Bros. Park!"

"I agree," Chopper nodded.

They left that room and went up the stairs to where the locked door is. Chopper unlocked the door, and they headed through to see the floor filled with a lot of sand.

They saw something to the other side that wasn't covered in sand. There seemed to be some switch across the sand. Chopper jumped on it, but nothing happened.

"I think I need to put a little more weight on this," Parakarry noted. "I think you're a little light."

"Really? Well I might know what to do here." Chopper jumped and he turned into a stone that looked like the Nintendo 64 symbol and slammed down on the switch, pushing it down. Suddenly, the center of the room began to suck all of the sand out of the room and down below them.

"Uh oh…" Bruce gulped as he tried to get to Chopper, but he ended up falling down through the hole. His head was stuck in the sand apparently

"I think we better go down and help Bruce," Chopper suggested. He jumped down the hole, and so did Koopla and Parakarry.

Down the lower level, Parakarry grabbed Bruce's left foot, and Chopper grabbed his right. They both managed to pull him up, but something was missing…

"Uhh… Bruce? Didn't you have a hat on a couple of seconds ago?" Koopla asked.

"Why… Yes. I did. Wait… Don't tell me it's in the sand." Bruce groaned as he used his feet to dig through the sand. In fifteen seconds, he found his hat, but he was having a little problem getting it on. "Uhhhh... Can anyone give me a hand?"

"You could use a hand," Chopper joked.

"Hey, that's not funny..."

Koopla grabbed Bruce's hat and dumped all of the sand that was left in there before putting it back on Bruce's head.

"There. You happy now?" Koopla asked.

"As a matter of fact, I am. All right, let's get going."

Since the sand was now in the bottom room, a path that they couldn't reach was now open for them, so they decided to enter through the doorway. Chopper removed his power before going through, however.

They made their way into the next room and saw stairs going up to the left, on the lower left, and there were stairs going down in front of them to the right.

_"Fool! You have ignored my warning, haven't you?"_ the same voice roared._ "You fool! You will fall to my legions and become a mummy of the sands!" _

"Like that's going to happen," Bruce snickered.

"Let's go up those stairs, all right?" Chopper took the upper right staircase, and then he went up the stairs to the left, where he found two Buzzy Beetles blocking the way.

Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry got to Chopper, and they saw him stomp on one of the Buzzy Beetles, flipping it over.

"I guess I might as well…" Parakarry flew to the Buzzy Beetle that was flipped over and used his Sky Dive attack on it, defeating it instantly.

The Buzzy Beetle left got in its shell and went toward Chopper. It was easy to guard, so Chopper did just that, and then he flipped it over with another jump attack.

"I call the final blow!" Bruce declared as he walked to the Buzzy Beetle and used his Body Slam on it. Both Buzzy Beetles were gone, and Chopper got 4 Star Points.

After Chopper waggled his finger, they noticed a gap that they couldn't go over on their own. Parakarry knew what to do, though. He brought each of them over to the other side, where they can see a cracked wall in front of them.

"All right, Bruce. It's time to use you." Chopper announced as he picked Bruce up and threw him to the wall. Bruce blew it up and then returned to them. With that, they headed on through the path, and they saw another room filled with sand, and with the same switch.

"I guess I gotta do that Stone thing again," Chopper groaned as he became Stone Chopper and he slammed the switch as a stone of himself. The sand began to go down the hole that opened up, and it flowed into the room below. They jumped down the hole and found a key, which Chopper took.

Once they left that room, they were back in the room with the stairs, on the middle floor. This time, they went down the stairs instead of going up, and they found two steps to the upper right with a path, and stairs going down to the left, with a locked door.

They decided to go down to the door to the left. Now that Chopper had a key in his hands, he unlocked the door and headed through the doorway that was now opened.

"Whoa… Look at this…" Chopper said as he saw a couple of stairs with red circles on them. They simply went up those stairs, with Bruce having a hard time going up them. When they made it to the top of those stairs there was, yet again, another switch. Chopper used his Stone ability on it, and the stairs flipped, with the stairs going to the left instead of the right.

They went up those stairs and noticed a gray block was in their way. It looked like the yellow block Chopper's seen before and broke with his normal hammer, but much stronger.

"Oh yeah… That block. My hammer couldn't break this kind of block. All we can do is just progress." Chopper sighed as he went down the stairs with the others following him. They kept moving to the left, and they noticed the door was locked. But, they all saw a yellow ? block by the door.

"Go ahead, Chopper. Hit the block, or else I'll have to hit it." Koopla suggested. Chopper listened and hit the block.

The three coffins that were in the room opened up, and three Pokey Mummies came out. Since Chopper had his Stone ability on still, it wouldn't be so bad to put it to good use in this fight.

After a long and not-so-difficult battle, a key appeared by the door.

Chopper grabbed the key, and he unlocked the door that was locked, and the lock came off, allowing them to head on in. There were some stairs going down to the lower left, and to the upper left, there appeared to be a gap to another room. Parakarry knew what he had to do, so he got everyone across that gap. Good thing the torches didn't touch him on the way

Once they made it into the next room, they saw the same stairs again, but with a green square. There was a picture of a treasure chest as well.

"Hey, if there's a picture of a treasure chest pointing to the right, then that must mean…there must be some cool treasure!" Chopper gasped. "Yeah! Real treasure in the ruins!"

"Uh…? Wait! C'mon, don't go in that room!" the ghastly voice, at first, didn't sound so ghastly. "…Ooops. Ahem! I mean… _Flee now while you still can! If you continue…uh…you'll feel a horrible curse…or perhaps death!_"

"That…whatever is speaking to us must know something's in here," Koopla smirked. "I mean, look at that picture of the chest there. There HAS to be something here. So, let's go ahead and check!"

"Yeah, that's what we gotta do," Chopper agreed as he went up the stairs with the others following behind him. He saw a switch that was green, so he used his Stone ability on it like the other switch. The two staircases began to flip, with the bottom ones flipping to the right, and the top ones coming down.

"Hold on a second. Let's go down first." Chopper suggested as he jumped down and went up the stairs that they went up before. Chopper used his Stone ability on the switch, and the stairs flipped over back to where they were, which allowed them to take the upper ones.

Once they made it up, they found some stairs up ahead with pink circles. They went down those stairs, with Chopper hitting the switch with his Stone ability, making the stairs flip, with the upper ones going up onto a higher ledge, with stairs going down.

After going up the other stairs, they got to those stairs and made it to the higher ledge, and they happened to notice stairs going down.

"So. Many. STAIRS!" Parakarry screeched. "This is getting so annoying!"

"But can't you fly?" Chopper recalled.

"...Oh, yeah."

They found something down below. It looked like if they dropped down, they'd be trapped in a cage.

"I wonder what's in that big chest…" Bruce wondered.

"It might be something good," Koopla noted.

"Well, we should just go ahead and take a look right now. So, let's head down!" Chopper said as he jumped down and landed onto the chest.

"All right, if you say so," Koopla jumped down, with Bruce and Parakarry following up. It looked like they were on some kind of big pharaoh tomb. There seemed to be a gray block blocking the exit.

"Great… I guess we ARE trapped here. So, Chopper… Any smart plans that you can think of? Hold on, let's see what's in the chest."

"That's what I was planning on doing…" Chopper trailed as he walked to the chest. He began to slowly open the chest. Apparently, he was having a problem opening it, since his arms were skinny

"Guys… I need help here! This thing's getting a little too heavy here!" Chopper wheezed, trying as hard as he could to open the chest. "It's a pretty big chest, I'll admit!"

Parakarry gave him a hand, and he was able to get the chest to open up. Chopper grabbed onto the edge, and he grabbed what was inside. Chopper picked up a hammer with a brown handle, and the mallet part being a silver color. He held it up high, smiling.

**You got the Super Hammer! The attack power of Chopper's Hammer, and also Copy Ability attacks increases! On top of that, Chopper can now destroy Stone Blocks!**

Chopper looked at the Super Hammer and his normal Hammer. He simply threw the normal Hammer he was holding into the chest, and he smashed the Stone Block that's in their way.

"Wait... You're just going to leave your old hammer in that chest?" Koopla gawked.

"Well, this is a better hammer, so there's no point in holding that now," Chopper assured. "Plus, if any enemies came to the chest, they would know that no one stole anything."

"That is if they don't know the difference between both hammers," Parakarry added.

"Yeah, that's true."

"Well, now that you got that Super Hammer in your hands, you can break pretty much any block we can find around here," Bruce smiled.

"I'm not sure if it breaks ALL blocks. This is probably only good enough to smash those Stone Block."

"Hold on, we didn't take those stairs that we've seen before," Koopla realized. "There were those two steps, and then there was another path. Let's go check over there."

"Good idea," Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry left that room and headed back to the room with the stairs going down and the two steps. They took those two small steps up into another room.

On the wall, there seemed to be a drawing of the ruins and two Chain Chomps. Up on a ledge was a coffin with a green triangle gem. But, to get there, a Stone Block needed to be smashed. Chopper smashed the block with his hammer, and both Chain Chomp drawings came to life.

"Uh oh… Let's grab that gem first!" Chopper jumped up two steps to reach the coffin. He grabbed what is known to be called a Pyramid Stone and then jumped down and whacked the first Chain Chomp artifact with his hammer.

Chopper decided to hit them with his Quake Hammer attack, and both Chain Chomp artifacts took 2 damage. It caused the room to shake a little too.

"Whoa, that sure packs a punch…" Koopla gawked as Parakarry used his Sky Dive attack on the first Chain Chomp, defeating it.

The Chain Chomp left attacked Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack, taking only took 2 damage in the process.

Chopper whacked the Chain Chomp artifact with his Hammer, and instead of usually doing 2 damage, it did 3, thanks to his new Super Hammer.

"Hey! This hammer packs more of a punch now!" Chopper smiled.

The Chain Chomp was gone, and he got 8 Star Points from the battle. He gave a thumbs up, and then he saw some coins and Flowers were dropped, so he grabbed the two Flowers, which recovered 2 FP, and he collected the coins.

"Let's get out of here, now."

They headed back into the first room with those stairs, and Chopper went up the stairs that are to the left. He became Stone Chopper again, and he came down on the switch, making the stairs switch around.

"All right, now we can get to that Stone Block we couldn't get rid of before!" Chopper jumped back onto the stairs, and he smashed the Stone Block, which revealed an Artifact.

"Hmmmm... You know, maybe Uncle Kolorado would be interested in that." Koopla realized. "He DID come to Dry Dry Desert to find artifacts..."

"Why would we give it to him though?" Bruce asked.

"So he can get out of here, maybe?"

"Huh... Not a bad idea."

They headed into the room to the left, and they saw the stairs that went down to the left that they originally didn't use. So, they went down there and saw a crack on the left wall.

"Allow me!" Bruce declared as Chopper threw Bruce to the wall and blew it up. They headed on through the doorway and noticed a big drop.

"Oh boy… I don't like these kinds of drops." Koopla groaned. "But, we really have no other choice. So… Let's just head on down."

They jumped down, and they saw a spring, a crack on the left wall, and another path to the right. There was also an Upgrade Block, which got Bruce excited.

"Yeah! Another Upgrade Block!" Bruce cheered.

"Ooh! There's another! All right, time for another upgrade!" Chopper jumped under the block, and he decided to go with Koopla.

"Aw, man… You're saving me for last? That's not fair…"

"Don't make it such a big deal. You're not so useful in battle anyway, except for your Bomb ability, that is. Koopla can attack a lot of enemies in here. And besides... If we find another Upgrade Block, I'll let you have it, all right?"

"All right..."

"All right, just let me get to Super Rank now," Koopla said as she felt some power go into her, making her learn a new move.

"Now…" Chopper picked Bruce up and threw him at the wall. He kind of threw to hard, making him bump into the wall and explode as well, revealing a hole behind the wall.

"Whoops… I threw too hard, there." Chopper sweat dropped. "Sorry about that, Bruce. No hard feelings, right?"

"Unnngghhh…" Bruce moaned. "Sure... Whatever...". So, Chopper simply picked him up and went into the next room. They were in another similar room: a room that they fought an old Chain Chomp in, but this one was like it was a mirror of that that. To the left, a Stone Block was sitting there. Chopper put Bruce down and smashed the Stone Block with his Super Hammer. Two Chain Chomp artifacts appeared from the block.

"Agh!" Chopper jumped back as he shrieked, but he ended up whacking the first one with his Super Hammer, so that did some damage.

Bruce helped with the fight after recovering from being dizzy and he used his Body Slam on the first Chain Chomp artifact, which defeated it instantly. The Chain Chomp left went at Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack, so nothing bad happened there.

Chopper whacked the Chain Chomp with his Hammer and then Koopla attacked with her Shell Toss, and both were gone. After claiming their 8 Star Points, they saw a Diamond Stone on the tomb, so Chopper took that and put it away. They headed back up to the room with those stairs, and then went into the room to their right, which they haven't gotten into yet.

Once they made it into the next room, they could see five Chain Chomp statues, with something that you could insert into it.

_"Turn back now! Your time is running out!"_ the voice warned._ "If you do not retreat, you'll be in grave trouble! I do not lie! You will regret it!"_

"Yeah, yeah… I know. No need to tell us." Chopper groaned. "Let's just keep going right now and ignore that voice that's telling us to go back."

They saw stairs going down and stairs going up ahead. The stairs going up had a locked door, while the ones going down didn't have a door at all.

"All right, let's go down, then," Chopper went down the stairs, and they found themselves in a room with three torches and a key floating on a small platform.

"Let's smash the Stone Block down there," Koopla suggested. "I doubt that we can even reach that platform anyway."

Chopper jumped down to the Stone Block and smashed it with his hammer, making a switch appear, so he used his Stone ability on it. Suddenly, the bricks on the walls began to come out of the wall and make stairs. Chopper jumped up those stairs to grab the Ruins Key.

"All right, I'm coming back up!" Chopper shouted. He went into that tunnel that had a couple of Buzzy Beetles in there and fought them himself and won.

He noticed a map on the wall of where the stones area. But, he already had two of them, so he didn't need to look at that. He just kept moving on, defeating some purple bats called Swoopers.

Chopper made it through the tunnel, but he had to make his way back to that room because he is now in the room with the spring and the empty Upgrade Block.

"Sigh… Better get back to the others…" Chopper groaned as he made his way all the way back to them.

* * *

**Room with Chopper's partners-**

"What took you so long?" Koopla asked, looking impatient. "Did you have to make your way back here or something? I think that's what it was."

"It doesn't matter now. Let's go unlock that door." Chopper suggested as he and his friends left the room and went to the stairs moving up and unlocked the door.

They found the next room to be covered in sand, and also there's also another switch. There are six Chain Chomp statues in here too. So, Chopper used his Stone ability on switch, turning into a stone of Bruce.

"Well, looks like someone's a big fan of me!" Bruce smirked.

"That was probably coincidental," Parakarry informed.

"D'oh!"

All of the sand was poured down through a hole into the room below. They noticed something on the Chain Chomps.

"Hello? What's this here?" Chopper saw on the first statue, there was a pyramid. The third had a star, and the fifth had a moon.

They jumped down the hole, and they were able to reach the other side of the room they couldn't have reached before. They headed through the doorway, and they were in an identical room with a Lunar Stone.

Chopper smashed the block, and then he grabbed the Lunar Stone. Once he did that, two Chain Chomp artifacts appeared from a torch above Chopper, and once he looked up, he jumped out of the way.

Chopper used his Stone attack on the first Chain Chomp, and he turned into a stone of Princess Peach apparently. Koopla attacked as well, using her Shell Toss to hit the first Chain Chomp, defeating that one, and leaving only one left.

The Chain Chomp remaining attacked Chopper by lunging towards him, and it successfully hit him, doing 3 damage and knocking away his Stone ability. He noticed that he had 5 HP left.

"Crud… This isn't good." Chopper gulped as he used his Super Hammer to attack the Chain Chomp, which was then finished off by Parakarry. After getting 8 Star Points, the Chain Chomps dropped two Hearts, which Chopper grabbed to recover 2 HP.

"Well, that is something that you really needed," Parakarry commented. "So how many stones do we need to find? Oh, yes! I forgot! We've already got all three with us. So, we should get that Star Spirit in no time!"

"Agreed," Chopper nodded. They headed back into the room with the five Chain Chomp statues, and Chopper put the stones in the order. He put the Pyramid Stone on the first one, the Diamond Stone on the third one and the Lunar Stone on the fifth one.

Suddenly, the five Chain Chomp statues' eyes began to flash, and everything began to shake.

"Uh oh… What's going on right now?" Chopper gulped as he noticed it looked like they were going down, forcing him to shriek run all over the place. Stairs below were created, making a new pathway below.

"Phew… That was rather close…" he sighed as he stopped. "Well, all we can do is just head on down the stairs."

"I wonder what we might find below here. That's the question." Parakarry wondered.

They went down the stairs, and down more stairs to the left. They all saw a Heart Block, so Chopper hit that block to recover all of his HP and FP. They headed down the last pair stairs, and they saw a doorway up ahead. They knew something was there, so they headed on through.

"Let's hope we're not too late…" Chopper mumbled as they headed in through the doorway.


	13. King Tutankoopa: King of the Sands

**Here ya go! The second boss of Paper Chopper! It's…a pretty short battle. Even look at the fight itself! You'll see what I mean.**

* * *

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry were in a small room with a Save Block. It was very hard to get lost…or probably impossible. Other than that, not much else to describe this place.

"_This is your final warning!"_ the voice roared, but louder than before._ "Enough of this foolishness! Leave at once!" _

"What if we say NO?" Chopper asked.

"_Then you shall suffer a slow and horrible death by me, King Tutankoopa! I'm sure you do not want that, now… So, leave now while you can!"_

"That voice isn't so intimidating," Parakarry smirked. "I've heard worse. C'mon, let's go find that king and beat him. I might enjoy fighting him a second time."

"Of course, Parakarry," Chopper smiled as he hit the Save Block, saving his game. After that, they headed on into the next room.

* * *

**Dark room-**

"Gah! I can't see a thing in here!" Koopla gasped. "Where are you guys?!"

"I don't know, really..." Bruce trailed.

"Guys, stay put and don't move," Chopper suggested.

"_Bleah heh heh heh…_"

"OK guys, stop with that now," Parakarry groaned. "It's not funny."

"That wasn't us..."

"What?"

A headdress with a Chain Chomp on it appeared right in front of the group. The room was no longer dark, and they noticed that there didn't appear to be anyone wearing the headdress. It was just floating there. There was also a platform higher up in the room, and a caged door up ahead.

"What in the world? What is this?" Chopper gawked. "There's nothing even here at all! I thought this would be a challenge, but I guess I'm wrong."

The headdress floated up onto the platform and chunks of a body began to float all over the place, which flew over to the headdress. It now revealed a Koopa in a white robe with black eyes and blue pupils.

"Really? This is it?" Koopla groaned.

"I expected something scarier..." Bruce trailed.

"_You! You ignored all of those very scary warnings!_" Tutankoopa exclaimed. "Don't you have the common sense to get scared and run away? What's wrong with you!?"

"You weren't being scared at all," Chopper retorted. "Did I look so intimidated when you spoke in your so-called 'spooky voice'? The answer is NO!"

"Hey! How dare you mess with me, Tutankoopa, a faithful follower of King Bowser! Ooops… I mean… _You shall regret this!_"

"Bring it on!" Chopper shouted. Tutankoopa smirked as he pulled out had Buzzy Beetle shells.

**Tattle: **_This is Tutankoopa. He's one of Bowser's followers and he's been assigned to guard one of the Star Spirits. I've heard that he has sort of a pharaoh complex. Max HP: 30, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. He attacks by throwing shells from that high perch. Try to dodge when he uses magic: its attack power is 2 and it'll sting for sure. And he also summons Chomps, his loyal subjects. These Chomps have some serious attack power. Think hard about whom to attack first, Tutankoopa or Chomp._

Chopper decided to start off with a Power Bounce. He was able to stomp on him seven times. Unfortunately, for him, he wasn't at a distance where he could use his hammer.

"Well, this kind of stinks," Bruce sulked. "I can't even reach Tutankoopa. Damn… I was hoping I could be good help here."

"Yeah, I agree with you on that," Koopla nodded. "I wish I was able to help you with this fighting, Chopper. Looks like only you can Parakarry can fight him."

"All right then, Chopper. Looks like this is all up to us now." Parakarry declared. "So… Let's take down Tutantkoopa! …I wonder if he's become a little more challenging than before." Parakarry flew up to Tutankoopa and used his Sky Dive attack on him. Since Parakarry was upgraded, he did 3 damage to him.

"Bleah heh heh heh… Come, Chomp! Come! Bite these intruders!" Tutankoopa cackled. A Chain Chomp came out, but unlike the old ones made of stone, this was an actual real one.

"Oh, crap. That's a REAL Chain Chomp!" Koopla gaped.

"But WE can actually hurt it!" Bruce realized.

"I guess my Quake Hammer attack will work well on both of them," Chopper said as he brought his Super Hammer out and made the ground shake once he slammed his hammer down, hitting both Chomp and Tutankoopa for 2 damage.

Parakarry flew toward Tutankoopa and used his Sky Dive attack on him once again. He wouldn't probably be able to hit Chomp, anyway.

Chomp took a step back and lunged at Chopper. He guarded the attack quickly, making him only take 2 damage.

"_Hmm… He appears to be tough."_ Tutankoopa thought._ "I didn't expect a young boy to bring me down like this so soon... But, I guess this is because he's from another planet... But, that's not going to stop me!"  
_

Tutankoopa picked up a Buzzy Beetle shell and threw it at Chopper. He attempted to guard the attack, but the Buzzy Beetle shell was able to hit him first, making him take 3 damage.

"All right, I guess I'll just hit the Chain Chomp," Chopper hit Chomp with his hammer, and it barely did anything. Only 1 point of damage was dealt onto Chomp.

Parakarry didn't attack Chomp, so he used his Sky Dive on Tutankoopa as usual. Chomp lunged at Chopper, who managed to guard it.

"Bleah heh heh heh… I'm a magical genius! Watch, and be amazed, little child!" Tutankoopa cackled as he unleashed his magic. A magic light of a Chain Chomp appeared over Chomp and became more of a pixilated one that dropped from the ground and sent rubble falling down on both Chopper and Parakarry.

Unfortunately, that left Parakarry injured.

"Unngghhh… Chopper, I can't do much right now." Parakarry moaned. "Just chip away on Tutankoopa and Chomp for right now, and when I can get back up, I will."

"All right, I'll do that," Chopper decided to finish off Chomp by using his Hammer again. That was indeed the final blow to him. "HA! Your pet is finally down! What do you have to say about that? !"

"Oh, I'll give you this then!" Tutankoopa picked up another shell, and he threw it at Chopper, which did hurt him and leave him with 12 HP out of 20, and 5 FP out of 10.

"All I can do is use my Power Bounce on him, so I guess I'll do that," Chopper jumped to Tutankoopa and stomped on him six times. After he did that, Parakarry felt better, so he got back up.

"All right, I'm good to go," Parakarry announced. Tutankoopa got pretty mad this time, and he began to use more of his evil magic.

"Prepare to suffer from my magic, you fools!" he did that, and another big Chain Chomp appeared. This time, rubble fell on him, resulting in him getting knocked to the ground.

"Well, that was pretty foolish of him to do that," Chopper was smiling and he had his thumbs up once Tutankoopa fell to the ground. "Probably one of the dumbest moves I've seen!"

"He's only got 4 HP left, Chopper," Parakarry informed. "So, your Hammer should do the trick."

Chopper nodded, and he walked toward Tutankoopa with his Super Hammer out. He gave him a good whack and sent him falling over on the ground. He also got 29 Star Points from the fight, leveling him up. He decided to choose FP, so now he has 15 FP.

"Noooooooooooooooooooo! Curses!" Tutankoopa spat as he got up. "How did I let myself lose to a foolish child like you?"

The caged door opened up again, and Chain Chomp came out and went toward Tutankoopa. Once he turned around, he felt better.

"Aw… C'mere, Chompy…" Chomp then began to chase after Tutankoopa, making him scream loudly.

"Waah! What're you…ow! Help!" Tutankoopa screamed as he was chased out of the room by Chomp. Meanwhile, Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry saw a shimmering light come out of the ground and form a Bowser Card. It showed a card of the Star Spirit with the pink bow on her head.

"There it is, Chopper. Go ahead and get that Bowser Card so you can save the second Star Spirit!" Koopla smirked.

"The honor is all yours," Parakarry nodded.

"Go ahead, Chopper! We need it!" Bruce smiled..

"OK... I guess we ought to get it. Here I go!" Chopper touched the Bowser Card and held it above him. As the card slowly faded away, the Star Spirit, Mamar managed to free itself out of her prison.

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_Thus Chopper and party unearthed the legendary Dry Dry Ruins deep within Dry Dry Desert. They smashed Tutankoopa the Wizard and freed Mamar, the second of the wish-granting Star Spirits. But the enemies awaiting Chopper grow ever stronger…and the challenges more difficult. What's in store for Chopper and friends… Where will their adventure take them next?_

* * *

Up in the sky, C-2 Choppor was flying back to Bowser's Castle. But, he didn't notice a pink wisp flying his way.

The wisp went in front of him and left the robot's sight blank. After a while, C-2 Choppor found himself up in the stars at a sanctuary with a shallow pool. He was standing right across from it near a bridge made out of light. The ground itself was a beautiful blue and purple color.

C-2 Choppor looked around to see where he was, and he looked confused. Even as a robot, he had the feeling on confusion.

"Must determine location. Accessing data. Scanning." C-2 Choppor began to scan the place he is in right now, but sadly, he couldn't find anything.

"No data found. Location unknown. This presents a problem." All C-2 Choppor could do was make his way across the bridge. He scanned some Star Kids that were playing out in the shallow pool, but he couldn't identify them.

C-2 Choppor: ?

When he took a look at the Star Kids, they didn't seem to pay any attention to him. C-2 Choppor wanted to get a closer look, until...

"Wait! Stop right there! Don't get any closer to them!"

C-2 Choppor turned around and saw a younger version of Eldstar. The only difference was that his mustache was more of a black color, and he was more good-looking than his older version."

"Hold on… I don't think you're one of them."

"Please address me your name," demanded C-2 Choppor.

"My name is Eldstar, I am a Star Spirit that remains in the Star Sanctuary. Over there is the Star Shrine, the home of our god, Staris. Many Stars come to him for many questions."

C-2 Choppor looked back over by the Star Kids.

"Staris is a very gentle and loving creature. He cares for all the Stars, and he protects them from harm. His protection lets these Stars enjoy themselves at peace. In case if there was ever an emergency, he created seven Star Spirits that he entrusted to protect a wishing rod called the Star Rod. That grants us the ability to make wishes. However, we worried over the years that if the Star Rod was ever stolen, something terrible could happen to Staris. We try to keep it away from evil so they don't try to use its powers to possibly make Staris cause harm to us!"

After scanning the time period, C-2 Choppor realized that he has gone 500 years into the past. He looked over at the Star Kids again, who played cheerfully.

That is, until his vision slowly began to fade.

* * *

**Long story short, this boss was short, which is why I added this little part too. And really, I keep referencing Sonic Adventure with this background, which, despite not liking to reference other back stories, kind of works here...  
**


	14. Chapter 2 Interlude

Back up in the sky in Peach's room, Bowser and Maquano entered the room by having Maquano kick the door with his boot, and they walked over to Peach. From what she noticed, Maquano was a little ticked off from getting another call from his brother, Bob.

"Gwa ha ha ha…hello," Bowser greeted. "How're you feeling, Princess? Nothing makes me happier than a smile from you, Peach."

"Well, tough luck! I'm in a very bad mood, you monster!" she retorted as she turned while while crossing her arms. "You've imprisoned all of the guests from the castle! You are the single greatest disaster to ever befall the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"Actually, I am probably the single greatest disaster to ever befall the Mushroom Kingdom as of right now," Maquano noted. "If it wasn't for my ingenious plan, you wouldn't be here, Peach."

"Some come on! Give me a little smile!" Bowser said in a sweet tone. "Pleeeeeaase?"

"Then I'll tell you what: I'll smile when you make everything as it was before you showed up!" Peach suggested. "That goes for you too, Maquano!"

"Heh heh heh…no. I'm not someone who listens to other people." Maquano grinned as he crossed his arms. "I don't take orders. I GIVE them."

"Gwaa ha ha! Oh, that's rich!" Bowser scoffed. "You know I can't do that! That ungrateful little kid, Chopper, just beat the Koopa Bros. and Tutankoopa! Sure, they were complete wimps, but they were still loyal to me. I can't forgive Chopper for disrespecting me! I'm nipping this in the bud right now. And if you're thinking I'm having Tubba Blubba deal with him, you're wrong. His brother, Invincible Bubba Blubba, who's a GREAT chef, will take care of him! He's a lot smarter and stronger than any creature I know…after me."

"Face it, Princess. Invincible Bubba Blubba will stomp on that boy without any trouble." stated Maquano. "Why? Because _I _helped him become invincible!"

"Lord Maquano! Terrible news!" Camikon cried as he rushed to Maquano.

"What is it now, Camikon? Can't you see I'm a little busy here? Get out of here right now before I use my demon form to burn you again."

"But this is BIG! You need to listen right now!"

"Oh, all right. Fine, spill it out, then…_you crazy old geezer_…" Maquano sighed as Camikon began to whisper something to him.

"_Psst…Psst…Psst…_" Once Maquano heard this, he jumped up a little.

"WHAAAAT? This can't be true! That Star Spirit flew away from Tubba Blubba…er…I mean, Bubba Blubba's castle…!" Maquano looked even more ticked off than before. His communicator went off again and Bob was.

_"Maquano, buddy! Can you let me throw a party at your castle?"_ Bob begged._ "I wanna celebrate getting my back shaved."_

"No… Bob, get out of my castle NOW! And no, you can't throw a party. You're too lazy to clean up the place."

_"Uhh… I think it's a little too late for that. I already have a party being thrown." _This got Maquano enraged.

"_**GRRAAAAAGHHHH! Booooooob!**_ Camikon! Go back to Hell and get rid of everyone in my castle!"

"Certainly, Lord Maquano. I'll be off, then." Camikon left the room, leaving Bowser shocked, but more with the other topic.

"_WHAT?!_ The Star Spirit escaped! …Tell me the details over there." Bowser said.

However, Kammy came in the door.

"Your Nastiness! The C Units have returned with the gem! …But, there might be something you don't like..."

"Really? What is that?"

"They all have different ones..."

"What? Let me see!" Bowser left Peach's room, followed by Maquano and Kammy. With them out of the way for now, Twink came out of hiding.

"Twink, did you hear that?" Peach asked.

"Yes! I sure did!" Twink confirmed. "The Star Spirit must have escaped… Did you hear him call that brother off Tubba Blubba's…Bubba Blubba 'invincible'? That doesn't sound good! Do you think Chopper would win?"

"We'd better try to find out about Bubba Blubba. If we could find something, ANYTHING, about a weak point…it might just save Chopper!"

"Good idea!"

"Then… There's no time to lose. We won't get anything done if we stay in this room." Peach headed over to the picture and moved it aside, pressing the red button to allow them through the fireplace. After going through the tunnel and hitting the other button, they were both back in the room that Maquano caught them in. Luckily, none of the villains were in their sight, so they hurried on over to the door ahead.

"There are still guards outside. Be careful not to get caught." Twink warned.

"Of course, Twink," Peach said as she opened the door. They went into a dark hallway from the upper left, which seemed to resemble her castle from Super Mario 64 a bit (come on, you guys know that it looks similar to it!)". It had the black and white checkered floor and the red rug on the stairs.

There appear to be Koopatrols patrolling with flashlights. They sneaked passed them and headed into the lower left door. Peach and Twink found themselves in some kind of library, and it seemed like there were guards here as well.

"We'd better be extra careful here. There are a lot of guards in here." Twink warned. Peach managed to sneak past a Koopatrol by hiding behind some bookshelves. She made it to a table with a Koopatrol patrolling, and she passed through there.

There seemed to be more corridors up ahead. Peach hid by them to avoid being caught by another Koopatrol, and she found a Power Rush Badge there. After getting past the guard, Peach heard a Hammer Bro and Koopatrol talking about something.

"…Hey… Have you heard about Tubba Blubba's brother, Master Bubba Blubba? He's such a great chef… I mean, he even made some of our meals! I also heard he likes to have ghosts for dinner!" the Hammer Bro recalled.

"Ugh… Ghosts, huh? Master Bubba Blubba… He lives deep inside of **Forever Forest**, doesn't he?" the Koopatrol recalled. "I think he's guarding one of the Star Spirits right now."

"Yeah, Master Bubba Blubba lives in the castle at the top of **Gusty Gulch**. I heard that somewhere near his castle is a mansion and a village full of ghosts. I guess Master Bubba Blubba sometimes goes there to catch Boos. And then, when he catches one, he puts it in a sack and carries it to his castle to cook!"

"Brrrrr… Oh, man, that's so scary… I hope that I wasn't eating a Boo last time he made something for us, despite how good it was. Now I don't feel like I could eat one of his meals ever again… I think I'm gonna have nightmares, I know it! Why'd you tell me?"

"I also heard that Master Bubba Blubba is invincible. They say he can't be hurt. Nobody can even scratch him! He might even be stronger than King Bowser…and even Maquano and Staris…"

"Stronger than those three? Come on! That's impossible! Even Master Bubba Blubba has to have some weak points. It's just common sense!"

"Yeah, you may be right… There's another rumor that Bubba Blubba's got a secret that would ruin him if it ever got out. I think it's about his past. I heard he actually had made some mistakes on cooking and that Bowser got pretty mad at him…"

"_Shhhhhhhh! _What if Bubba Blubba hears you? He might dry us up on a pan or grill! …Still… What do you think his secret could be, anyway?"

"I don't know. No one knows. That's why it's a secret, you half-wit!"

"Twink… It sounds like Bubba Blubba has a weak point, after all." Peach whispered.

"If only we could find out…" Twink whispered.

"…Huh? Hey… Did you hear someone talking just now?" the Hammer Bro asked.

"_**Gasp!**_ Do you think someone knows we're goofing off in here?" the Koopatrol asked.

"Well, then we better get outta here!"

They began to leave, but they saw Peach blocking their way.

"Oh! Whoa! Princess Peach! How'd you get here?"

"I'm sorry to do this, but… You have to go back to your room. Right now." They both picked her up and carried her off.

"Oh! Nooo!" Peach cried. Twink really had no choice but to go after her.

* * *

"No! Here's the real one!"

"My gem is the right one!"

"This is obviously the real one!"

C-2 Choppor found himself in the same room where he fought against his brother, C-1 Mega. He saw three other robots that looked almost similar to C-1 Mega more than him. There was a blue robot, an orange robot, and a purple one. They all have different kind of weapons. Their eyes are a little different than Choppor's. They look more like Mega's, except their eye color matched the color they had on them.

C-2 Choppor walked to them, and he held out the Pulse Stone. Bowser began to look at them, starting with C-5 Nebula. He looked angry.

"Argh! You pieces of scrap metal!" Bowser growled. "I can't believe you guys! None of you got the right now! We must find the Pulse Stone that can detect what lies ahead in the center of the universe! They also have the ability to allow your castle to go up to even space itself!"

However, when Bowser stomped over to C-2 Choppor, he looked down at his gemstone and gaped.

"Huh...? Gwa ha ha ha! Yes! That's the one! I never knew you had this much skill, Choppor!"

As C-2 Choppor handed him the gemstone, he began to remember about that vision he saw while flying in the air of Dry Dry Desert. Did this gemstone have to do something related to what he saw through the vision?

"All of you worthless pieces of junk! Get out of my sight!" Bowser roared as Kammy a green beam down on the three other robots, teleporting them out of the room. C-3 Cosmo took one last look at C-2 Choppor as it began to moan.

"_Help us..._"

After those words, C-3 Cosmo was gone.

"It's time for a new assignment!" Bowser announced as they walked into the hallway Peach walked through previously. "This one's pretty easy! I've heard that the Princess has a little Star Kid, thanks to what Maquano told me. I want you to get that Star Kid out of her hands! It's right by that door to your right! It should be easy. I'll be back soon."

As Bowser left, C-2 Choppor looked at two doors. He saw one to his left, and one to his right. He walked to the one to his left.

"Is this the one?" C-2 Choppor wondered as he opened it and found himself in a machinery room. He notice some parts of C-1 Mega lying on the ground beside him. He looked up at the machinery device and noticed that C-1 Mega actually had more of a different appearance. No longer did he have feet, but now had a hovering device instead that could allow a robot to fly without burning fuel. His arms were now thicker, and resembled hands more than actual guns.

"Mega?"

C-2 Choppor realized there were no Stars around, but he couldn't help but take a look at his brother.

_"What have they done to you?" _he thought as he stepped away.

"…This is the wrong room," C-2 Choppor announced as he left the room. He decided to take the door to his right, where he saw a Koopatrol guarding the door to Peach's room.

"Huh? You want to come in here? Oh, Bowser's orders? Of course!" the Koopatrol moved out of the way, and C-2 Choppor headed on in.

* * *

**Peach's room-**

Peach was just looking sad in her room right now. But, once C-2 Choppor came in, she turned around and looked surprised.

"Are you one of Bowser's robots?" Peach asked. Twink gasped and hid behind some of Peach's dresses.

"Give me the Star Kid," C-2 Choppor demanded as he aimed his arm gun at her, which made her step back. Bowser wouldn't let his own minion aim his weapon at her, right?

"I don't know what you're talking about…"Peach trailed while C-2 Choppor looked at the dresses, with his visor, he was able to scan any lifeforms behind them. He happened to notice Twink behind them.

"Move before I shoot."

"Yeeep! I'm coming out!" Twink shrieked as he flew away from the dresses.

"Oh, dear... Well, no matter what, you're not taking him!" Peach retorted while putting her hands on her hips.

"Resistance is futile: give me the Star Kid," C-2 Choppor demanded as he aimed back at Peach again.

"I won't let you take Twink!"

"Why not?"

"That's not any of your business I'm afraid, little robot. And why would you aim your weapon at a princess? Isn't that rude?"

"Bowser's orders were to take that Star Kid. So, give him to me and no one gets hurt."

"Why do you want Twink, though?"

"Data unavailable."

"You don't even know why you want him?" Peach gawked. "I think that you're going to hurt him. That's something Bowser would probably do... Why can't you help us instead? I mean, my people are in prison."

"Does not compute," C-2 Choppor said as he shook. "Why try to save that which is not much use to you? Does not compute."

"I think something must have happened to you," Twink frowned. "Don't you have any feelings?"

C-2 Choppor looked at Twink. And then he stopped for a moment. When he took a closer look at him, he realized something. He looked like someone he's actually seen before. Something that he remembered seeing when he saw the other C Units being created.

He noticed a Stat Kid being put into them.

"No... I can't hurt him," C-2 Choppor denied, lowering his arm gun. "Please... Keep him safe from harm."

Both Peach and Twink were confused as C-2 Choppor left the room.

"…I wonder what was with him," Twink gawked. "Once he looked at me, he knew something was up."

"I'm not so sure..." Peach trailed. "Maybe we'll find out sooner or later."

* * *

**Dry Dry Desert-**

It was now daytime outside, since it took all night to travel through Dry Dry Ruins. But, worry not. Dry Dry Desert was now safe, and Tutankoopa was defeated. But, where he went in the end, nobody knew. Even without the Pulse Stone, Dry Dry Ruins still remained up somehow.

"Thank you, Chopper. At last I can head home to Star Haven." Mamar thanked. "My name is Mamar. So nice to meet you in person! You've still got a long way to go, but I just know you can save Princess Peach, defeat Bowser and Maquano, and stop Staris from causing destruction! I'll do my best to help you! Here's a present for you." Mamar said, adding a heart at the end of her sentence.

Mamar raised her arms and gave Chopper some of her power. He began to feel similar star power from Eldstar go into him. However, something felt a little different about this ability.

**Chopper's Star Energy goes up to 2! Chopper can now use Lullaby, a new Star Spirit power! With Lullaby, Chopper can now make all enemies fall asleep! **

"Call me when times are bad. Believe in this, Chopper: My powers are strong… I'm a Star Spirit after all! Hm hm hm… Our powers are growing all the time. Keep up the good work, Chopper! You must save the other Star Spirits as soon as possible! For now, I'm going back to recover in Star Haven. Who knows how my dear old Star Haven is faring without the Star Rod? Good-bye, Chopper! I'm off!"

With that, Mamar began to spin and fly off.

"Well, there she goes," Chopper mumbled. "Two Star Spirits saved, and only five more are left. But… What do I do with this Artifact I still have? Hmm…"

Suddenly, Chopper heard his communicator go off. Professor Toadsmeth was contacting him again, so he took it out.

"_I heard you got the second Star Spirit."_ Toadsmeth noted._ "That means you only got five more left to find!" _

"Umm… Professor, I found some kind of Artifact in Dry Dry Ruins. You think you might know anything on it?"

_"What do I look like, an archaeologist? I'm a professor! If you can find an archaeologist, then that's good news! That's really all I have to say, to tell you the truth." _

"All right, then I'll see ya!" Chopper put away his communicator. He had to go to an archaeologist. Hold on, there is this one…

"Didn't I tell you that my uncle would like that?" Koopla asked.

"As a matter of face, you did. Why don't we go pay him a visit? Follow me, guys." he and his three partners followed him back to the beginning of Dry Dry Desert. Kolorado was still there, which was relieving, so Chopper went to him and brought the Artifact out.

"Do my eyes deceive me or is that one of the clues to Dry Dry Ruins? Cheers, Chopper! Smashing, really, old boy!" Kolorado cheered as he took the artifact from Chopper.

"Now with a second clue in my hands, the mysterious Dry Dry Ruins will rise from the sands that conceal them! As a brilliant archaeologist, I say it must be so! I suppose a thank-you gift is in order, eh, old boy? Here you go, then!"

Chopper smiled as he received a Star Piece.

"You now know a bit of the magic of the desert. Cherish the moment, my boy!"

Parakarry then realized that this was Kolorado, so he stepped in. "You're Kolorado, correct? You probably remember me. It's Parakarry, and I deliver your letters. I believe I have one for you. Hang on a moment."

He pulled out a letter and gave it to him. "Here you go, Kolorado. Another letter, duly delivered. A postman's job is never done."

"Oh, good show! It's a letter from my wife. Thank you ever so, old chap. This is just what I needed to give me strength to go on. …I know! I'll pass this along as a spot of thanks. I came across it while I immersed in the dig around here. It looks like what I just gave you, actually."

Kolorado gave Chopper another Star Piece, making him cheer as he put it away. They said goodbye to Kolorado, and they began to head back to the train.

* * *

**Mt. Rugged-**

After ten minutes, they made it back to the area of Mt. Rugged where the train was. They're still on the mountains, but they saw a Stone Block that they previously saw before.

"All right! Now I can hit this Stone Block." Chopper smashed the Stone Block with his Super Hammer, and they followed the path to an Upgrade Block.

"Another Upgrade Block! All right, Bruce. You're up now, since I already upgraded the others with me."

"Yes! I've been WAITING to get an upgrade!" Bruce cheered. He felt the power of the Upgrade Block go within him as he gave a heroic look.

After that, all four of them headed down to the train, and Chopper talked to the conductor.

"Hello, sir. This train is bound for Toad Town Station. Are you coming aboard?"

"Yeah, we're heading back to Toad Town now." Chopper nodded.

The door for the train cart opens, and all four of them get in.

"All aboard for Toad Town!" the train began to head off.

"Thank goodness we're getting out of here! We're finally going to be out of this dry desert place! YESSS!" Koopla sighed

Chopper looked outside the window like he did last time, and he saw the sand going away, and he began to see Toad Town coming up.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

The train stopped at Toad Town Station, and the door opened. All four of them got out of the train cart.

"Now… Where do we go now?" Chopper pondered. "Twink hasn't come to tell us where to go. So… Let's go head back to the main area."

They began to head north, and when they got to the area with the bridge leading to the dark and spooky forest, they suddenly heard a scream.

"**_Aaaaaaaagh!_**" the Toad guard they saw from before was screaming in his little fort he was staying in. Chopper heard the scream from across the bridge and headed there.

He noticed a Boo that seems to be a dark white with white hair, a white mustache, and closed eyes. He also carried a towel around, like a butler.

"What the heck? Was that a ghost just now?" Chopper asked. "Geez... I didn't expect there to be ghosts around here... But, I don't think I saw anything."

"Wait, you saw a ghost before?" Bruce gawked.

"Yeah, it was a ghost girl. Although, I can't help but think she kind of liked me a bit..."

"Uh oh..."

"All right, spill it out," Koopla demanded, walking up to the guard. "What is the MATTER with you? You're really afraid of a GHOST?!"

"Brrrrrrrr… Ye… Yes… Juh… Just now, a ghost passed right in front of me…" the guard stammered. "Uhhh… You saw it, didn't you?"

"Umm… No, I didn't see it." Chopper said with a shake of his head.

"No… You must have!" the same ghost appeared, having his tongue out and making a face at the Toad guard. His face turned pale once he saw him.

"Over there-!" Chopper turned around and saw that the Boo disappeared.

"I didn't see anything…" Chopper trailed. The Boo appeared behind Chopper again, and the Toad screamed.

"No, no, the other way-!" he turned around once again and the Boo was gone.

"You must have some kind of nightmare or something, Toad," Koopla groaned. "I don't see any ghost around here."

The Boo reappeared behind Chopper, but it was simply floating away from him. The Toad kept shaking.

"It went into the forest!"

Chopper turned around, and he rubbed his head.

"Chopper… That's your name, right?"

"Yeah, that's me."

"Well, this madness has to end," the guard declared. "Will you go into the forest and see what's going on? I'm ashamed to say it's my job, but I just can't go. I'm too frightened of ghosts! Puh… Please, I'm begging you. I know you're brave…since you stood up to Bowser and all that. Just, please…"

_"You gotta be kidding_ _me…_" Chopper face palmed. "I'll go look for this 'ghost' of yours. Let's go in the forest, guys."

"Going into Forever Forest? Well… That might be a pain for us. It's pretty tricky." Parakarry sighed.

"Oh, boy. I'm not going to like this. I hate the forest." Bruce groaned.

They headed toward the forest, and Chopper hit the Save Block in their way. Some bushes began to appear, and the sky began to get dark compared to what it was like in Toad Town.

"Wow… It sure is dark around here. I wish I had a flashlight with me or something…" Chopper trailed, looking up at the sky. The planets became a dark green color and a blue and purple.

The same Boo that scared the Toad appeared in front of all four of them. Chopper jumped up a little for surprising him.

"Hey… You're that ghost that Toad saw before, right? What are you supposed to be, anyway?" Chopper asked.

"That's a Boo," Bruce informed. "They're ghosts of the Mushroom Kingdom. They're not really on Bowser's side. They just scare people."

"Pardon me, young sir… Would you happen to be the boy from Clara named Chopper?" the butler asked. "How do you do, young sir?"

"How do I do?" Chopper pondered. "Well… I do just fine, thank you very much. What do you want with me, anyway? Am I supposed to give a speech or eat all of your problems?"

"No, none of that, young sir. My master wishes to see you. If you would please call on us at the mansion on the far side of Forever Forest. My master would also like me to add that she has her possession important news regarding the Star Spirits."

"Oh, really? Your master wants to see me? Huh... That's weird. Nobody usually wants to see me. ...Hold on, did you say that your master's a she?"

"A girl wants Chopper, I bet..." Bruce snickered.

"Bruce, shut up."

"Please make haste! We shall await your arrival with a warm welcome." the butler disappeared.

…But the Boo reappeared making that face with his tongue out at all four of them. Chopper began to shake his arms and legs, Bruce fell over, and Parakarry wanted to hide in his shell. Koopla simply covered her eyes.

"And if you don't come…we'll _GET YOU!_ _BOOO!_"

"**_WHOA!_**" Chopper shrieked as he saw the Boo appear like this. But, the Boo disappeared, and they all became calm.

Chopper began to catch his breath for a moment. He quickly shook his head, and he, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry headed on into Forever Forest. It felt like things were going to get spooky.

* * *

**Man, I think I'm going to like Chapter 3 for some reason. I'm sure there's a reason why A LOT of people like Chapter 3. It will be kind of interesting...**

**I forgot to say this, but for some reason, Koopla kind of reminds me of Kumatora from Mother 3 (If you never heard of Mother 3, then that's OK. It never got released here). I didn't intend to make her like Kumatora. But, it just happened for some reason...**

**Anyway, we start Forever Forest in the next chapter.**


	15. Why is it Forever Forest?

**CHAPTER 3**

**-The "Invincible" Bubba Blubba-**

Once Chopper pushed through a log in their way, they found that the path was like a circle, but with three different paths to take. The grass was light purple, and the bushes ranged from blue, purple, and dark green. They can see a couple of lavender flowers by the paths with red lips (which seemed a little creepy for the four of them). There were some trees around, but more away from the path. All four of them could hear howling wolves in the forest.

"Even if this place looks all dark and spooky, I'll take it over Dry Dry Desert and Mt. Rugged," Koopla declared. "It's not all dry and hot, and it feels a lot cooler than at that desert. Plus, I'm not literally BEGGING for water."

"Is that your reason why you like it here better than Dry Dry Desert?" Chopper gawked. "Come on, that place wasn't so dark. I mean, THIS is something people can get afraid of." he went to the right on the on and saw the first path that was closest to him, over by his right.

Chopper moved the log out of the way, and he headed through that path. But, things didn't work out, since he came back to the entrance of Forever Forest.

"What the… How did I end up back here?!" he gaped. "There's something fishy here. Did the Boo's master do something about this?"

"Well, this place is called Forever Forest," Parakarry noted. "I've been through here before, but I don't exactly remember what to do here."

"I guess they call it Forever Forest because if you keep going the wrong way, you're trapped in this spooky forest forever," Bruce shivered. "And to be honest, I do NOT like being here."

"Let's go to the left for now," Chopper suggested. They went to the left of the path and noticed a Piranha Plant come out of the ground.

"Whoa!" Chopper immediately whacked the Piranha Plant, landing a First Strike. There were actually two of them, making them groan.

Chopper attacked the same Piranha Plant with his hammer, and it was now gone. Bruce, being upgraded, walked towards the last Piranha Plant and used his Body Slam on it, which did 3 damage to it.

The Piranha Plant went into the ground and rose up in front of Chopper to bite him. He guarded it, and it he just took 2 damage. To finish off the Piranha Plant, Chopper attacked it with his hammer, and it was gone. The battle awarded him with 4 Star Points.

They saw a path near them to the left of this circle, and when they looked at the flowers, they seemed to giggle and smile creepily.

"What the… Since when can flowers do something like that? This is really weird…" Chopper shivered.

"I don't like looking at them either..." Bruce quivered.

"Wait, if those flowers are happy, then that means that's the right way," Parakarry realized. "We should go take this path."

"You think so, mailman? If you say so…" Koopla trailed as he looked over at Chopper. "Come on, Chopper. Let's just head on through here."

They all headed through the exit and found themselves in another similar area. There was a guy that named Oaklie that looked like he was covered in leaves, and you could only see yellow eyes from his face.

"Hmm… What do you think you're doing?" Oaklie asked. He jumped down from the branch that it was standing on and landed in front of Chopper.

"This is Forever Forest… The path ahead of here is extremely dangerous. Didn't you know that? You'd better go back. This place isn't for little eight year old boys like you."

"Well, some Boo told me to come to their mansion," Chopper informed. "I don't really have any choice. Plus, he said something about the Star Spirit, so I really SHOULD go…"

"Um-kay. So that's your story. You're invited to **Boo's Mansion**. You may pass, then." Oaklie jumped back onto the branch, looking down at the group with a serious look.

"Listen carefully… I have some very important information to give you in this place."

"Really? Well, why don't you give it to us?" suggested Parakarry.

"We don't mind advice," assured Koopla.

"Very well. If you want to get further through this forest, you have to pay really close attention to your surroundings." Oaklie began. "If you choose the wrong paths, you'll end up back at the forest edge before you know it. The areas around the correct paths will always look slightly different from the others. Watch carefully for clues. For example, in this area, take a good look at the inner trees as you walk around. In one of them, you'll spot strange, glowing eyes. The exit near that tree is the path you want to take. These clues will be different in other parts of the forest. Watch the inner forest very, very carefully as you go."

With that, Oaklie took off.

"Well, he sure gave us some advice right there," Chopper smiled. "So, let's look at the inner trees around here."

Chopper moved the tree branch out of the way, and they all went to the left. After making it to a path with some flowers, they found three green Fuzzies that began to bounce towards them

"Uh oh… All right, let's get to fighting these Fuzzies…"

Chopper whacked the first green Fuzzy with his hammer, and then Koopla used her Power Shell to hit all three of them, which took out the first one. Only two of the Fuzzies were left, and the first one bounced toward Chopper and attached itself onto him to suck away at his HP.

"Gah! Get off of me!"

Chopper used his guard on both of the Fuzzies, and he didn't lose any HP from them, thankfully. He whacked the first one with his Hammer, and it was one. Parakarry came in with his Sky Dive attack, and he took out the last Fuzzy. Chopper sighed in relief once they were one.

"I hate those things… They are by far, the WORST enemy that I had to deal with." Chopper grumbled.

"I hear ya man," agreed Parakarry.

They won the battle, and Chopper got 6 Star Points. After waggling his finger for winning, Bruce saw red eyes from one of the inner trees and screamed.

"Bruce! Get a hold of yourself! What is WRONG with you?!"

"I s-saw…red eyes! So…SCARY!" Bruce shrieked.

"Really? Red eyes? Well, looks like we gotta go through this exit then." Chopper kicked the branch to move it out of the way, and all four of them headed on through. Once they get out of that area, they found themselves in another similar area. At this point, Koopla was getting a little annoyed.

"All right, this is gettin' a little tedious now," she growled. "We've gone through two areas like this. How many ARE THERE!?"

"I have no idea… Hey, it's that guy from earlier!" Chopper saw Oaklie standing in the center of the trees, watching them make their way to him. However, they seemed to hear him repeat his explanation.

"Listen carefully… If you want to get through this forest, you have to pick all the right paths." Oaklie reminded. "If you choose the wrong paths, you'll end up back at the forest edge before you know it. You can find your way as long as you keep your wits about you and study the forest. But remember that the right way is not always in front of you. On occasion, you must remember to look back, as well."

"You didn't have to tell us that again, you know," Chopper sweat dropped.

"But usually it's best for me to remind you of my explanation from before. You don't want to find yourself trapped in here, would you?"

Chopper: -.-*

"Yup, Chopper's ticked," Koopla confirmed.

Chopper simply shrugged, and he and his party members went back on the path again. They noticed by the exit near them that the flowers had some kind of red lips. After inspecting them, they noticed that they were slowly dying.

"Poor flowers..." Bruce trailed.

"Yeah, this is the right way. Let's go, guys." Chopper announced while looking a little freaked out from the flower.. They all headed through the exit, and the next area didn't have any flowers around them.

"This might be confusing. But, we gotta look carefully around here." Parakarry noted. "That weird guy even told us to do that."

Chopper used his Speed Dash to go to the left, and after passing three exits, he noticed a red spooky face on the tree near by the fourth exit. But, it didn't look too scary to him.

"Seriously… Do they really believe they're going to scare me like this?" Chopper questioned. "I've had to deal with an evil DEMON before! He was scarier than all of this! I'm not like those kids who get easily frightened. So, you're not good at scaring me, you hear that, Forever Forest?"

He moved the log out of the way, and they all headed through the exit. They got onto another circular path again, and some Piranha Plants came out of the ground to attack.

Chopper simply whacked them with his Hammer, and Koopla and Bruce attacked as well, since Parakarry can't hit them - unless he used his Shell Shot ability to take them out in one hit.

Parakarry noticed some mushrooms were glowing when they passed by an exit and told the others to come back.

"Glowing mushrooms? Well, there weren't any of those around here. So, I guess this is the right way." Chopper pushed the log, and they headed through the next area.

Once they got into the next area, Chopper looked at the flowers that were around, and they smiled.

...But soon they died.

"OK, that's not the right path, of course. Let's look for ones that don't die at all." he suggested.

Chopper kept using his Speed Dash, and after passing by two paths of dying flowers, they got to one more path with flowers. He poked one of the flowers, and they smiled, but this time they began to giggle.

"What's with these flowers and their giggling?" Bruce asked. "Forests don't always have giggling flowers. But, this is a spooky forest, so it makes sense…"

Chopper pushed the log, and they headed into the next area. To them, this was starting to get a little repetitive.

They got into the next similar area, and Chopper continued to use his Speed Dash to go to the left. After passing by one exit, they noticed a rock with a spooky red face on it. Chopper, of course, pushed the log, and they proceeded on to the next area. There weren't any flowers here. But, they kept going to the left as usual.

But, after going past some exits, they saw on the bushes of a path near them, flowers appearing and giggling.

"I am getting sick of these flowers and their giggling. I wish I could punch them right now. In fact, I'll do that!" Chopper punched the flower, but it disappeared.

"Hey! That's not fair! Oh, screw that. Let's just keep going." Chopper pushed the log and headed to the next area. Over by the left, they happened to notice a sign. Despite believing that they took the wrong way, Chopper checked the sign anyway to see what it had to say.

_If you have business at Boo's Mansion, come this way._

"Well what do ya know? We actually made it!"

"Wh-What? Really? We actually made it through Forever Forest?" Bruce gaped before receiving a nod from Chopper. "Wow… I feel a lot better now."

"Relax, Bruce. It's just a path with a bunch of freaky flowers, trees, and rocks. They're not scary to me! C'mon, let's go!"

"Yeah, this place isn't scary at all," Koopla agreed. "That Boo's master is probably becoming impatient right now for you to arrive, Chopper. So, we better go fast."

"I wonder if she is. Well, that Boo said his master is a she, so it's a girl who's waiting for me." Chopper began to ponder, thinking about who this master could be. Considering that the Boo's master is a girl, he was starting to wonder if the girl he saw back in Toad Town had to do anything with this master. She actually resembled a Boo as well, from what he could remember.

"Hmm… What would she want?" Bruce wondered. "Oh… Maybe she's dying to meet you! Since you're new to this place, maybe she actually wants to get a good look at you! My guess? It might be a date."

"Shut up, Bruce!" Chopper retorted while shoving him away. "I highly doubt that a ghost would even like me, anyway. Sure, I may look cute, but I'm only eight years old! Isn't that a little too young for someone like me to be dating? Kind of… But, we'll see what happens."

"Ten coins the Boo wants to go out with him."

"Wait... You're seriously betting?" Koopla gawked.

"Yeah!"

"Well... I say fifteen!"

"Guys... I don't think that's necessary..." Chopper trailed.

"Yeah, I know!" Parakarry agreed. "It's not necessary because I'm not in it! I'm bettin' twenty coins!"

"Parakarry!"

"H-Hey! Don't blame me! I wanna join in the fun too!"

Chopper: -.-*

Despite in frustration, Chopper pushed the log that appeared to be in their way, and they began to head off to Boo's Mansion. Unfortunately, they didn't happen to notice a yellow puddle following them this whole time.

* * *

**For some reason, everyone seems to like Boo's Mansion for some reason. I actually agree with that. This is why Chapter 3 is one of my favorites in the story, though the last chapter always becomes my favorite for some reason.**

**Hmmmm... So who's betting that it's a date this master is requesting? You guys are free to join in the bet too! *shot*  
**

**Eh, whatever. We get the next party member next chapter, and it'll be interesting for sure!**


	16. A Bow in the Mansion

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry made it out of the tricky forest maze. Thankfully, they didn't have to deal with it anymore. Chopper quickly headed toward the gate while his feet began to move in a figure-8 pattern. The others were trying to keep up with him, due to him being a little too fast for them.

"Wait up, Chopper! You know we can't go as fast as you!" Koopla shouted. Chopper immediately braked at the gate, and he turned around to the others, who were coming his way.

"Sorry about that, Koopla. But, you know me. I like to run around and go as fast as I can." Chopper said as he made a stupid pose. "Besides, that path was a little long, so I wanted to make things faster."

"...Was the pose necessary?" Bruce asked.

"Well, was making a bet necessary?"

"Touche."

Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry made their way over to Chopper, exhausted. Although, Parakarry was the least exhausted because he had his wings to help him travel.

"Ah, we're finally out of the forest!" Parakarry sighed. "That place was definitely not a good place for someone like me to set my foot in. I mean, it's annoying when you have to go through here to deliver mail!"

"You go here to deliver mail?" Koopla gawked.

"Of course. I'm one of the few postmen 'round here. And believe me, I HATE going through the forest! I usually come out with a couple of cuts 'cause of the Piranha Plants! Man, those things are nasty!"

"So, you've probably met these ghosts before, right?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah, I have. They tend to scare people. That's what they live for...although, they're technically dead. I actually wonder if I'll turn into a Boo when I die..."

Meanwhile, Bruce looked up at the mansion right before them. It was mostly a dark gray color, with black windows - probably because Boos liked to be in the dark. The roof on the mansion was a dark blue color.

"Hey, Chopper! Isn't that the mansion the creepy old ghost was telling us about earlier?" Bruce asked.

"Mansion?" Chopper turned around and saw the mansion right by the gate. He also saw a Heart Block and Save Block.

"Oh! There it is! Well, I'm glad we finally made it. Now, let's head on into the mansion." Chopper noticed that the gate opened on its own.

"…Creepy…" he and his friends slowly walked through the opened gate, and when they all passed it, it quickly closed.

"**_Gasp!_**"

"Gasp?" Koopla gawked.

"All right, I admit. This is actually getting a little creepy. I'm NOT feeling so comfortable here…"

The Boo appeared at the front door, looking calm and not trying to scare them all. Chopper felt a little calm when he saw him…but at the same time, a little afraid.

"Welcome, young sir, sirs and madam!" greeted the Boo. "I'm pleased you made it through Forever Forest. My master awaits you in the room highest up in this lovely mansion."

Chopper looked up at the top floor. "Please go to the third floor. There you will hear all the news of the Star Spirits… I'll see you there…"

With that, the Boo disappeared in a flash.

"Get to the third floor? Ha! This should be no problem at all!" Chopper smirked as he began to crack his knuckles.

"We'll just go to the third floor and meet this master," Bruce nodded. "As scary-looking as this plan is, I'm not gonna let it bother me."

Chopper headed to the Heart Block and jumped under it to recover all of his HP and FP. Then, he hit the Save Block to save his game.

All four of them headed into the mansion. When they made it inside, they saw the floor was made out of wood, and was a bit of a grayish color . There were two doors on this floor, a blue rug with a green couch, with one part of the seat dark green. There were stairs that go could possibly lead to the second floor.

There were some small white ghosts that are kind around Chopper's size floating around in the mansion. They resembled that one Boo they saw before, but their faces were definitely different.

"So these are Boos? Hmm… Not bad, I guess. They really expected me to be afraid of them?"

"That's because they're not trying to scare you at the moment," Bruce noted. "They look pretty scary when they DO scare you, though..."

"Oh... Well, that couch over there reminds me of my sofa in my house. I bet the Boos don't mind if I sit on it."

Chopper walked to the couch and decided to get on the darker part of the seat. It ended up acting like a spring, causing him to be launched up to the chandelier on the ceiling. He grabbed the chain hanging from it, and it began to come down, but in a slow way. One of the drawers began to move out of the way, revealing a door. Once Chopper let go, the drawer blocked the door again.

"Well that stinks. Let's check the door over there, then." When Chopper walked to the door and was about to open it, a Boo appeared, trying to scare them. He shook his arms and feet a little at the surprise.

"All right… That was very sudden. Let's forget about that and head on in."

"Heh! And you said you weren't scared of ghosts!" Koopla smirked.

"Shut up! Let's just go, all right?"

Chopper and his friends entered the door, and they saw a wooden X in the center of the ground and a vase that was big enough to stuff even a Koopa inside. Chopper decided to jumped to the vase and check what was inside. Unfortunately, he ended up falling in, but when he got out, he looked different. He looked…8-bit…

"For some reason, I suddenly feel so lightheaded…"

Everyone else: O_O

"What? I got something on my face?"

"No, you…" Parakarry stammered. "Oh, never mind. Don't worry about it, all right? Let's see what else is around the mansion."

"OK!" Chopper left the room, and when the others came out, they saw Chopper turned back to normal.

Everyone else: What the heck?

"What's up with you guys?" Chopper asked with a tilt of his head.

"But... But... I swore that you looked a lot different earlier!" Bruce gawked. "Are you...GOD?!"

"No..."

"No, maybe he's some kind of alien that can change shape!" Parakarry concluded.

"No! I'm none of that! What's up with you guys, anyway?"

"You know... Let's just forget all of that and explore more of this mansion, all right?" Koopla suggested.

They just decided to forget what happened and went up the stairs. The Boos didn't seem to go after them, though. They could see a painting on the wall of a Boo with a mustache, a top hat, and a monocle. It didn't seem to have much of a purpose, but Chopper couldn't help but look at the painting.

"I wish I had a top hat and monocle... I would like to speak like those people who go 'Hmmmm... Yes. Pip pip and all that' and stuff."

"...Who even does that?" Bruce asked.

"Beats me."

They headed into the door all the way to the right. There were two other paintings, with the last one not even having a Boo on it.

"That one doesn't seem to belong..." Parakarry trailed.

Once they made it into the next room, they saw a blue rug, a bunk bed, and three drawers. One appeared to be a light color.

"What a strange room… Let's go check one of those drawers, all right?" Chopper checked the light drawer, and it opened. A bunch of Boos came out and they formed a circle. At the center of the circle, a Boo with a record.

"So you are the one named Chopper? Are you not?" the Boo asked.

"Yeah, that's me. I'm Chopper of Planet Clara." Chopper nodded.

"Well, you have come at last… If you want this record, you must guess who holds it." the Boo disappeared and reappeared in the circle.

"The Lady Bow will be very angry if we let him get to it easily, fellow Boos! Do your best, like we practiced!"

"So her name is Lady Bow?" Bruce pondered.

"Is she some sort of princess or something?" Chopper asked.

"More or less," the Boo confirmed.

The Boos began to circle around, with the Boo holding the record dropped it to one of the Boos. Chopper was looking carefully at which Boo has the record, and once they stopped, the Boo who handed the record stopped.

"Hey, hey, Boos and Boos! Who's got it? Choose, choose!" the Boo cheered.

"Did you pay attention?" Koopla asked.

"It was too hard for me..." Bruce trailed.

"Well that stinks. What about you, Chopper?"

"Hold on... Let me take a look."

Once the Boo in the circle came around to Chopper, he whacked him with his hammer, making the record drop.

"Aha! I knew it!" he smiled as he had his thumbs up.

"Noooo! Boo hoo! You… You guessed right." the Boo cried. "Go on, take this. Oh Boo… Lady Bow's really going to flip out on us…"

The Boos covered their faces when Chopper went into the circle, and they opened their mouths wide and stuck their tongues out while disappearing.

"I don't get why her name is Bow, to be honest..." Chopper trailed.

"Well, maybe because her name has 'Boo' in it?" Parakarry pondered. "Maybe the W has something to do with something she wears. Sorry, friends, but I don't completely remember the description of her..."

"Oh well," Chopper shrugged as he picked up the record and left the room with his friends. They went into the room to the left, and they saw a table, a record player, and a Boo guarding a chest.

Chopper walked to the Boo, and he talked to him. "I am so bored! Boo-ored!"

"Hey! Whose idea was it to let him make puns like that?!"

"Don't even pull a bad pun..." Koopla grumbled. "You remember what happened last time..."

"You mean with the Koopa Bros.? Yeah, I bet that situation for them was pretty shell-shocking!"

"Ugh... That was horrible..." Parakarry face palmed.

"Yeah, it's a bad pun, but I don't like being around here!" the Boo whined. "I know the Lady Bow ordered me to stay here…but for how long?"

"Hmm… I know what might entertain you!" Chopper walked to the record player and took out the record. "How about some music?"

"Some music would be nice."

"Uhhhh... What are you doing?" Koopla asked.

"I'm trying to find a way to get him away from that chest. Just shut up and stay quiet!"

"You sure you know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, watch this!" Chopper turned the record player on as soon as he put in the record, and a familiar song began to play in the room.

"Oh, this is really good!" the Boo said in delight. "Keep playing that song!"

"All right!" Chopper kept the music flowing, and the Boo ended up coming to the record player to dance.

"Aha!" Chopper quickly rushed to the chest, with the record player still playing and opened it, revealing a Weight to be inside. When the Boo turned around, he was shocked to see Chopper holding the Weight up.

"Oh! Noooo…" he cried. "Lady Bow gave me one job…to guard that treasure chest. She is gonna punish me so bad if she finds out about this! Oh…well… I may still be OK. Heh heh heh heh… It's not like you can get anywhere without knowing how to use that Weight."

The Boo made that face as he disappeared.

"All right, I think I know where to use this. Follow me." All four of them headed back downstairs to the couch.

"You seriously think that putting the Weight on the chandelier is going to work?" Koopla gawked. "Well, knock yourself out."

"All right, I will!" Chopper declared as he jumped on the dark spring part and got launched up to the chandelier. Once he grabbed it, it began to come down. With that, he pulled the Weight out and put it on the chandelier, as heavy as it was.

"...I thought he was going to literally knock himself out."

"Really?" Bruce gawked.

"That's what I thought he'd do..."

"There! You see? Things always work for the best! …Sometimes. So, let's head through that door."

"I wonder what will be down there. I've never been to this place, so I won't even know right now." Bruce commented.

They all headed to the door that they could now go in, and they found some stairs going down the upper left. There was also a chest in the center of the room.

"Ooh! Another chest! How lucky can we get?" Chopper cheered as he began to walk to the chest, but Parakarry remembered something.

"Wait! Chopper! Don't open the chest! It's…" Parakarry was too late. Chopper began to open it, and then the chandelier began to come down on him.

"_**AAAGGHHH!**_" Chopper screamed in horror as he saw the chandelier come down. But, it stopped right before it could get Chopper and went back up.

"Whoa… Those Boos sure know how to set up a trap." Koopla gaped. "It's not even a crappy one, and it's not easy to figure out."

"Well, aren't they good at scaring people?" Chopper asked, cocking his head to the side.

"Yeah, they are..." Parakarry nodded. "Next time, be careful, Chopper..."

With a nod, Chopper slowly went down the stairs into the basement. He was being VERY careful, so he wouldn't find more traps lying around, thanks to Parakarry's advice.

"Let's just be very very careful here…" Chopper made it down to the basement and saw the ground had dark yellow tiles. There was also a grandfather clock in the room. To the south is a door. When they headed into the door, they found a small room with two boxes. To the right was another door.

"I don't know why, but these doors look like chocolate for some reason. Wait… Are they actually chocolate?" Bruce walked to the door near them, and he touched it with his head.

"You can't taste the door. You don't have a mouth." Chopper face palmed. "It's probably like every other door in this mansion. So, it's not REALLY chocolate. But, let's see what's through here."

Chopper opened the door, and he, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry headed on through to see what would lie in the next room.

They saw a wooden X, some boxes stacked up and also a big chest in the middle of the room. Once he saw that chest, Chopper knew something GOOD would be in there. Also, the walls were made of brick, and there were some candles that had blue flames instead of red. There didn't appear to be any traps around except for maybe that wooden X on the ground. But, they just couldn't touch that. That's all.

"I wonder what's in that chest," wondered Parakarry. "Go ahead and open it, Chopper. If it's anything evil, we got your back."

"All right. I guess I'll go check." Chopper shrugged as he walked to the big chest and began to slowly open it. Shockingly, a bunch of Boos came out. One seemed to be holding green shoes. They went in a circle, around the wooden X, and the Boo with the shoes appeared in the center of the circle, holding up the shoes.

"Hey, those look like shoes that I could use! …But they look exactly like mine. That's kind of weird."

"Chooooper… Welcooooome…" the Boo welcomed. "If you want these shoes, you must guess who holds them. The Lady Bow will be very angry if we let him get them too easily, fellow Boos! Do your best, like we practiced."

The Boo tossed the shoes to another Boo in the circle. When they were going around, that Boo tossed the shoes to another. After some more tossing, they all went close into the circle and then spread out.

"Hey, hey, Boos and Boos! Who's got 'em? Choose, choose!"

"Uh huh… All right…" Chopper noticed which Boo had the shoes. So, once the right Boo got close enough, he hit it with his hammer once he came around. That Boo dropped the shoes, and Chopper held them up heroically while some of his party members groaned.

**You got the Super Shoes! The attack power of Chopper's Jump increases! His speed increases, and so does his Speed Dash! Chopper can now do the Spin Jump by pressing (A) again while in the air!**

The Super Shoes automatically went on Chopper, and he felt like he could move faster with his normal running and his Speed Dash.

"This feels GREAT! I think traveling around should be a piece of cake with these on my feet!"

"Noooo! Boo hoo!" the Boo cried. "You… You guessed right. Go on, keep them. Oh Boo… Lady Bow's really going to flip out on us…"

The Boos covered their faces, and then they made the face with their tongue sticking out, disappearing from their sights. A Boo to the far upper left corner appeared. Chopper simply went to him while moving a lot faster than he did as he spoke with the Boo.

"There's a hidden floor panel very near here. A Star Piece is underneath the floor panel. Press (A) while jumping. Boo-st of luck! Can you find it?"

"'Boo-st of luck'? What kind of…oh, never mind." Chopper walked a little further from the Boo, and he jumped up, and he came down with a ground pound, and a Star Piece flew out of the floor panel.

Chopper took the Star Piece, and he put it away. He went to the X and he began to think. "Maybe I should use that Spin Jump here…"

He jumped up and he used his Spin Jump again on the wooden X. He came down through the hole, since he broke it.

"Whoa, that's some pretty awesome stuff there. Let's follow him down there, all right?" Koopla suggested.

Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry jumped down the hole, and they all landed deeper in the basement. They could see a big chair, some books, a drawer, and also a blue ! switch to the left. Oh, and there was also a shop a Boo was floating next to.

"Hmmm? What's this?" Chopper rushed toward the blue ! switch, and he jumped on it. Another switch came down to the right, so he jumped on that.

A huge blue ! switch appeared afterward, and it seemed to be by some white box. Luckily, the chair is high enough for Chopper to jump on, so he used that to get onto the box.

Chopper jumped onto the big blue ! switch, and he used his Spin Jump on it. Some stairs were made to go higher up into the basement.

"All right, before we go up there, maybe it's best to go buy some stuff at the shop just to be safe." Chopper suggested.

"Let's hope the Boos let us buy some stuff," Bruce noted.

Chopper walked to the Boo by the shop, and he began to talk to him. He was hoping to buy stuff, but he didn't get a good response.

"Lady Bow told me not to sell any items to Chopper. You're him." the Boo stated

"What! You don't want my money? I mean, come on! I got money, and you'd want it!" he grumbled.

"Rules are rules. If Lady Bow told me not to sell you anything, then I can't. I follow her rules. So, you can't buy anything."

"I should go speak to this Bow about this… I mean, I know she probably wants to see me, but she doesn't want me BUYING anything?"

"Let's just forget about it, Chopper," Koopla suggested. "We just need to get to the third floor and find Bow."

"Yeah, you're right. Let's just move on." Chopper and the others went up the stairs and headed to the door north, bringing back in the room that had the stairs going to the first floor. Bruce sensed something that needed to be blown up.

"Chopper, throw me at the wall over there," Bruce suggested. Chopper shrugged, and he threw him over to the wall, making a hole after the explosion.

"Wow, I never knew you could find hidden walls that need to be blown up," Chopper gaped. "That's pretty interesting!"

"Let's just go up the stairs for now. We'll come back here later." Koopla suggested.

* * *

**First floor-**

They headed back up to the main room on the first floor, with Chopper remembering seeing a wooden X in the room to the right, so they headed into that room and saw the wooden X. Chopper used his Spin Jump on it, and he headed down through the hole. The others followed him down.

Chopper landed on one of the shelves in a big library. They could see a book shelf with a portrait of a Boo. But, there was a gap between the shelves.

"Well, looks like I'm going to have to help you over there, Chopper," Parakarry stated. He only took Chopper there and grabbed the portrait.

Chopper jumped down onto the carpet, and the others did the same thing. "I remember there being an empty portrait on the second floor. You guys remember?"

"Yeah, I think so, Parakarry..." Bruce recalled.

"I think I saw one. You know, with the monocle?" Koopla nodded.

"I think we ought to go back there. This might come in handy." Parakarry pondered.

"Good idea, Parakarry. Let's go take a look on the second floor." Chopper agreed as all four of them began to head up to the second floor of the mansion.

* * *

**Second floor-**

All the way to the right, they noticed an empty portrait next to one of the portraits they saw previously.

"I guess this portrait goes in here," Chopper took it out and placed it on the empty picture. It then came to life

"Holy… The picture's ALIVE?!"

_"Phew… Ah, that feels better!"_ the portrait yawned._ "It's nice to be back inside my frame after so long! But I didn't even tell you to go find the drawing! You solved the riddle on your own! Are you just lucky or what? Mweh heh heh…"_

"...The picture's talking," Koopla said with a confused look. "What the hell..."

"I-I guess we're k-kinda l-lucky..." Bruce trailed, turning a bit white.

_"Maybe it's just a coincidence… In any case, you've managed to stumble on the secret way to the upper floor. Jump toward the drawing and I'll take care of the rest. You've earned your way up to the third floor."_

"Umm… All right. That's kind of weird." Chopper shrugged as he jumped into the painting, bringing him up to the third floor. The others followed him through the painting, and they got to the third floor as well.

_"Say hello to Bow for me."_

"Probably won't hurt to tell her."

They could see two doors up ahead. The doors would end up going into the same room, so there was no point in taking the farthest one. Chopper opened the door that was closest to him, and he and his friends headed on in.

* * *

**Third floor room-**

As they entered the room, they noticed the blue carpet and the small staircase near them.

_"Man, when I find Bow, I'm gonna tell her what is up with this!"_ Chopper thought, looking irritated._ "I mean, she has traps set up, and we don't get to buy anything!"_

"**_Gwah hee haha!_ **You've finally arrived! You took your sweet time, huh?" the voice caused Chopper to jump up in surprise, and it also turned Bruce white as a ghost again.

"Why did you do all of this? I mean, I HAD to take my sweet time because of those traps." Chopper growled. "Look, I think there's been enough scaring for now. I mean, look at Bruce!"

Chopper pointed over at Bruce, who began to shiver in fear.

"Ch-Chopper... I wanna go home now..." he stammered.

"Well it's too late for that," Koopla shrugged. "We're already here."

"You don't need to worry," the voice assured. "I was just testing you to see if you were indeed the one to help us with our problem. How were the tests? Tough?"

"Tough? You call that a TEST?! I literally mopped the floor with those tests!" Chopper declared, closing his eyes and giving a smug look. "The traps were dumb, but the test was PATHETIC!"

By the stairs, the same old Boo from before appeared. But, a light green Boo with red bows on the side of her head appeared as well. Unlike before, she wasn't wearing any eye shadow. Perhaps because she wanted to change her appearance a bit?

"My name is Bow. I'm glad to finally meet you, Chopper." she greeted in a sweet tone.

"I'm Bootler, the butler. I'm Lady Bow's humble servant." Bootler welcomed.

At this point, Bruce stopped shivering and was nearly drooling as his invisible mouth dropped to the floor. Parakarry reacted the same exact way, but wasn't drooling as much as Bruce.

"Holy guacamole!" Bruce gasped. "That chick...is _**HOT**_!"

"No kidding!" Parakarry agreed. "I know I met this girl before, but she seems a lot hotter than she usually does! Maybe because she decided to change her looks?"

"You gotta be kidding me, right?" Koopla groaned as she face palmed. "Right when you guys were nearly scared, you're suddenly attracted to this girl, who's a ghost?"

"But... Look at her!" Bruce whined. "She's so hot!"

"Can't disagree..." Parakarry sighed.

Chopper turned around and opened his eyes. He noticed Bruce and Parakarry were literally love-struck at the moment. Bruce looked like he was going to explode in a way that Bob-ombs were attracted to someone. Even their eyes transformed into hearts.

"Hey, what's with them?" Chopper asked.

"Why don't you look behind you, then…" Koopla suggested in an annoyed tone.

Chopper turned around and saw Bow flying over to him. "Hey... I recognize you from Toad Town! You're that pretty ghost, aren't you?"

"Why, yes. That is me." Bow responded, blushing to his compliment while fanning herself. She seemed to be ignoring the others and keeping her eyes on Chopper.

"Doesn't look like you guys are going to have a chance in getting her attention," Koopla noted. "She seems to be paying more attention to Chopper."

"So?"

"Bruce, just shut up."

"Well, anyway, you wanted to see me, right?" Chopper asked. "…And if you listen to what Bruce says why you wanted me to come here, ignore it."

"I noticed that you looked a lot different than everyone else in this world," Bow explained. "After we had a little conversation back in Toad Town, I felt that I wanted to get to know you a little more. You're very unique in this world, which is something that interests me."

"Wait, so all this time, you made us go through the forest so you could get to know me better? ! That's not funny at all!" Chopper's fit stopped for a moment as he looked back at her. "Wait, is it because of my shape?"

"Most likely," she giggled. "Your shape does remind me a bit of a Boo."

"...Yeah, that makes sense a bit. I mean, I guess my shape's similar to a Boo's..."

"She's pretty cute for a Boo," Bruce commented as he suddenly began to float off the ground. "MARRY ME!"

"OK, that's it. I'm done listening to you guys." Koopla grabbed Bruce and kicked him, sending him rolling out of the room. When she looked over at Parakarry, she simply threw him out of the room too. Koopla blocked the door as the two tried to bust through.

"What the heck are you doing?" Chopper asked.

"What does it look like, kid? These two are getting irritatin'. I'm keeping 'em out of here."

"Don't worry about that, I usually get that a lot," Bow assured as she fanned herself again. "I tend to get that reaction from many Boos, being the only female."

"Wow... That must suck." Chopper frowned.

"Yeah, it's a shame not having another female Boo to talk to..." she sighed. "Oh, well... But, it's nice talking to some outsiders for once."

Chopper was about to respond until Bow pinched his cheek. "Your cheeks are too much for me to not pinch! But, I guess that happens when you meet a cute outsider."

"Bow... Are you trying to flirt with him?" Koopla gawked. "I mean, he's only eight years old..."

"True... But, as a Boo, we don't really have much of an age. In fact, I used to look a little different from before. Some of the Boos even gave me a suggestion that I should change my appearance a bit to make my beauty much better!"

"Wait... You were flirting with me?!" Chopper gawked.

"Just watch how I change," Bow closed her eyes and covered her face. After a tiny spark, she revealed herself again, but her face had a light pink shade to her green. Her eyes were nearly glittering and her smile looked nearly adorable. Not even Chopper could resist.

"Holy… That's… I feel like I can't even talk." Chopper stammered before trying to cover his face. "...No! Don't fall for something like that!"

"Ahem, my lady?" Bootler interrupted. "Don't we have something more important to discuss?"

"Ah, yes..." Bow went back to her previous appearance and flew back over to Bootler. "Anyway, let's get to the serious stuff here. The REAL reason why I asked you here is that I need a favor."

"Real reason? So there was more to this..." Chopper trailed.

"Bootler, give him the rundown," Bow ordered, her tone now changing back to a serious one.

"Of course, my lady," Bootler nodded. "Chopper, do you know the area near here called Gusty Gulch?"

"No, not really. Never heard of Gusty Gulch." Chopper replied. "Do you, Koopla?"

"Heck no," Koopla responded, getting a little tired from keeping the door closed. "Crud... I don't know how long I can hold this..."

"Relax, it won't be long," Bow assured.

"I won't bother explaining Gusty Gulch," Bootler stated. "Lady Bow does want to make this quick... Anyway, a hill rises at the top of the gulch, and upon it sits the castle of Tubba Blubba. But, recently, his brother, Bubba Blubba, a really good chef, has taken over the castle."

"Bubba Blubba? What a dumb name..." Chopper trailed. "He must be fat."

"That Bubba Blubba is a monster…and he eats…_us! Ghosts! _He takes them and puts them in a sack...and then he takes them to his kitchen in his castle to cook them! Boos are his favorite food. Many friends have been cooked and eaten!"

"Wow… This Bubba Blubba guy eats ghosts? Wow… He is someone not to mess with… That's bad."

"We've tried attacking the evil fiend to save our friends, but Bubba Blubba is far too strong for us Boos to slow him down even slightly. He seems invincible. That's why he's known as the Invincible Bubba Blubba."

"He's invincible? Wow… That's not good." Koopla groaned.

"But, there is some hope. If the rumors are true, then Bubba Blubba has a secret that he closely guards. And that secret is…probably something that relates to his weak point."

"So, Chopper, I want you to find out his secret and defeat him. You'll do it, won't you? For me?" Bow asked in her sweet tone.

"Well… Let me see…" Chopper pondered. "Wait... For you?"

"Of course, Chopper. You would do something for a sweet, pretty girl such as myself, right?"

"Oh, this stuff..." Koopla groaned while rolling her eyes.

"And did I mention you'll get two rewards for helping us out? If you beat Bubba Blubba up, I'll let you have this."

A cage came down, and it revealed the third Star Spirit, Skolar.

Bruce and Parakarry were able to get back in, knocking Koopla in the process. Before they could drool over Bow again, they saw the Star Spirit, Skolar, trapped in the cage. All that could be seen of him was his spirit form.

"What the… Did that hot Boo take the Star Spirit?" Bruce gaped. "Wow. Only a cute ghost girl could do that."

"Ugh... Your compliments to her are getting annoyin'." Koopla face palmed.

"Yeah, I know, right?" Parakarry agreed, changing Koopla's expression. "A girl who has the hots really has the guts to capture a Star Spirit."

Koopla face palmed yet again.

"Why do you have a Star Spirit? This is…complete madness!" Chopper gaped.

"I agree with Chopper. Why do you have a Star Spirit?" Koopla asked.

_"Mmmmm… Chopper. I'm sorry we must meet in such a dire situation."_ apologized Skolar._ "My name is Skolar. I escaped from Bubba Blubba's Castle, but… I was in quite a weakened state when I made it outside. As a result, I couldn't go back to the sky at first. I tried to head for Shooting Star Summit to make the leap to Star Haven, but I became lost in the forest. While hunting for a way out, I was captured by Boos. And now here I am… I don't know what to say…" _

"What? I can't believe you even caught the Star Spirit rather than help it get to Star Haven!" Chopper frowned as the cage went back in the ceiling. "What were you thinking?!"

"Relax, Chopper," Bow assured. "There's a good reason why we did it. But, what do you think about this? Not such a bad deal, is it? You would have had to fight Bubba Blubba to save this Star Spirit anyway, right? This way, you'll help us Boos, too."

"Well… Yeah, that's true. At least the Star Spirit isn't hurt or anything. So, at least he's considered SAFE. ...Wait, there's another reward too? What is it?"

Bow then floated close to Chopper with a flirty look. "You get to be my boyfriend."

"WHAT?!" Bruce gaped.

"Are you serious?!" Parakarry gawked.

"Wait... What?!" Koopla stammered. "Who would be interested in that kid?!"

"Ack! NO!" Chopper shrieked as he backed away from her, his face turning a shade of red. "I just met you! Why are you interested in being my girlfriend after speaking for about three minutes?!"

"What? Is there something wrong with me?" Bow asked. "Do you not want to be my boyfriend?"

He noticed that she looked a bit sad. As much as he didn't want to have a girlfriend, he didn't like to make girls upset.

"Ummmmm... Never mind that."

"Hmmmmmm... Well, all right." she smiled as she pinched his cheek. "And besides, I'm going with you. I'll help you like no one else could!"

"She's coming with us? Good god… This is going to be so awesome…" Bruce smiled as he drooled.

"This is going to be great..." Parakarry agreed.

"Oh, brother… You guys are being pretty weird now. She already said that she was interested in Chopper." Koopla face palmed.

"But... But... I don't like being in a relationship..." Chopper frowned. _"Why did I have to come here?"_

"…My lady? What did you say just now?!" Bootler gasped. "You? At Bubba Blubba's Castle? Quite out of the question! I simply cannot allow you to put yourself in such danger!"

"Hey, butler guy!" Chopper called out. "She said she wanted to come…_though I can seriously handle this myself_...but why are you being so overprotective? What is she? A princess or something?"

"Well, she is, actually. I just cannot simply have her go out. She might be a victim of Bubba Blubba's."

"Still your tongue, Bootler!" Bow snapped. "I've seen too much suffering caused by Bubba Blubba! I wish to see him punished with my own two eyes. Besides, Chopper will need me. There's no way he can reach the castle without my powers!"

"Oh…alas… Then, Lady, I, Bootler, will accompany you. It is my sworn duty to see that no harm befalls you. The ancestors demand it! I will be at your side always."

"Oh, sweet! Two partners at the price of one!" Chopper smiled.

"Bootler, enough of this!" Bow yelled, revealing her sharp teeth. "I'm mature enough to handle things on my own! I'll be fine by myself! You wait here for my return."

"La… Lady…" Bootler sighed in shame. Bow simply floated back to Chopper, and was beside him.

"Is this all right, Chopper? I'll join up with you until we oust Bubba Blubba… Although... That my sadden me a bit, considering that you are my type."

"Told ya," Koopla said, looking back at Bruce and Parakarry.

"All right, you can join us, Bow. You'll probably be helpful for us, anyway." Chopper nodded. "But PLEASE don't flirt with me..."

**Bow joined the party - like it or not! Press (v) to have her make you both become transparent so no one will notice you! While you're transparent, objects go right through you. But if you move or press (v), you won't be transparent anymore. You'll return to normal. While in battle, she can slap enemies silly with her Smack attack or use Outta Sight to make you both become transparent so you can elude enemy attacks.**

Bow fanned herself with her pink fan and laughed. "OK, then! Bubba Blubba's going down! **_Gwaah ha haaa!_**"

"All right, let's leave this creepy mansion, then," Chopper suggested.

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and their new party member, Bow, began to leave the mansion, with Bruce and Parakarry still drooling over her, while Bow was simply floating by Chopper. Bootler simply had his head hung low.

"Oh, Bow… I just wished that I could've come with you. Stay safe from harm, though…" Bootler sighed.


	17. When Chefs Attack

The front door of Boo's Mansion opened up, and Chopper came running out, with Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and their new partner Bow, following him. They're still in the spooky forest. However, Bruce didn't feel afraid, because he was still eying on Bow. All of his thoughts on how scary the forest was was out of his head. The only thing that mattered to him was Bow.

"All right, which way do we need to go?" Chopper asked. "If we're going to Gusty Gulch, which way would be the right way?"

"We have to go northeast. It's over there." Bow pointed to the northeast path. "Let's go, Chopper."

All five of them headed toward that path and up ahead, they could see a gate, and across that gate was yellow sand, causing Koopla's expression to change to a very angry one.

"Don't tell me we gotta go through a desert AGAIN…" Koopla grumbled.

"I take it you don't like the desert?" Bow asked.

"Of course I hate 'em! They're too dry!"

"We've...been through a desert before," Chopper noted. "Honestly, it wasn't pretty."

Once Chopper walked to the gate, Bow floated beside him, saying, "Go ahead, open it."

Chopper was about to open it, but it was a little too late for him to do that. Two Boos appeared at the gate and opened it for them. Suddenly, the sky changed from a dark color to a yellow color once they crossed the border. The two Boos disappeared afterward.

"Well I guess we're not going to be seeing no desert for quite a long time," Koopla groaned. Meanwhile, Bow turned her attention over to Chopper.

"So, Chopper, we're on our way. Are you scared?" Bow asked.

"Me? Afraid of a place like this? Pbbbbbbtthh! Seriously, it's a desert!" Chopper assured. "There's nothing scary about a desert."

"Well, if you change your mind, I'm always here for you, cutie," she said in a sweet tone. Chopper nearly groaned at her response, but noticed that Bruce and Parakarry were still drooling over her, getting him a little annoyed. He walked over to them and slightly smacked their faces, making them stop and rub their face from the light smack.

"OW! Why did you do that, Chopper!?" Bruce screeched

"That was kind of cruel of you to do such a thing!" Parakarry cried.

"I did that because you wouldn't stop drooling over Bow," Chopper groaned. "I think you're going overboard with that. So, just stop with that already, all right?"

"Jealous, much?" Bruce winked.

"NO."

"It's OK, Chopper," Bow assured, fanning herself. "My beauty is quite charming to many people. It's natural for them to act like this. I just tend to ignore it often."

"Ugh... Whatever." Chopper stopped to face palm for a moment. _"Now I'm starting to not like this adventure anymore... If I'm gonna have to be around a girl that wants to date me, then it's going to literally tear me apart!_"

"Hey, wait... Since all of us won the bet... How do we get the money?" Koopla wondered. "I just realized that by now."

"You were betting?" Bow gawked.

"Yeah. We bet on whether you were going to ask Chopper out or not. And, apparently, you did."

"Actually, I never said I wanted to go out on a date. I simply said that he can be my boyfriend for helping me. So, in truth, nobody won the award."

"Dang."

"It doesn't matter anymore," Bruce drooled. "When we have this hottie around, nothing in the world matters!"

"Someone get me a desk, please..." Chopper moaned. "I wish I had a desk so I could headdesk."

"What about the sand?" Parakarry asked, despite being distracted by Bow.

"Meh, let's just move on," Chopper shrugged as he used his Speed Dash to hurry on to the next area of Gusty Gulch. Bow quickly followed him, and so did the rest of his friends. They saw a big windmill in the next area and also some dark green Goombas with purple feet.

"Whoa… These are some funny looking Goombas here. What are they supposed to be? Forest kind or something?" Chopper asked.

"They're Hyper Goombas," Parakarry informed. "And they're pretty dangerous, if you ask me."

"Oh, that's not good. I'll attack the Hyper Paragoomba." Chopper said as he landed a First Strike on it and did 2 damage.

Chopper tested out his Jump attack, and once he came back up from the first jump, he did a Spin Jump on the Hyper Paragoomba. This seemed a lot more effective than his normal jump.

"All right, Bow. Let's see what you can do." he ordered, pointing to the Hyper Goomba.

"All right. I'll show you how I can do in battle, just for you." Bow pinched Chopper's cheeks, and then she disappeared and reappeared by the Hyper Goomba.

"Wow, I never really seen anyone pinch your cheeks at all," Koopla blinked. "I dunno… It's weird that she would like you when we only met five minutes ago.

"I know! It almost feels like the whole love at first sight thing! It's so clichéd that it's not funny!" Chopper saw that Bow used her Smack attack on the Hyper Goomba to attack it four times, which took out the Hyper Goomba.

"Oh, wow… Her attack is a lot stronger than ours." Koopla gawked, seeing how much damage Bow did. She did 4 damage to that Hyper Goomba. They got 3 Star Points from the battle.

Chopper flipped, and he had his hands up, and Bow simply laughed with her fan out.

"I don't know why, but I sure wish I got smacked by her..." Bruce sighed as his eyes turned into hearts again.

"...You're starting to be really creepy," Chopper noted as he slowly backed away from Bruce.

"Man… She's so beautiful. Why didn't I ever get my chance to be with her seven months ago?" Parakarry asked himself as he continued swooning.

"Isn't that getting a little old now?" Koopla groaned. "I mean, this WHOLE time, you've been following Bow the whole time. And how long was that? For about five minutes! Stop it already!"

"Bow, you got a Bob-omb and a mailman following you, you know," Chopper noted as Bow turned around. At this point, she was getting a bit irritated with them too.

"No worries. I know how to handle this." Bow assured as she took out her fan and smacked both of them, leaving them dazed. Parakarry rubbed his face in pain while Bruce actually liked it.

"YEAH! C'mon! Smack me again!"

"Why do you like getting smacked?" Koopla asked.

"Well, I don't like being smacked, but from a cute girl like Bow, I like it!"

"If you keep doing that, we're going to kick you out of this group," Chopper warned, leaving Bruce silent. "All right. I guess he's gonna stop."

"Well, now that that's over with, let's move on, shall we Chopper?" Bow suggested as she grabbed Chopper's hand, and dragged him on ahead. "I can't wait to show you to everyone else! They might find it rather cute seeing two green people together!"

"Oh, man... Why did I agree to team up with you...?"

"Let's go, guys," Koopla suggested. "Stop acting weird and let's follow them. I think it's better that we don't keep them out of our sights."

"I wouldn't want to keep her out of my sights," Bruce swooned. "Someone as pretty as her deserves respect!"

"And I thought you weren't going to do that?"

"But she's hot! Not my fault I'm attracted to her! But nooooo! The pretty girl had to be interested in Chopper instead!"

"Because he's not acting like a total idiot at the moment around her. Anyway, let's just follow them."

Bruce and Parakarry followed Koopla through the area of Gusty Gulch, passing by the big windmill that seemed a little suspicious.

In the next area, there appeared to be some small, poor village. Chopper and Bow were already there, with Bow apparently talking to him about how annoying Bootler was and their future.

"Honestly! Bootler always has to bother me all the time, as if I'm like a toddler!" Bow grumbled as she put her hands on her "hips". "And I'm betting that he's going to try to get in the way between us."

"Bow... I DID say that I'm not interested in a relationship." Chopper groaned.

"It's all right, cutie," she sighed as she hugged him, making his eyes widen. "You can always come to me if you have any problems. You know, you can always kiss me too. Brave people who try to fight back against evil have the right to kiss me."

"Gross! I don't wanna kiss you!"

"You can kiss me, Bow," Bruce swooned as he overheard the conversation.

"I don't think so," Bow chuckled. "You may look cute, but what I see from your actions, you just seem so obsessed. Chopper, on the other hand, merely risked his life to fight off Bowser before. He may not have won, but seeing something like that is something I like. I would've helped him, but that Toad got to him instead. I at least would treat an outsider with some respect unlike others. However, I don't know if Chopper is really 'the one' for me yet. However, I'll still stay close to him, but maybe what he does for us might prove that he really is for me."

"So, you're interested in him because of what he did?" Koopla gawked.

"Well..."

"Oh! Lady Bow! What a surprise, seeing you!" a tan Boo interrupted Bow as it flew over to her. "You know, Your Ladyship, you really shouldn't come around here. It's dangerous. Bubba Blubba could come here at any time!"

"Ugh... I was in the middle of a conversation..." Bow groaned as she turned to the Boo.

"Why are you guys so overprotective of her anyway?" Chopper asked. "It's almost like you guys love her or something!"

"Wh-What!? You can't talk to us thinking that we love Lady Bow!" the Boo snapped. "How DARE you say something like that!"

"I was only asking if you Boos did. It's not a real big problem…"

"It's OK. I know I shouldn't be here!" Bow assured. "Chopper and I…and also his friends, came here to teach that Bubba Blubba a lesson. Bring him on! When was the last time he came through here?"

"Why, just yesterday, Lady. It was horrible… He…ugh… This morning, he…took and ate Herbert for breakfast. Oh, it was so terrible! Poor Herbert! He was eaten by Tubba Blubba in the past, and now he's already captured again by his brother!"

"Oh, geez..." Koopla gawked.

"NOOOOOOO! ANYONE BUT HIM!" Chopper cried.

"Oh no! Not Herbert!" Bow gasped. "Ooh, Bubba Blubba… He must be stopped…"

"Who's Herbert?" Chopper asked, despite making a big reaction. Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry simply responded with a shrug.

"Listen, everyone! Don't fear!" assured Bow. "We're on our way to defeat this Bubba Blubba once and for all! That monster has cooked his last Boo-meal!"

"Oh! Lady! Your bravery is inspiring! But you know he's called the Invincible Bubba Blubba… Please be careful, OK?"

"Don't worry. We'll be fine. I've seen this cute boy walking around Toad Town all on his own and trying to take on Bowser. From what I saw, he can hold his own in a fight."

"And you didn't help me at all?!" Chopper asked.

"I would have, but when I saw that Star Rod, I knew that I would be too late. But, I felt kind of bad for poor, cute you," Bow giggled as she pinched Chopper's cheeks. "I'm actually hoping you are 'the one' for me, honestly."

"I sure hope I'm not..."

"Umm… Bow actually likes someone from a different planet? Weeeeird…" the Boo said to himself, his eye twitching.

Chopper walked around the village, seeing the houses were REALLY small. They even looked like huts for some reason. Chopper hit the Save Block, and then all five of them headed to the next area. There appeared to be a Heart Block in the next part of Boo Village, so he hit that to recover all his HP and FP.

He noticed that there were some bigger huts in this area. When Bow dragged Chopper further through the town, one of the Boos flew over to them, not paying attention to their hands.

"Hello there! You're going up to beat up Bubba Blubba, right?" After Chopper gave a nod, he grinned. "Yeah! Get revenge! He'll never cook another ghost! Never! Especially not…"

His words were interrupted when they heard some stomping getting louder each second.

"Umm… What was that?" Chopper asked, a little nervous from that stomping. Two Boos in the area disappeared in fear of the stomping.

"Oh… Oh no! Bubba Blubba's coming! Everybody, hide! Lady Bow! You have to hide this boy and his friends!"

"Hide? How is that possible?" Chopper asked, rubbing his head.

"No time to answer questions! Chopper!" Bow shouted. "We have to hide! Let me use my power so you, me…and also your friends, can hide!"

Bow immediately grabbed Chopper, and she made both of them turn invisible. Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry became invisible as well as they got close as well.

"Whoa… This is pretty cool." Chopper gaped. "Being invisible? I've never done this in my life!"

"Shhhh! We must keep quiet." Bow shushed him by covering his mouth before he could say anything else.

"**_It's lunchtime for Bubba Blubba!_**"

_"That's a loud voice..." _Chopper thought.

A red monster that looked like Tubba Blubba appeared. But, he looked a little different, since he had a white chef's hat, a spatula, and a white apron that said "Kiss the Cook". He had orange thick lips and orange hair. His eyes were black, and his pupils were purple. He also had a purple spiky shell on his back and was holding a sack.

"Everything's cool, Lady! He can't see you! Nope, there's no way Bubba Blubba can see you right now!" the Boo turned around and shrieked at the sight of Bubba Blubba.

"Er…" the Boo froze before Bubba Blubba could grab him, who shrieked, "EEEEEK! Let me go! Please!"

Bubba Blubba grinned at the Boo, with his purple eyes intimidating the Boo.

"Well, now. Looks like I found today's lunch! You're comin' with me to the kitchen!" Bubba Blubba licked his lips as he put the Boo in a sack. "Ah, yes. Today's lunch shall soon be served…to me! Why didn't my younger brother ever think of cooking Boos before eating them? They're not as tasty when they're not cooked. Oh well. Better go head back to my castle."

Bubba Blubba walked away and went back to his castle. The Boos reappeared, and they began to mourn the loss of their friend.

"Oh! Stanley! Oh, the horror of it all…" a Boo cried. Chopper and the others became visible, knowing that they had to go after this monster.

"Let's not waste any time. We need to stop that monster." Bow declared, trying to grab a hold of Chopper's hand.

"Uhhhh... I think I'm better off moving myself, thank you very much." Chopper assured as he ran on ahead. Bow frowned as she put her hands on her hips.

"I expected him to be more like a gentleman and take my hand to the castle..."

"Trust me, he's not a gentleman," Koopla noted. "You know that he doesn't want a girlfriend."

"Hmph... Well, I'm surely not going to let that get in my way. He did fall for that one appearance I changed into."

"You can go out with me, you know," Bruce added.

"...I don't think so," Bow replied before she followed Chopper.

They headed up a couple of hills once they reached the next area. Chopper hit a yellow ? block, and there was only a coin. Another kind of rock appeared, and it appeared to be a dark green Cleft. Yeah, a Hyper Cleft.

"Oh no… Not those guys again. I don't think your Smack attack will stand a chance against these guys, Bow." Chopper informed.

Chopper whacked the Hyper Cleft with his Hammer, and he really didn't deal any damage on the First Strike.

But, once Chopper used his Quake Hammer attack, the Hyper Cleft got hurt, and it took 2 damage from the attack. Bruce used his Bomb attack to instantly destroy the Hyper Cleft, giving Chopper 4 Star Points. He realized that he also leveled up.

"Oh, cool! Which one should I pick? How about HP for now." Chopper picked that, giving him 25 HP.

They headed up a little higher up the hill, and once Chopper and his friends took down some Hyper Goombas, a yellow ? appeared by them, which Chopper hit to reveal a Repel Gel.

"I think this will be something that I NEED for this place. So, let's take it with us." Chopper picked up the Repel Gel, and he put it away. They found a Letter behind a branch nearby, so Parakarry took that and held onto it.

"Ah, good! Another Letter back into my bag!" Parakarry sighed. "Hopefully I manage to find all of them!"

"That is, if you can find them all," Bow added.

They headed to the next area, and Chopper simply used his Speed Dash after Bow asked him if he wanted to hold her hand. This got her a little frustrated, but she noticed what he was wearing.

"Wait... Are those the shoes that my fellow Boos were holding onto?"

"Uhhhh... Yes?"

"I just noticed you had them. I guess you needed them to get to me, right?"

"Yeah, I needed them to get to you," Chopper said with a confused look as he went up a hill, where he noticed a small gap. Parakarry flew by the gap, and he knew what had to be done.

"All right, Chopper. I'll get you over there." Parakarry grabbed Chopper, and he flew to the other side. Bow just floated over to Chopper with ease.

"I should get to know him a little more before I officially start dating him," Bow said to herself as she followed him across the gap. The others looked a little annoyed, seeing that she could only cross the gap.

"I wish I could fly," Koopla groaned.

"Wait for me, my lady!" Bruce swooned as he suddenly lifted himself off the ground and followed the ghost girl over the gap. Somehow, he was able to get across, leaving everyone to gawk.

"What the heck? Is that even realistic?!" Chopper exclaimed. "Whose idea was that, anyway?"

"Not mine," Bow answered.

Parakarry, meanwhile, helped Koopla across the gap, and then they began to continue up. They defeated some Hyper Goombas and Hyper Clefts while at it.

They noticed up ahead was a castle after a couple of steps. Bow simply floated by Chopper, fanning herself with her fan.

"So, Chopper, are you ready to go out there?" she asked in a sweet tone. "Because if you are scared, I'm right here if you need a hand to hold."

"You kidding? I bet I can handle this place no sweat!" Chopper assured. "I've gone through worse places than this. So, I don't really need to hold your hand."

"Well, what if I changed to that cute-looking form of mine?"

Chopper's eyes shot open wide. "Err… How about you don't? Uh… I think we had enough of that, don't you think? I think we ought to go and forget what you just said there…"

Chopper sped toward Bubba Blubba's Castle, while Bow looked over at Koopla. "You gotta admit, he IS cute."

"Meh, if you want him, go right ahead," Koopla said. "YOUR problem is those two." she pointed to Bruce and Parakarry, who appeared to be drooling again.

"Well, that's because it's my beauty that's getting them attracted. But, never mind that for now. I'll go on ahead." Bow simply floated on, and Koopla hurried on as well.

Bruce and Parakarry followed Bow, floating, drooling, and having hearts form over their heads like in a cartoon. However, little did they know that they were being watched.

"So, Chopper is already making it to Bubba Blubba's Castle," Maquano said as he watched them on his dragon. "Well, let's see if that chef manages to win. If not…then I'll have Staris take care of him…and perhaps get more power into him!"

"Staris! I need you for a second!" Maquano summoned Staris, triggering a yellow puddle to appear and revealing Staris as he rose.

"If you have a chance, go after Chopper and those friends of his. If you can't do that, then I suppose getting another Star Spirit shall give you a better chance. So, go now!"

Staris sunk back into his puddle, and he began to follow Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and Bow. Maquano couldn't help but grin as the Star God began to disappear. With his first transformation, he would be considered stronger than before.

But after another transformation... No one could imagine what power he would have in later transformations...

* * *

**Who else thought Bubba Blubba would be a chef? I guess that makes him a unique villain in the Paper Mario universe if he's a chef. :P**


	18. Invading the Castle

The ground was a little more rocky than smooth in this new area. But, they were coming across a huge, gray castle with a huge brown door in front of them. A door that size could mean that this was indeed Bubba Blubba's Castle. At least, that's what the predicted.

"So… This is Bubba Blubba Castle. I expected it to be a little more guarded, since the Star Spirit escaped." Chopper noticed. "But, it seems fine here."

"This castle was never guarded outside by the start," Bow smirked. "But… There may be a problem once we go inside…"

"What do you mean?" Koopla asked.

"There's a bunch of security drones inside the castle. Last time I came here, there were a lot Sentinels inside."

"Sentinel?"

"It's a UFO-like guard that searches for intruders and throws them out. They're a bit on the fast side, and they can be quite a pain."

"Oh, that's a problem. If they grab us, we're probably in some big trouble, there. Any plans on what to do?" Chopper asked.

"I'll go risk my life…for Bow, that is," Bruce declared as he drooled. "A beautiful Boo cannot be taken by Bubba Blubba's minions! I'll go in there and bomb them!"

Bruce headed into the castle, and after ten seconds, he was thrown out by one of the Sentinels, feeling a little dazed.

"And you thought you could go in there and risk your own life. Yeah, that didn't work out like you thought there." Koopla laughed.

"Any other orders, my lady?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah, are there any other orders you need or something?" Parakarry asked.

"Guys, just quit it already. You're starting to annoy the heck out of me." Chopper warned. "What ever happened to what you were like before you even saw Bow?"

"I have no idea. But, I can still be myself and be attracted to Bow at the same time, you know." Bruce noted.

"Umm… All right, then. So… Should we just head on in or something, Bow?" Chopper asked.

"Well, of course. Let's go, you cute little boy." Bow giggled. Chopper gave an annoyed look as he simply ran toward the door. He tried to push it open, but it wasn't necessarily easy. However, using he hammer, he was able to whack it open.

Bow simply disappeared to get to Chopper, and Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry followed those two as well. Once inside, they noticed that they are now in a big round room. The ground was mostly a black and light gray checkered color, with a path to the left and a path to the right. There are the Sentinels Bow warned them about earlier.

"Well, this place is pretty big, I must admit," Chopper commented. "Well, Bubba Blubba is pretty big, so it would make sense if his home was also big."

Chopper began to run toward the left door. Unfortunately, one of the Sentinels noticed him and came down to grab him. However, Bow immediately grabbed him and turned him invisible. The Sentinel had a red ? over his head as it flew away, allowing them to make it past it and to the door.

In the next room, they noticed a green Clubba that's not so big sleeping by a door. Chopper knew he could attack the Clubba right now.

"Is it a good idea to attack them?" Chopper asked. Bow gave him a nod, making him shrug and whack the Clubba from behind. Once he attacked it again with some jumping, Bow finished it off with her Smack attack, defeating the Clubba.

They headed on into the room ahead, and they could see a big kitchen. Bow looked rather surprised at the sight of the kitchen.

"This wasn't a kitchen when I was here… How very odd." Bow gawked.

"Really? A kitchen? Interesting..." Koopla trailed.

"Hey, how come I don't see any women here?" Bruce asked. "Don't they usually reside in the..."

"Bruce, I swear that I'm going to punch you in the mouth if you finish that sentence."

"My uncle resides in the kitchen," Parakarry informed.

"Really?" Everyone gawked.

"Yeah. He's a chef."

Before they could continue on, they heard Bubba Blubba in the room, at a stove. They all hid under a table to avoid being seen. Bubba Blubba took a Boo out of his sack and put it on the pan.

"Agghh! Don't eat me, please!" the Boo cried. Bubba Blubba grinned as he poured a lot of salt on the Boo's head. "No... Not salt! Oh, boo hoo! Salt is something we Boos dislike!"

"Seriously… That's kind of gross there." Chopper gagged as he looked at all the salt pouring on the Boo. "Who puts that much salt?!"

"Apparently Bubba Blubba does..." Koopla groaned.

"This is going to be good. Now, in you go!" Bubba Blubba licked his lips as he opened up an oven and shoved the Boo in. It looked like the oven was not able to let ghosts escape. Smart move on the chef's part.

"Oh, poor Stanley… He's going to be all baked and eaten soon. I can't stand to even look at this…" Bow cried as she covered her eyes and put her face in Chopper's arms. He noticed that a tear was coming down her face.

_"Oh, man... Poor Bow. One of her fellow Boos are going to get eaten right in front of her!" _he thought while gaping at the oven.

"Don't worry, Bow. I'm going to go try something. Just stay here." Chopper assured as he jumped onto the table and saw a cutter blade that Bubba Blubba might use to chop lettuce and celery.

He inhaled the cutter and once he swallowed it, he had a yellow cap with eyes and wings that kind of resembled a duck. There was a blade on the top of the hat that looked like it could be taken off to use as a blade. Chopper noticed an alarm at the corner labeled "Nap Alarm". He removed the blade from his hat and threw it at the alarm, making it go off.

"Huh? Who? What? It's nap time already?" Bubba Blubba gaped as he looked up at the alarm. "…Well, I am pretty tired. I guess I can go get some rest. That Boo can stay in there while I sleep."

Chopper hid under the table again as Bubba Blubba stomped his way out of the kitchen while yawning. He immediately turned the oven off and opened it, freeing the Boo.

"Huh? I'm free?" the Boo gasped. "Wow… I never knew that I would've been easily rescued! I thought I was about to become Baked Boo!"

"Go, uh… Boo! Quickly!" Chopper suggested as he removed his Cutter ability. "Before Bubba Blubba comes back here and notices you're out of the oven!"

"All right, I better go now," the Boo disappeared, but not without giving him a face. Chopper simply sighed in relief and closed the oven.

"Phew… I actually did the unthinkable. I actually SAVED a Boo. That's not something from me, really."

"Whoa, that was pretty cool. I never knew that you were actually capable of doing things like THAT." Koopla gawked. "I think I underestimated you a bit."

"Yeah, no kidding," agreed Bruce.

"I could've done that..." Parakarry trailed.

"I can't believe you did something like that. It was very brave of you, Chopper." Bow smiled while she sighed sweetly. "You managed to rescue one of my Boos! I think you definitely deserve a reward."

"A reward? Like cake?"

"Oh, something more than that," she flew over to Chopper's side and kissed him on the cheek. Bruce and Parakarry gave Chopper a glare as his eyes widened in fear while his face turned a deep shade of red as Bow blushed.

"Bleh! I just got kissed by a ghost!" he gagged trying to wipe off the kiss. Unfortunately, he ended up tripping. "Ugh... I don't really like it when a girl touched me with their lips..."

"Uhh... Why's that?" Koopla asked.

"Because they have _cooties!_"

"You do know that that's all a myth, right?"

"No, I was told by someone on my planet that they're bad. They come from the opposite gender, from what I was told and they spread through kisses! It's gross! Really!"

"Oh... I just realized you're eight, so that makes perfect sense for you to believe that."

"Aw, come on! That's not fair, man! Why does Chopper have to get the hot chick!?" Bruce gaped.

"Bruce... Bow and I are not in a relationship..." Chopper growled.

"I mean, I had Bombette, but she dumped me for being obsessed with her," he continued. "Why can't I get a kiss? Hey, Bow! How about giving me one."

"I think not, Bob-omb," Bow retorted as she hugged Chopper. "I would've considered it if you were the one that saved that Boo. Well, I wouldn't anyway."

"Dang it..."

"Trust me, Bruce, it's not good... I really shouldn't have gotten that."

"Well I think so," Bow replied as she let go of him. "However, I don't want to be all over you when we have my kind that need to be saved."

_"I've only known her for an hour and already she kisses me. Man, that's gotta be a record, to be honest…" _Chopper thought.

"Let's just move on right now, all right?" Chopper suggested as he and the others left the kitchen and headed to the big door to the left. They were in a large, rectangular room with a large table and also some sleeping Clubbas.

"Well, those Clubbas seem to be sleeping on the job," noticed Parakarry. "It'll be easy for us to sneak past them."

They headed to the door to the far upper left and found some stairs going down, so they headed down. A Clubba seemed to be sleeping by a wooden X on the ground, so Chopper and Bow handled the Clubba with their moves.

"I feel that we're completely useless at this point," Koopla realized. "Bow's attack is better than ours!"

"Dude... A hot ghost tends to have stronger attacks." Bruce noted. "And I think she should give me a smooch too. She knows that I'm better for her."

"I think I would be better for her, honestly..." Parakarry trailed.

"Can you guys stop with that already?!" Chopper snapped as he used his Spin Jump on the X and came falling down through the hole.

"Hold on, Chopper! I can't leave you down there alone!" Bow called out as she flew down the hole. Bruce and Parakarry started to go after her while Koopla dove through the hole.

...Only to land on her head.

"AUGH! MY HEAD!"

"Someone sure is a bit loud," Bow said as she fanned herself. "Are you all right?"

"Ugh... Yeah, I'm fine." Koopla nodded, slowly standing up. "Geez... That was painful."

"I think you might live," Chopper assured.

"Chopper, maybe you might want to open that chest there," suggested Bow as she grabbed Chopper's hand and dragged him over to the chest. When she let go of him, Chopper opened the chest, and it contained a green Castle Key. Afterward, he hit a Heart Block in the room and noticed a Boo lurking around in the basement.

"Huh? What's a Boo doing down in the basement?" Chopper began to wonder.

"It mus be a survivor," Bow gasped. "Maybe he might have a little clue for us!"

"Huh? Was that Lady Bow that just spoke?" the Boo whirled around and saw the group facing them. "Oh, Lady Bow! You're here, and you're not dead! You look...a lot younger than usual."

"I thought that I needed a little 'makeover'," Bow informed. "Plus, it makes me look prettier."

"Oh, I can agree! And... Wait, who's everyone else here?"

"The name's Koopla."

"I'm Bruce!"

"You can call me Parakarry!"

"And I'm Chopper!" Chopper declared. "So... Why are you here?"

"Oh… You're Chopper! Nice place, huh? As a matter of fact, I came to this castle with my friends to try to find Bubba Blubba's weak point." the Boo explained. "We managed to find out that there's something important hidden in Bubba Blubba's room on the highest floor. But once I got separated from my friends, I just had to hide. …But you could go. First, you need to get to the uppermost floor, then keep going until you find his room. If you run into Bubba Blubba, don't I repeat, DON'T fight with him. He's invincible! Really! Until you find out his secret weakness you'd better just run away. You got that?"

"All right, we'll remember that," Chopper nodded.

"Believe me, we should listen to him," Bow informed. "Chances are we could be trampled by him if we try to fight him."

"All right, thanks for your help," Parakarry thanked.

With that, they left the Boo be and found a door to the left, so they headed on through. They found an Upgrade Block nearby, so Chopper hit it.

"Well, looks like I can only upgrade Bow right now," Chopper allowed the sparkling blue light to come out of the block and get transferred into Bow's body. She ended up learning a brand new move: Spook.

"Ah, yes! Now I can finally scare those enemies I've wanted to scare for a long time!" Bow cackled. "However, if I'm going to use this, it's best that you all don't look at me."

"Why's that?" Koopla asked.

"Because it forces enemies to run away, and it could affect you if you saw."

"Hmmmm... All right. That's fine. Let's just..." Chopper froze as he heard a Sentinel's alarm going off. It sounded like it was fighting against something...or someone. "Wait, what's that?"

"Excellent work, Rookie!"

As he heard the voice, he saw a destroyed Sentinel tumbling down the stairs and explode in front of them.

"Anytime, Boss!"

"Wait a second... I remember BOTH of those voices from somewhere..." the footsteps got even louder as they heard two people coming down the stairs. All five got themselves ready as they saw the shadow thief arrive in the scene.

"Oh, great. It's you…" he groaned while smacking his forehead. "Just the person I wanted to see..."

"This guy's new..." Bruce trailed.

"Pale green drip! What are you doing here?!" Popple gasped. "Look, I'm in a hurry here, see? So, move it! Hold on… Are you looking for the treasure in Bubba Blubba's Castle too?"

"Who are you?" Bow asked. "Are you from that kingdom that is full of beans? And how do you know about Bubba Blubba's treasure?"

"Maybe I can tell you if you surrender right now and give me those bows."

"Oh, I don't think so. I'm not letting some stupid thief like you take something special away from me. These bows are something special to me."

"Listen, Popple... You've gotten away from me before, but there's no way that you will this time!" Chopper said as he got in a fighting stance. "So, why don't you just go away before we have to fight you?"

"Cripes! You think you're ready, do ya? Well, nobody's more ready than me, see? I'll show you! Rookie! Rookie! Shake a leg!"

"Rookie?"

A leaf with a purple crown on his head, arms and legs are made out of vines jumped down in front of the group. The leaf king pulled out two vine swords with a poison glow.

"Oh my gosh… Trinado?" Chopper gawked.

"OK, Rookie!" Popple fist pumped. "It's your turn, see? I want you to squash this pale green drip and his friends here!"

"Right away, Boss!" Trinado…er...Rookie walked up to Chopper while he simply shook his head.

"I thought you were on Maquano's side! Seriously, your name's not Rookie! Your name is Trinado!"

"Hmmm… This little boy…" Rookie looked down at Chopper and carefully examined him. "I feel like I know him from somewhere… Weird…".

"Whaaat! Rookie! Are you saying you're acquainted with this palooka?" Popple gasped.

"Yeah… Something about him feels reeeeeeeeal familiar… It makes me feel…real mad!"

"Because I kicked your butt before, remember?" Chopper smirked.

"**_Quit your babbling,__ you!_**" Popple growled as he clenched his fists in anger,You, little mug, and your friends want that treasure so much! ? Boo! Boo, I say! You really think you can beat me to the treasure? Well, that won't happen, see? **_Rookie! Go for it!_**"

**Tattles: **_It's that shadow thief, Popple! But, it doesn't look like he's alone this time. Max HP: 20, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 0. He seems to do what he always does: steal things from people. Chopper, you might want to be careful with some of his attacks. He could steal items that can help heal him and Rookie, or use them to attack. And on top of that, he can steal your Hammer! It might be best if you focused on him before Rookie…or maybe it's the other way around. But, really, why does he have to be a bean? It's making me hungry…_

**Tattle: **_That leaf guy's name is Rookie. Wait, didn't you call him Trinado earlier? Something mustn't be right, here. Max HP: 30, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. His swords have the ability to poison you, and we all know that's pretty deadly. This leaf guy is pretty strong, so he'll have some attacks that are capable of attacking both you ad your partner. He also has this really powerful attack with his swords. So, you can use Bow to hide from that. But, since he's really the strongest of the two, you may want to take him out first before focusing on Popple…or maybe it's the other way around. But, what made him become of something like this? Well… Let's hope we get the answer soon._

Chopper focused his attention on Trin—I mean Rookie at this point. He was behind Popple right now, so using his hammer wouldn't exactly be the greatest idea in the world.

"Let's take him out first. He seems more threatening. You know what they say, always take the tougher ones out first."

"Of course, Chopper," Bow responded in a sweet tone.

Chopper jumped toward Rookie and stomped on him twice, which did a good 4 damage, causing Rookie to get enraged. However, Bow appeared in front of Rookie, and she used her Smack to strike him five times. Everyone was nearly dumbstruck by this damage.

"Whoa... 5 damage? That's good!" Chopper gaped.

"I knew you'd like that. I also think it's cute how you jump."

"Those two should seriously get a room..." Rookie trailed. "Well, anyway... You're gonna get it now, you two greenies!" he gripped his two poison vine swords and stomped the ground. Popple's feet were moving like a wheel as he charged, and he also had that angry grin that showed that they were screwed. He rammed into Chopper, but he was able to guard his attack.

Rookie walked up to Chopper afterward, and he swung one of his poison vine swords at him. He got hit by the attack, but he was lucky that he didn't get poisoned.

"Thank goodness I didn't get poisoned, there," Chopper sighed. He decided to test his Cutter ability, using his Power Cutter to attack, which made him attack both Popple and Rookie at the same time.

Rookie: !

"What's with him?" Koopla asked.

"How dare you mess with the Great Popple!" Rookie roared.

The cutter came back to Chopper, and he put it back on his cap. Since Bow can deal the most damage, she used her Smack to take 5 out of Rookie and leave him spinning around.

"I find that rather amusing," she giggled.

Popple went toward Chopper and he immediately stole a Mushroom from him.

"Hey! Give that back!" Chopper snapped.

"I'll be taking that, see?" the shadow thief snickered as he looked down at the Mushroom.

Rookie jumped up and landed on Chopper, flattening him like a pancake and taking his Cutter ability as well.

"Aw, man!" Chopper grumbled as he tried to get revenge by stomping on Rookie. Unfortunately, that didn't seem to finish off the leaf king. Once Bow used her Smack on Rookie, however, Popple threw the Mushroom to Rookie so he could eat it and recover 5 HP.

"Thanks, Boss! But, you know… For some reason, fighting this boy…makes my swords make something fierce." Rookie had a bunch of poison energy surrounding his two poison vine swords, and it looked like his attack was going to be much stronger.

"Whoa! This is pretty interesting, here! My swords are glowing brighter! Heck yeah!"

"Great work, Rookie! You just keep at it, see?" Popple grinned.

"We better finish him off fast!" Chopper grumbled. "If we don't then this might be pretty bad for us…"

"He only has 8 HP left. We can surely finish this." Bow assured as Chopper stomped on Rookie. When he retreated back to the others, Bow finished Rookie off with her Smack attack.

"Oh… Ohhh… I'm not feeling so good… It feels like something's burning up in me…" Rookie moaned as he fell to the ground. Popple turned around and gaped as his unconscious teammate.

"Ah! Rookie! Fine, I'll finish this with you now, see?" Popple growled as he rammed right into Chopper, leaving him to cringe in pain.

"Well, I guess I can attack with my hammer now," Chopper decided as he brought his hammer up and bashed the shadow thief in the head. "Yeah, now THAT was satisfying!"

Bow appeared by Popple, and she used her Smack on him. This caused Popple to spin around, to their amusement.

"Whoooooa… That makes me feel kind of dizzy." Popple moaned. He immediately went toward Chopper and stole a Thunder Rage from him.

"I'll be taking that, see?" Popple grinned held onto the item for now. But, once Chopper stomped on him, he dropped it, allowing Chopper to take back what was his.

"3 HP already? Well, things do seem to go quick, sometimes…" Bow sighed as she finished Popple off with another Smack. Chopper got his 28 Star Points from the fight and smiled.

"…Geh! …Buh! …Haaaaack!" Popple coughed as he got himself back up and looked down at Rookie. "**_Rookie, you blasted idiot!_**"

"Sorry, Boss…" Rookie wheezed.

"Who took you in when you were dazed and lost in that creepy forest?! Me! You worthless vermin!"

"I'm…so ashamed…" Rookie sighed as his head hung low. "It's not like me to do something like this..."

"Meh! I don't care, see? We're fine as long as we get that treasure in that tub of lard's room! Let's not mess with these five knuckleheads. We'll scram and hurry on ahead! Yeah…"

With that, the two fled from the group up the stairs.

"We better go after them," Chopper suggested as he, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and Bow headed up the stairs. Once they got to the door to their right, Chopper pushed the door open, and they headed on through to see what would lie up ahead.

They noticed that they were back in that same room that had the big table. The others came into the room as well and noticed that this was just the same place as before.

"Hold on, we were already here," Bruce realized. "So that door just brought us back to here? That's…kind of lame. But, at least we know where to find another exit. That's for sure."

"I remember a locked door being at the right in between the main room," Bow recalled. "I suggest that we head on over there."

"All right, sure. Let's head on over there, then." Chopper nodded.

* * *

**Main room-**

"I really enjoy holding your hand," Bow mentioned as they slowly began to move through the main room while invisible. "Why does your hand feel so warm?"

"Because I have gloves on?" Chopper shrugged. "I seriously can't wait to become visible again..."

"At least the Sentinels can't see us," mentioned Parakarry.

"Too bad I don't have hands..." Bruce grumbled. "That would make things all the better!"

"Wait... There's the door!" Bow noticed as she pointed to the door to their right. Chopper got his Castle Key out and made his way over to the door. He unlocked it, and they all headed in. They noticed that the walls were old with a couple of cracks. There were also spider webs on the corners of the ceilings. The windows didn't look too nice, either.

"Man, I think Bubba Blubba really needs to clean this place up," Koopla gawked. "It's a BIG mess! It's like he's lazy or something."

"Yeah, tell me about it. This place really needs a makeover of some sort." agreed Parakarry. "But… I'm a little too distracted by Bow's attractiveness rather than this place."

"I think Bruce is more distracted than you," Koopla noted.

"Yup, she's right. I mean, I'm so jealous that Chopper was able to get a kiss from her, but I didn't." Bruce grumbled. "Come on! I mean, I probably fit a lot better!"

"Just forget about it, Bruce," Parakarry suggested. "It's getting old."

"Yeah, even the readers are getting tired of this too," Chopper informed.

"Readers?" Bow asked while titling her head to the side. "What do you mean by that."

"I don't know... I don't remember."

"Well, one thing I don't get is why Bow isn't dating a Boo or a ghost, to tell you the truth," Parakarry realized.

"Being a princess of a mansion isn't so easy," Bow sighed. "I mean, every single Boo appears to be attracted to me. Other people might think that, but they don't go after me like them."

"That's understandable there, Bow," Koopla nodded until she noticed Chopper was missing. "Wait, where did Chopper go?"

They all noticed that Chopper was almost finished taking down two Clubbas on his own. They could tell that he was struggling a bit from the fight from the look of how he looked.

"I don't think fighting these guys were really a good idea," Chopper wheezed. He only had 21 HP left, and 15 FP (Max).

"I think I can go help him," Bow quickly floated in front of Chopper, making him jump up a little once she came in.

"Bow? Look, I got this. If you really want to smack them, go on ahead."

"I have a better idea. But, you better close those eyes. It may be a little too much for you." Chopper nodded and covered his eyes. Everyone else covered their eyes as well, knowing what was coming up.

Bow floated toward the two Clubbas and covered her face. She began to shake a little, and then she grew huge, making a scary-looking face at the two Clubbas.

"_**Eep!**_" the two Clubbas screamed like little girls as they ran away like little girls too.

"I heard something, but I can't see it. Is it fine to look?" Chopper asked.

"Yes, it's fine to look now. I've already taken care of those two Clubbas right now." Bow assured. "Let's go up those stairs ahead."

"Good thing I didn't see what she did," Bruce sighed. "Sometimes girls can be scary, like Bombette was when she was angry!"

"I know, right?" agreed Parakarry.

All five of them walked up the stairs, and they found four Clubbas sleeping like babies. They quietly tiptoed pass them and continued up the stairs to the left. They made it to the top of the staircase, and they kept going left through the hallway. Bow hid them from the Sentinel, and they just kept going with Bow's ability.

"Why won't this Sentinel just stop bothering us? It's getting REALLY annoying, now." Chopper grumbled.

After making their way to the end of the hallway, they saw a door in front of them. Chopper quickly pushed it open before they could get caught by the Sentinels. They found themselves on the upper floor with a bridge. They looked below, and they saw the main room that they were in before

"Oh, we're above here? That's pretty interesting. Never knew we'd actually get to somewhere like this." Bruce gaped.

Chopper simply used his Speed Dash to get to the other side. The others following him, and they entered the door up ahead. There was yet again, another straight hallway, with some sleeping Clubbas, and also two Sentinels.

"There's no time to fight. We should just sneak pass the Clubbas." Chopper said in a quiet voice. They made it passed them and found a door up ahead to the left, and another small door to the upper left.

"Hold on, what's in that door over there?" Chopper opened, it, and he found a bunch of spikes. They sank back in, and after a while, they came back up.

"Well, there's no way we can get passed those. ...Wait! Bow, can being invisible also make you not get hurt by spikes?"

"Yes, that's actually correct. I can get you through this without any problem." Bow nodded as the two began to make their way through the spikes by becoming invisible. That left Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry to speak.

"So… Anyone know anything funny that happened when you were traveling?" Parakarry asked.

"Well, Chopper and I found some Koopa who looked like Yellow giving Chopper a hot dog…which happened to have dynamite," Koopla explained. "Chopper wanted to get his coins to pay, so he gave the hot dog to Yellow. I saw him smiling, but once he looked at that hot dog, his expression changed, and the hot dog blew up. I am not kidding."

Chopper managed to open the chest that was past the spikes, and a Castle Key was revealed to be in there. He took it, and he and Bow headed back to the others.

"All right, so there was a key in that chest that was over there? Huh… I guess that's interesting..." Bruce trailed.

"Yeah yeah, let's just keep going. We gotta find that treasure before Popple and Trinado…or what he's called, Rookie." Chopper suggested as they left the room and headed to the door to the left. They were still on the upper floor, looking down below, they could see part of the bottom floor.

Up ahead to the left was also a locked door. Luckily, since they had the key with them, they simply used it to unlock the door.

"Honestly, this is beginning to become too easy for us," Koopla smirked. "I thought Bubba Blubba would be smarter…since he's older. I think…"

After Chopper unlocked the door, he pushed the door open so they could all progress through. They were able to find two staircases. There was one going up to the right in front of them and one to the left.

"All right, doesn't seem like there's anything around here. Let's just head on up these stairs." Chopper suggested

"I think we're getting close to Bubba Blubba's room. It must have what could possibly be his weak point in there." Bow realized.

"That's good for us. Let's go!" Chopper and his friends went up both staircases to the door. At the top, Chopper got a Maple Syrup in a yellow ? block. Once they headed on through the door, they were in another long hallway. There was a big door up ahead and some little doors. It felt like they were safe right now…

...Hopefully.

"We're almost there," Bow smiled. "We just have to head on through the door, and we'll find that secret hopefully."

When Chopper took three steps, he heard some stomping noise coming from the big door. Bubba Blubba happened to come out, but due to his poor eyesight, he wasn't able to see the group from afar.

"Uh oh… This isn't good." Chopper gulped. "I thought he was sleeping?"

"Oh, dear... I guess he woke up early..." Bow gulped.

"Mmm! What's this? Sniff, sniff… I smell something very fishy…" Bubba Blubba sniffed the room suspiciously. "It smells like…something's in here!"

"How on earth are we going to get past him? He's right there!" Chopper frowned.

"This is where I come in to help," Bow stated.

"Well, he appears to be facing away from us," Koopla informed. "As long as we're careful, we should be all right."

"All right..." Chopper carefully moved on with the others following him quietly. Parakarry could literally feel his heard pounding.

"Ugh... I don't like this..."

"Same here Parakarry… We should just stay together." Bruce agreed as he shook in fear.

"That's the point," Chopper said as Bow noticed that Bubba Blubba was about to turn around. Not to mention that they were coming close to him too.

"Huh?" Bubba Blubba noticed them, but Bow immediately turned them all invisible. Bubba Blubba scratched his head in confusion.

"I thought I saw something there… I mean, I literally saw something right there! …It must've been my imagination, perhaps." Bubba Blubba drooled as he began to move past the invisible group.

Bow made them all visible, and when they got to the door, they noticed it was locked. Parakarry looked shocked when he saw Bubba Blubba turning around.

"Into that door!" Chopper cried as they went to the door on the wall right by the big door. Once inside, they saw a bunch of sleeping Clubbas. Sure, this didn't feel as bad as being stuck with Bubba Blubba, but a bunch of Clubbas is also dangerous.

"Hmph! These are definitely a lot of Clubbas. Probably the most I've ever seen in this castle." Bow stated.

They carefully snuck past the Clubbas, and they saw, on the table, a Castle Key. Chopper immediately grabbed it, causing three Clubbas to wake up.

"Oh, great…" Chopper groaned as he immediately attacked all three with a Quake Hammer, while Bruce used his Super Bomb attack, defeating all three. Chopper got 12 Star Points from the battle, and he also leveled up. He decided to choose FP this time, so he had about 20 FP now.

"All right, let's carefully leave this room…and make sure Bubba Blubba doesn't spot us when coming out of this room," Chopper suggested

"Well, of course we have to sneak pass them! Let's just hurry already!" Koopla cried. All five of them sneaked passed the Clubbas, and they got to the door. Koopla peeked through the door, and she noticed Bubba Blubba was away from the door. So, she signaled them to leave the room.

Once they got back in the hallway, Chopper quickly unlocked the door, and they headed on in. They found a Save Block and Heart Block in the small room, so Chopper hit both, and then they went into the next room. They found another bridge, so they began to cross that to the door up ahead. Once they got in that room, they saw a big table, some big seats, and also a big bed. This must be Bubba Blubba's bedroom.

"Ugh… This place smells like Clubba. I hate that smell." Bow gagged.

"Do you think we should rest in bed first?" Bruce asked.

"Definitely not! That bed reeks!"

"And I don't want to share a bed either," Chopper groaned.

"Chopper! Over here!" Bow gasped as she flew to the drawer by a chest. "I think this is the chest with the secret!"

They were behind the bed, luckily. But, they heard some stomping getting louder through the room, causing them all to shiver in fear, including Koopla. Chopper's feet came off the ground when hearing this as the door opened. Bubba Blubba came out, and he looked angry.

"That Boo in the oven has gone missing! There's no way it could've escaped on its own!" Bubba Blubba grumbled. "…Unless there's something around here that's freeing them! I could seriously be in trouble here. That Star Spirit ran away, and perhaps a suspicious person freed the Boo in that oven… I sure don't want to make King Bowser mad. He can be pretty scary sometimes. He did make me invincible, but if I screw up, he might change me back to normal."

"…It's time I got some beauty rest for now!" Bubba Blubba jumped onto his bed, and he lied down on his back, despite the fact that he's got a spiky shell.

Chopper was taking a look at what Bubba Blubba was doing. He turned to the chest, and he opened it. A small key came out, but what was surprising was that it had eyes.

"Hi there! I'm Yakkey…a faithful and chatty follower of Master Bubba Blubba!" Yakkey greeted. "My very important job is to guard his valuables!"

"So all this time it was a key? Boo! Boo, I say!" the drawer opened, and Popple and Rookie came out with angry looks.

"We thought of a little plan to surprise you, pale green drip!" Popple growled. "If this is the key to a treasure, then it's mine, see?"

"But…? You don't look like Master Bubba Blubba at all!" Yakkey realized. "…That means you've come to steal me, the magical key that unlocks the door to **Windy Mill** at the foot of Gusty Gulch? And furthermore, your goal is to find out if there's a secret inside that Windy Mill?"

"Weak point? I was never told that! …Was this all for nothing? Criminy! I thought that it would be treasure, see? So, no!"

"Boss is right. We wanted treasure, not to find a weak point!" Rookie agreed.

"Well… I am trying to find that secret." Chopper said.

"Uh… I'm not sure if that was a good thing to say, Chopper…" Bow trailed. "I think something bad happened last time..."

"…You're a very honest little boy, aren't you?" Yakkey looked around the room and looked up at Bubba Blubba last. "**_…Heeeeeeelp! Master Bubba Blubbaaaa!_**"

"Grrrgh? Hmmmph?" Bubba Blubba grunted as he slowly sat up. "What's all the noise? Twenty more minutes, Mom…"

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped, seeing that Bubba Blubba woke up. Koopla wasn't so happy, and Bruce's eyes widened. Parakarry's heart was racing again. Bow looked concerned as she looked over at Chopper.

"This isn't good..." she gulped.


	19. Bubba Blubba: The Heart of a Chef

"Uh oh… Well, we're getting outta here! Let's move, Rookie!" Popple shouted as he and Rookie began to run for their lives.

"Oh no, he's awake! We have to run!" Bow gasped. Chopper nodded, and he took Yakkey while it began to cry for help. Since Bubba Blubba was still feeling tired, all five began to run out of the bedroom as fast as they could.

Once they returned to the previous room, they began to run for their lives. When all five of them got to the center of this bridge, they could hear stomping coming their way.

"Well, we're doomed," Bruce gulped. Bubba Blubba came out of his room and looked pretty angry.

"Hey, you! Thief! Stop!" Bubba Blubba growled as he stomped on the bridge. It snapped, and Chopper and the others landed on the bridge below.

"Whoa… That was really something. That Bubba Blubba can actually smash a bridge and a half of a bridge off? Wow…" Koopla gaped.

"Trust me, he can do a lot more than that, Koopa," Bow stated. "It's not even funny."

"Well, there's no time for that. We gotta keep going! Bubba Blubba is heading our way!" Parakarry cried.

"Quickly! Through this door!" Chopper shouted as they headed into the door to the right while Bubba Blubba was coming closer.

They got in the room with the stairs going down, and Chopper was using his Speed Dash to run down. Bubba Blubba was surprisingly fast for someone who's big.

"Wow... This guy's quick." Bruce gawked. "I don't like this one bit..."

"Faster, guys! He might catch up!" Chopper shouted. The others were going as fast as they could down the stairs as well. Bow was able to keep up with Chopper due to being able to appear wherever she wanted to.

After going down the stairs, they headed into the door to their left. When they got to the main room, they saw the Sentinels were crushed by the snapped bridge.

"Whoa, that really helped there. Those Sentinels are GONE!" Koopla gaped. "Well, I guess it's for the better.

"Come back here, you thieves!" Bubba Blubba roared. He stomped faster towards them. Chopper looked back and screamed as he tried to escape faster. Luckily, they weren't too far from the door.

"Here it is! Now let's get out of here!"

* * *

**Outside Bubba Blubba's Castle-**

"At last, we've arrived at Bubba Blubba's Castle!" a Boo announced, turning to his cohorts, who were holding a couple of small sticks. Are you ready, everyone?"

They all responded with a nod.

"Be brave! We must do all we can to help the Lady Bow!"

"But…what can we do?" one Boo asked. "In fact, do you really think a stick will stop him?"

"Well, this is the only thing we have..."

"But they stink! We're just going to get our butts kicked!"

"We don't even have butts..."

"Look, this is no time to lose our nerve, fellow Boos!" the leading Boo shouted, silencing the others. "Our dear lady is fighting against Bubba Blubba himself! We mustn't hesitate!"

"Come back here!" the door opened, and Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and Bow came out, panting. They could hear some stomping getting louder each second, and all the Boos except for one got to action and blocked the door.

"Wha… Wha… What's that noise?" the Boo stammered. "Bubba Blubba's chasing you? And he's right on the other side of the door? Gulp!"

"Don't worry. We found something that might help. Maybe a weak point." Chopper assured.

"What! You might be able to find out Bubba Blubba's weak point? Oh, of course! The windmill at the foot of the hill…"

"Yeah, that's it."

"You must hurry! Run as fast as you can to the Windy Mill! We'll hold Bubba Blubba here!"

"It's too dangerous! He's a madman!" Bow cried. "He'll catch and cook every last one of you!"

They all stopped as they heard banging from the door. Bubba Blubba was trying to open the door using the strength from his fists!

"Grruuuurg! Why won't this door open?" Bubba Blubba growled as the final Boo flew over to the door and block Bubba Blubba from getting through.

"I…don't know how long…we can…keep holding this," the Boo winced. "Don't worry about us! Keep going, for all our sakes! Don't look back! And please keep Lady Bow safe, Chopper!"

"We better do what he says, Bow," advised Chopper. "We really have no other choice."

"You're right," Bow sighed. "Even though it pains me to see my kind go through this, I think it's best if we find his weak point first."

All five of them left the area, but they could hear Bubba Blubba's voice from the door. "I smell delicious ghosts! Open the dooooooor!" At this point, the monster was starting to kick the door.

"Yeah, we better move fast! To the Windy Mill!" Chopper announced as he began to Speed Dash his way to the Windy Mill, with Bow and his friends following him through.

* * *

**Windy Mill-**

After about five minutes, they got to the big Windy Mill that they saw earlier. It appeared to be locked. So, Chopper took out Yakkey and unlocked the door.

"All right, you can go now," Chopper said as he dropped Yakkey. "If you want to go back to your master, now's the time to do so."

"Thank you, kid... I will return to assist Bubba Blubba!" declared Yakkey as it began to hop away from the Windy Mill.

With that, they went inside and found a well with a wooden X covering it. Knowing what he had to do, Chopper used his Spin Jump on it and headed down the well.

"All right, we're getting close. Time to follow Chopper!" Parakarry announced. They all went down the hole to follow him.

Chopper landed on a spring, and he landed down underground. There was a door up ahead, so they headed through the door to lead them in a small, narrow room with sand on the floor. They could see a sign by the door, so Chopper read it.

_No entry allowed._

"Screw you, sign! We're GOING forward!" Chopper kicked the sign before he opened the door, leading them into an identical room with a sign over by the next door.

"Another sign? What are they doing here?" Parakarry asked.

"Someone doesn't want us going through here," Koopla confirmed. "But I don't give a damn about that."

_Really! No entry allowed!_

"Screw you again, sign! We're going through this next room!" Chopper kicked the door open, and they headed into the next identical room.

"Is every single room going to be like this or something? Because it's getting rather old, now." Bruce groaned.

"This should be the last one…hopefully. Let's go see what that next sign says, Chopper." Bow suggested.

Chopper read the next sign, and he began to realize that they are indeed close. Yep, closer than you think.

_Absolutely! No entry allowed!_

"Hey, if there's a threatening villain through here, can I have permission to protect you?" Bruce asked.

"Only if you want to..." Bow trailed. "To be honest, I am a little nervous about this."

"Well, we've got your back if you're in trouble," assured Chopper.

"All right, I guess you guys do," she smiled. "Honestly, even if you're not my kind, you seem to give me some respect, despite my kind scaring you guys mostly."

"It's 'cause you're cute, that's why," Bruce smiled.

"And you know how to slap enemies," Parakarry added.

"More like because you haven't been scaring us, even if you've been a _little_ snooty," Koopla said.

"Well, I guess I can say you're pretty nice," Chopper shrugged, making Bow smile and blush. "Anyway, let's just go."

Chopper opened the door, and when they all went to the next room, they were in a circular-shaped room with a stump in the center. On the stump, a blue heart with purple eyes noticed their arrival. Some were grossed out by its appearance, while some were ticked.

"Who are you?" the heart asked. They could hear a loud pulse coming from it as it breathed. It was pretty gross, to tell you the truth.

"I'm Chopper. Who else would I be?" Chopper asked as he made a cocky pose.

"What! Chopper?" the heart realized something. "Did someone…tell you that I'm the secret strength of Bubba Blubba?"

"Nope, not really..."

"I'm guessing someone spilled the beans that the Bubba Blubba in the castle is just a shell and…I'm controlling it from here! ?"

"No, not at all, you disgusting heart. ...Wait, maybe Yakkey spilled the beans about it..."

"Nobody told us you were controlling Bubba Blubba at all," Bow pointed out.

"That key told you? Ugh... Stupid key. Looks like you can't trust anybody! I can't let you out of here knowing the secret of my 'invincible' body! Sorry, but you all must perish!"

**Tattle: **_Ugh, what is that thing! So… This is really Bubba Blubba's heart who's been doing this. But, Bubba Blubba seemed to be doing some evil stuff, also. Max HP: 30, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 0. This heart has some pretty high attack, so you wanna be careful there. Luckily, this heart doesn't have so much HP, so it may not be tough to take him down. But, he's got an attack that can take out 12 HP! I'm not lying. So, if that happens, you might want to have Bow help you._

Chopper started out with his simply Jump attack on him. Right now, he wanted to take it a little slow and not let this be another Tutankoopa.

"All right, I guess Bow is who I might need to use for the most part, here," Chopper said as he looked over at the heart.

Bow appeared right in front of Bubba Blubba's Heart and smacked it five times. The heart spun around, dazed.

"Hey, you! Green lady ghost! You look quite tasty." the heart snorted. "Stick around after the battle. Fighting makes me hungry."

"Blech! You wish!" Bow gagged. "You don't have a chance, you ghost-gobbling freak! Chopper! Now I'm really mad! Let's beat this thing up! **_Gwaah ha ha ha!_**"

"Heh heh heh heh… I'm gonna do this great attack. It's impossible to avoid. I just have to prepare for a bit, so hang on for a second."

The heart began to charge up power for his attack. Parakarry gulped as he saw what the heart was doing.

"Oh, boy… THAT…is not good." Parakarry gawked.

"But, we got Bow here. She can help us avoid his attack. But, first…" Chopper used a Power Jump attack on the heart to weaken it a little, leaving it it 15 HP left.

"All right, now let me do this," Bow said as she used her Outta Sight ability to make Chopper and his friends invisible for the round.

The heart began to make a bunch of weird red particles attack them, but with Bow's ability, they were able to avoid the attack easily.

"What the... My attack didn't work?! How could this be!?" roared the heart.

Bow made them visible again, and Chopper stomped on the heart again. Since Bow wasted a turn with her Outta Sight, Parakarry attacked instead, using his Sky Dive. The heart boosted up its attack again.

"We got this in the bag already. Time to finish it up!" Chopper stomped on the heart, and it made it dazed.

"Owwwweeee! Oh, I'm hurting! I have to get out of here!" the heart cried as it bumped into Chopper and began to bounce away.

"Oh, great… Well, we better chase after him, now." All five of them chased after Bubba Blubba's Heart, seeing it bounce away at each room. They saw the heart use the spring to get out at the room where they first jumped in, so they followed him out of the well and out of the Windy Mill.

Apparently, Bubba Blubba was able to get past the Boos and was right by the Windy Mill. His heart bounced his way.

"It's time to reunite!" the heart jumped straight into Bubba Blubba's chest. He cringed a little, but he flexed his muscles afterward.

Once Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and Bow got out of the Windy Mill, they saw Bubba Blubba readying himself by cracking his knuckles.

"Oh yeah! Now I'm feeling good! With my heart and body united, there's no way to beat me! Let's settle this!" Bubba Blubba grinned.

"Oh, great… Another boss fight. How nice." Chopper sighed. "And he even has the apron on too! That makes it better!"

"Yeah! Maybe one of you should kiss me! ...And I'm talkin' about the ladies."

"No way," Koopla retorted.

"Not a chance," Bow added.

**Tattle: **_This is Bubba Blubba. Yes, the monster who's been cooking all the ghosts! To be honest, he seems a lot tougher than his heart. Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. His Shell Attack can do 6 points of damage, so you want to be careful of that. I'm not exactly sure what his other attacks can do, so that's bad news there._

Chopper started off with a simply Power Bounce of Bubba Blubba. He was able to stomp on him seven times, so he left him with 42 HP, to his delight. Bow used her Smack on Bubba Blubba, making him spin around.

"Huh? This isn't right…" he gaped as he noticed a mark on him. "You're actually hurting me! No…" Bubba Blubba stomped his way to Chopper and hit him with his frying pan.

"Ow... Whoever knew frying pans could hurt?"

Chopper did another Power Bounce on him in order to weaken him, and he was able to stomp on him eight times, dealing 9 damage instead.

Bow appeared in front of Bubba Blubba. He licked his lips as he saw her, but this only got the Boo princess mad, making her smacked him five times.

Bubba Blubba stepped back, and he came charging at Chopper. He did a flip, and landed on Chopper with his shell. Luckily, Chopper guarded the attack, and he only took 5 damage.

"5 damage? Yeesh... That's a bit extreme." Chopper gawked.

"But we're still winning the fight," Bow informed. "I swear that I want to make him pay for even thinking about eating me."

Chopper decided to use his Cutter Ability on him, so he threw a golden cutter at Bubba Blubba. Koopla was able to make her move this time, so she got in her shell, and she used her Shell Toss to attack Bubba Blubba. This was only angering him.

"You're in for it, now!" Bubba Blubba growled as he charged towards Chopper and punched him and Koopla.

"Ouch… I never knew I was gonna get that…" Koopla moaned, falling over on the ground.

Chopper took the cutter blade off his hat and threw it at Bubba Blubba again. It came back to him, and he caught it, putting it back on his cap as Bubba Blubba cringed in pain. Bruce walked toward Bubba Blubba and blew up right in front of him. His Bomb attack did 5 damage.

"He's going down pretty quick! That's a good thing." Chopper smirked.

Bubba Blubba growled and threw his frying pan at Chopper, knocking away his ability. This ended up ticking Chopper off.

"I'm going to get you for that!" Chopper shouted as he took out his hammer and whacked Bubba Blubba in the stomach.

"Oof!" Bubba Blubba coughed as he held his stomach in pain.

"Bow, would you like to do the honors of finishing him off?" Chopper asked.

"Certainly, Chopper," Bow smiled as she pinched Chopper's cheeks. "Your cheeks are just so pinchable that I can't resist doing that!"

She disappeared and appeared right by Bubba Blubba while Chopper rubbed his right cheek.

"Man… Why does she always have to do that? That kind of hurts my cheeks sometimes."

"I still think she should've kissed me..." grumbled Bruce.

"This is for cooking all of those Boos that you've taken!" Bow shouted as she smacked Bubba Blubba five times. Afterward, she returned to Chopper, who noticed the Clubba's eyes widen in pain.

"_**Eeeeoooow!**_" Bubba Blubba screamed as Chopper got 31 Star Points from the battle.

"Oh… Oh… Nooo! With my heart and body reunited, I'm not invincible anymore…" Bubba Blubba trailed as he rubbed his face in pain. "Now I'm back to being old 'not invincible' Bubba Blubba… This just isn't fair."

He turned to Chopper and his friends with a frown. "Look, I give up! I can't take any more of this! Here, I'll release all of the Boos that I didn't cook!"

Bubba Blubba took out a sack, and all of the Boos that were trapped inside were free. However, Chopper still tapped his foot, making Bubba Blubba grumble as he opened his mouth, spitting Stanley out. Chopper smirked as he gave him a nod.

"Oh! I'm free!" Stanley gasped. "I can't believe Bubba Blubba ate me without cooking me! I'm free!" With that, he flew off.

"I am such a disgrace! I mean, my younger brother got beaten by a fat plumber, but now I get beaten up by some eight year old kid?" Bubba Blubba pouted. "I don't want to be invincible anymore if it means I have to get my butt kicked and smacked around by a little kid and a ghost!"

And with that, Bubba Blubba fled from the group. Chopper looked confused. He didn't cry from the beating, but he was definitely upset.

"_**Gwaaa ha ha ha. **_Serves you right!" Bow cackled. "And everyone who got captured has returned safely! Hooray!"

"Yeah! We beat a chef!" Bruce smirked. "I feel so manly."

"Well, he was a bit tougher than Tutankoopa and the Koopa Bros., that's for sure..." Koopla said.

"…But I guess I better tell everyone not to mess with his cooking anymore. We used to love messing with his cooking because we sometimes enjoy pranking others. Oh well. We're not sorry for it! Messing with people is what ghosts do, so Boo on him… Ha!"

"So you mean this whole reason for trying to kill you Boos was because you messed up his cooking?" Chopper frowned. "I think that was a little rude..."

"Sure, Boos love to prank, but ruining someone's cooking for someone is NOT a prank. It's more cruel than funny." Koopla frowned.

"True, I did feel that it was a little cruel, and I did feel sorry for him, but he did try to harm us... But besides, that was a pretty invigorating experience. I've never felt so full of excitement before!" Bow squealed.

"Because I was with you the whole time," Bruce declared before getting smacked by Chopper. "Hey! Watch it!"

"And… Ahem… It was also a good learning experience. I think I better experience some more of the outside world. Especially with you, Chopper. So… I think I'll accompany you a little longer. Is that OK, Chopper? Of course it's OK, right?"

"Well, after what you've done for us, I think it's safe to say that you can come..." Chopper nodded. "Just...don't try to talk about love to me."

"Done," the Boo girl declared. "You're so lucky to be traveling with me. I'm actually pleased that you were able to do this job, so I'm going to reward you with the two things I promised."

"Wait... Two things... You mean we get the Star Spirit?"

"Of course! I did promise you that! And here's your second reward!"

Bow giggled as she covered her face and revealed her adorable look from before. She flew over to Chopper and gave him a kiss on the cheek. It wasn't much of a peck like the last time.

"Gross! I don't want to be rewarded with a kiss!" Chopper cried.

"Dang… I was hoping I could've gotten that…" Bruce groaned.

"That is a kiss for you to remember, Chopper," Bow giggled as she blushed. "I felt that you deserved that from me. Of course, I'm going to consider you as my, well, you know."

"I'm not going to be your boyfriend..." Chopper trailed. "I'm more focused on saving the Mushroom Kingdom than going out with a ghost girl."

"Believe me, I think our biggest priority will be saving the Mushroom Kingdom. But love is another important thing as you travel, right?"

"Well, love from your family and friends is one thing... But I don't know anything about relationships."

"Maybe you'll learn over time. I DO like you for helping us, and, honestly... I've never had a boyfriend of my own. So, I don't know everything about relationships either. My parents told me a couple of things about romantic relationships, but not a whole lot. Maybe we'll both learn further."

"Oh... Well, OK?"

"I should be the one getting the girl here," Bruce groaned.

"You really didn't do anything, Bruce. You just did a Bomb attack, and that's it. Nothing else." Parakarry noted.

"Here you go, Chopper. I'm giving you back the Star Spirit, which is what I promised to you." Bow reverted back to her previous look and called out for Bootler.

Bootler floated down to the five. "Here, Chopper. He's free now." Bow winked at Chopper as she ordered Bootler to release the Bowser Card. A white mist of light appeared and blew up. The Bowser Card of Skolar appeared right there.

"You sure it's all right for me to take it?" Chopper asked.

"Of course it is. You've earned it." Bow smiled. "Just promise me you'll tell me more about you as we go out."

"...All right."

The Bowser Card began to spin around and began to fade away as Skolar was finally free from his prison

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_After solving the secret of "Invincible" Bubba Blubba, Chopper and party set free Star Spirit Skolar. Now, with Bubba Blubba just a bad dream, the Boos are free to haunt to their hearts' content. Even the lonely wind echoing through Gusty Gulch seems to be celebrating the victory…at least for now. With the newest party member, Bow, in tow, Chopper and friends are ready to take on their next challenge._

* * *

**Yeah, so the boss was made a little different. I mean, the heart only has 30 HP, and Bubba Blubba himself has 50 HP. Yeah, it's like neither of them are a piece of cake. So, that worked a lot better. But, the story, in my opinion, wasn't the best in this chapter. Personally, I think Chapter 4 has a better one (It's probably my least favorite, but there is something I like in it).  
**


	20. Chapter 3 Interlude

"I wonder how Chopper is doing…" Twink wondered as Peach sighed. "Do you think he found a way to beat that Bubba Blubba?"

"I'm worried, too. I'm so worried… What if Bubba Blubba actually won…?" Peach gasped. "In fact, I wonder if that robot will ever come back?"

"Well… Um… No use wondering! Why don't we go out and try to eavesdrop again? If Chopper actually beat Bubba Blubba by now, Bowser, Maquano, and their followers will be really, really mad! …Don't you think?"

"You're probably right, Twink! I'm sure Bowser is really angry right now. But, there's no use just sitting around here. Let's see if we can find anything out. Maybe we can find where the next Star Spirit is."

Peach hit the red button under the picture, and the fireplace made that secret path for them to go through.

After going through the tunnel, Peach hit the red button on the other fireplace, and it began to turn around so the two of them are in that room that had those evil plans Maquano had on the table.

* * *

**In that room-**

"It can't be! No! No! No! Explain that again! Slowly!"

"Your Wretchedness, I keep trying to tell you. Bubba Blubba was…gulp…defeated by Chopper." Kammy confirmed.

"Well, that's strange because… YOU TOLD ME HE WAS INVINCIBLE!" Bowser roared, not paying attention to the wall that was turning. "How can you beat someone who's invincible?"

Peach looked shocked that those two were there as she was actually becoming more visible from behind the wall.

"Grrrr… Stupid Chopper… I guess he found out the secret that made Bubba Blubba not quite so invincible… And then he beat him… Gah! No wonder Maquano hates Chopper!"

"Your Filthiness… We have to come up with another tactic, and quickly. Chopper will most likely go to that **Mechanical Box** we replaced with Shy Guy's Toy Box. Also, I heard that those C Units you got rid of - except for C-2 Choppor, are somewhere in that place."

"You mean I had those robots go there! ? Well… They might help fend off Chopper once he's there. But, we're gonna need some backup. Choppor! Get over here!"

The door opened, and Peach noticed C-2 Choppor come out. But, he looked as if he heard something very important.

"How can I serve you, King Bowser?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"It's time to send you out! You're going to the Mechanical Box to go stop Chopper!" Bowser declared. "And this time, give Chopper all you got!"

"Aye aye, sir. I will do what you say." C-2 Choppor sensed something else in the room. "Scanning indicates there is someone else in this room."

"**_Gaaaah!_ **For the love of… Why… Why is Princess Peach here? What's wrong with those guards? No… Wait, hang on. This is actually good timing, my mischievous princess. We're actually trying to plan something out, and if you're here, this little robot could possibly find a weak point Chopper has! Choppor! Scan her!"

C-2 Choppor began to scan Princess Peach's mind of anything that might help Bowser defeat Chopper. He actually found some interesting information.

"So, tell me what it is, Choppor. And listen, you must tell me the TRUTH! What does Chopper hate the most?"

"Mushrooms. He hates Mushrooms the most."

_"Mushrooms?" _Peach gawked. _"I swear that that wouldn't be much of a weakness for Chopper... Unless he's lying?"_

"Mmm… I see! Excellent! Is there another thing that fills him with dread?"

"…Thunder Rages. That's what he hates."

"Good, good… And how about some more? What does he also hate besides what you just said, there?"

"A Super Soda. I have answered all three of your questions. Mission complete."

"Oh, excellent! Pefect! Thanks, Choppor! I knew you were the best! Gwaa ha ha ha ha! Be sure Chopper can't avoid these things that he hates! We'll beat him for sure!" Bowser cackled as he turned to Kammy. "Did you get all of that, Kammy Koopa? Get going immediately!"

"Bleah heh nyeah heh ho! Of course, Your Gnarliness!" Kammy cackled. "Chopper's really in for it…or is he…? Hmmm… I started to wonder for a second there… But, then again, King Bowser's ordered this so I have no choice but to obey him… I guess we'll see!"

"Of course you will. My tactics are brilliant. They're pure art!" Bowser turned back to Peach. "So… Kammy Koopa, have Princess Peach taken back to her room immediately. Finally, we will witness the end of Chopper! At last! Gwaa ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Guards! Attention! Take Princess Peach back to her room at once!" Kammy ordered as two Koopatrols came in the room.

"Yes, ma'am!" the two Koopatrols nodded as they picked her up.

"Noooo! Not again…" Peach cried as the Koopatrols took her back to her room. Twink, meanwhile, flew off to go tell Chopper the news. C-2 Choppor listened to the cries of Peach as they slowly began to get softer.

"Now, C-2 Choppor. It's time for you to head out! Go stop Chopper at once if those traps fail to get him!" Bowser ordered.

"Aye, aye, sir. I will comply." C-2 Choppor nodded and left the room.

"What about that one C Unit that we had in that storage room?" Kammy asked.

"Oh, that guy? Why don't we let him go out there? Maybe with that upgrade, he'll be useful!" Bowser cackled. "In fact, let's see if he can guard the Star Spirit for us?"

* * *

**In the sky-**

C-2 Choppor flew down to the Mushroom Kingdom, knowing what he had to do from given orders by Bowser. He must terminate Chopper once and for all.

But… He was beginning to think about seeing C-1 Mega being changed, the C Units being taken away, seeing Princess Peach, seeing Chopper, and then seeing Bowser.

It was like… He realized the truth. He knew what those C Units are being controlled by… Star Kids. Stars Kids were trapped inside those C Units. All except for him and his brother. Seeing Twink made him think about something.

The Star Kids needed to be set free.

"King Bowser… He is the true enemy." C-2 Choppor confirmed. "Master registration… Deleted. C Units… Chopper… Friends… Must save the C Units… I must find Chopper and ask him for my help to save them…"

* * *

**Outside of Windy Mill-**

"Hello again, Chopper," Skolar greeted, now that he was free from the Bowser Card. "I knew you could do it. I don't know how to thank you. I knew it was the right decision to ask you to help us. You're a great boy. Now that I'm free, I can help you. Ha!"

Skolar used his power to lend Chopper some of his. Chopper felt some star energy go into him and smiled as the sparkles fell down on him.

**Chopper's Star Energy goes up to 3! Chopper can now use Star Storm, a new Star Spirit power! With Star Storm, Chopper can now attack all enemies!**

"…Chopper. I have one bit of bad news. Unfortunately, Bowser's life force seems to be getting stronger all the time. Most likely it's the Star Rod that's giving him more power. We're not even sure if he's noticing it or not, but there's no question that it's making him stronger than before. We will have to be much more careful in the coming trials."

"I see… So he's getting stronger each second?" Chopper gawked. "Well, what about Maquano and Staris? I mean, they're big problems too."

"As long as we keep Staris away from us, he will not transform. However, Maquano can summon Staris to come to his aid, which can be extremely dangerous if he's ever found a Star Spirit. He could call him in to absorb my power!"

"Staris? Maquano? Hold on, they're your enemies, Chopper?" Bow gasped. "If so, I'll make sure that we can handle them."

"Those two are pretty threatening," Chopper informed. "Although, even then, they might not be easy opponents..."

"We never even fought Staris before," Koopla mentioned.

"I have, and let me tell you... He's not much of a pushover."

"Ah… I'm sorry to leave, but I must go back to Star Haven." Skolar apologized. "The other Star Spirits are waiting for me there. Oh…and if you could… Please keep it a secret that I got lost in Forever Forest. Thanks, Chopper. Bye!"

Chopper looked up to see Skolar take off. Once he was gone, Chopper saw dark energy hit the ground near him.

"What was THAT!" Bow asked, backing away from that attack. Chopper looked up, and he saw Maquano on his dragon.

"I'm sorry it break it up, Chopper. But, I'm afraid that this all ends here." Maquano grinned. "Bubba Blubba wasn't really THAT tough. I knew you would defeat him no problem."

"Yeah, I beat Bubba Blubba! You're next!" Chopper smirked as he jumped toward Maquano, but he fired dark energy at him, knocking him to the ground.

"Oww!" Bow helped Chopper up and clenched his fists when he looked at Maquano. He simply laughed.

"Silly little boy! Even if Bowser's invincible, I can still control the Star Rod's power!"

"Let's just cut the chitchat and fight already! I want to end this right here, right now! You got that?"

"No no… I don't really need to take care of you...yet. But, I know who has been DYING to get revenge on you. Staris! Your time has come!"

A yellow, watery and gooey puddle appeared by Chopper, and Staris in his first form rose. Bow noticed the muscles, nerves, and bone on its right arm.

"Ugh… What is that thing?" gagged Bow. "That thing is rather creepy and disgusting…but it doesn't scare us Boos.

"Whoa... Is that the thing you've been talking about, Chopper?" Parakarry gaped.

"Yeah," Chopper nodded.

"Scare you? He's not supposed to scare you. He's supposed to destroy you!" Maquano scoffed. "Staris is the God of the Stars! The god that will destroy all! He was easy for Chopper to beat before, but this time, he's become stronger! Just look at him!"

"He sure looks a little... Well, he looked better without that bone." Koopla commented.

"Yeah, he doesn't look too good..." Bruce trailed.

"I don't need your comments," Maquano retorted. "Sure, Bubba Blubba never beat you five, but Staris surely will. Go for it, Staris!"

Staris brought his right arm back and he punched straight toward them. Luckily, they all jumped over it to avoid it. They all got ready to fight in their fighting stances.

"This watery Star God is going down!" Parakarry declared.

**Tattle: **_Staris is back again? Well, he seems to have transformed, unlike from before. So, he's a lot stronger in his first form. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 0. It seems like he can fly up for a little bit, and even change into something. His attacks can be pretty tough to guard against, and he might even boost his attack up for a big attack. I would recommend having Bow help you for the most part, since she can hide you from his attacks. Seriously, star water? That looks more like…_

"Whoa... For a first transformation, he's a little strong..." Chopper trailed.

"This is no time to be looking at how strong he is," Bow noted. "We need to take him down!"

Chopper started off by stomping on Staris, while Bow appeared by Staris and used her Smack attack to smack Staris. It caused him to spin around, but it didn't make him give up.

Staris's right arm began to stretch toward Chopper with a bunch of energy coming at him. Luckily, he was able to guard it, taking only 4 damage.

Chopper walked toward Staris and used his Power Bounce on him. He managed to stomp on him eight times. Koopla got in her shell, and she used her Shell Toss on Staris, which hit him directly. It knocked him down, but he slithered back up

"Whoa… That was pretty creepy." Chopper cringed.

Staris transformed into a bunch of small water balls, and they began to attack Chopper. Six of them attacked Chopper, which would do 1 damage each.

"Uh oh… Chopper, you better guard that attack." Bruce warned. Chopper did just that, and he guarded only three of them.

The small water balls formed back together into Staris. Chopper brought his hammer out, and he whacked him with it. Bruce walked toward the Star God, and he immediately blew up right by him. That attack did 5 damage to Staris.

Staris's eyes then began to shine, and he stretched out his right arm in order to punch Chopper, knocking him back with a powerful punch.

"Ouch… Well, we still got our chance." Chopper got back up and jumped on Staris, and he stomped on him twice, as he usually does when stomping on enemies.

Parakarry flew up to Staris and used his Sky Dive attack to hit him directly. This caused Staris began to pant a little. He only had 4 HP left. But, he could make one more attack on them. He immediately began to power himself up.

"Not this time, Staris!" Chopper smirked as he walked to Staris and stomped on him, which ended up destroying him and turning him back to a puddle.

Chopper had his thumbs up after winning the fight and received 25 Star Points.

"Hmph… Not bad, Chopper. You actually managed to defeat Staris in his first transformation. But, don't think that's the end of him." Maquano warned. "Because when I get Staris more energy from the Star Spirits, you won't stand a chance!"

Maquano heard his communicator go off, and he saw Bob was on again. Maquano sighed and smacked his forehead.

"_Maquano, why did you ruin the whole party? I mean, it was probably the best party I ever threw without your permission! You just HAD to ruin it! Oh, and I went back on your computer again."_

"I'm busy here, Bob. Go take your idiotic mind someplace else. I don't want you in my castle, and I'm tired of you going on my computer! You can't be lazy all the time, you know."

"Who the heck is Bob?" Bow asked.

"Beats me," Chopper shrugged.

"_I know, but I just had to go on the computer the whole day so I can watch some..."_

"Yeah yeah, you like to watch Magical Bunnies," Maquano groaned.

_"Uhhhh... Yeah! Can I just go on your computer?"_

"I'm busy with Chopper, you idiot. Get out of my computer right now."

"_Fine! …Oh, and I let someone steal one of your evil magic books. Yeah, he needed them to find something in the lava."_

Maquano turned off the communicator and put it away. From the look on his face, he looked like he was about to scream.

"Anyway… You may have won this time, but it won't be so easy for you when Staris comes back to get you! Let us go for now, Staris!" Maquano said as flew off, while Staris disappeared.

"Well, now that they're out of the picture right now, let's get out of here," Chopper suggested. They left Gusty Gulch, and they returned to the creepy Forever Forest place, right by the mansion.

Chopper hit the Heart Block and Save Block first before doing anything else. "So… Let's go head off back to Toad Town, I guess."

"Yes, that's a good idea. But… I wonder how that Toad will react when he sees me with you." Bow wondered. "That might scare him. But, that's what us Boos do."

"Yeah, let's not worry about that. Let's get out of here first."

"Yeah, I WANT to get out of here, because I don't like the dark and creepy forest. But, I think I'm too distracted by Bow." Bruce stated, a small amount of drool coming from him.

"You're still drooling over her?" Koopla gawked.

"Not as much now... It's probably because I'm a little more used to her now."

Chopper opened the gate, and they began to leave. Once they were huge maze, Chopper moved the branch out of the way.

"Oh, great. We have to go through all of this again. This isn't going to be so nice, to tell you the truth." Parakarry groaned. "I don't like this place..."

"Yeah, this is going to be a big pain," Koopla face palmed.

"Nooooo! Waaahh! Bugs! Get 'em off me! I'm lost in a freaky forest! S-s-so s-scared…"

"Wait... Who was that?" Bow asked.

"Oh, great… Don't tell me who I think it is." Chopper groaned as he and the others walked to the right side of the circular path. They ended up hearing the voice again.

"Eeeek!" Jr. Troopa ended up bumping into Chopper, and when he opened his eyes, he saw him.

"Oh, Chopper! Oh, thank… …I mean, ah HA! Boy, are you unlucky to run into me again!"

"You gotta be kidding me… Why now?" Chopper face palmed. "Of all the people I didn't want to see, I just had to run into you."

"Oh... I remember this kid." Bow face palmed. "I remember he was lost in this forest last time. It was actually kind of funny!"

"Hey! Shut up! Shut uuuuup! I'm not a lost child!" whined Jr. Troopa. "I'm your worst nightmare! Here comes the pain!"

"Why NOW! ?" Chopper gaped. "I JUST fought against Staris! I don't want to face you again!"

"It's all right, Chopper," Bow giggled. "I'll stay close to you if you need to relax."

"...And I don't want that either."

"Don't think I'm as vulnerable as I was before. Check this out! _**More power!**_" Bat wings vaporized on Jr. Troopa's back, and he began to fly above the group. "Ha ha! Yeah, that's right! Let's see how you like the new, improved Jr. Troopa!"

**Tattle: **_Jr. Troopa's back again? When does this little guy ever quit? Heh heh heh… He got lost in the big bad forest. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 1. He can fly now, so ground attacks might now work. He seems a bit stronger, so you'll want to be a little careful of him this time._

Chopper moved toward Jr. Troopa, and he jumped on him with his Power Bounce. He got to hit him eight times, so that did 8 damage.

"Looks like I can really only fight him," Parakarry stated. "I mean, Koopla and Bruce can't reach him, Bow's Smack won't do anything, so it's up to me now."

Parakarry flew up and he dove right at Jr. Troopa. His point of defense only made him do 2 damage instead of 3.

Jr. Troopa flew toward Chopper and dove at him. He was able to guard the attack and take less damage.

"You're gonna have to do a little more than that to hit me, Jr. Troopa! Watch this!" Chopper did another Power Bounce and stomped on him five times. "See? I'm actually creaming you!"

Parakarry did his Sky Dive on Jr. Troopa, and this only made him a lot angrier than before, since he hates getting beaten all the time.

Jr. Troopa tried to attack Chopper again, but he simply guarded it like before, and he got Power Bounced ten times by Chopper.

"Not bad, Chopper! That was an impressive Power Bounce! Now I'm up!" Parakarry smiled as he flew to Jr. Troopa and used his Sky Dive again to hit him. Jr. Troopa attacked Chopper again by diving at him in anger, and he still guarded his attack.

"How is he defending like that? ! I mean, I NEVER really get to do that! That's not fair!" Jr. Troopa whined.

"I know it isn't. I want to end this quickly." Chopper jumped on Jr. Troopa and he used his Power Bounce to stomp him nine times. "We already had a fight beforehand, and I don't want to waste too much time on you."

I think this is it!" Parakarry noted as he flew toward Jr. Troopa, and with one attack, he was lying on the ground in defeat

"Good work, Parakarry!" Chopper congratulated as he got 22 Star Points.

"Nooooo! Darn it! Darn it! Darn iiiiiiit!" Jr. Troopa whined as he began to flee and try to get out of the forest.

"We better follow him. I think we can get out of the forest if we simply followed him."

"I think that's a good idea, Chopper. Yes, a good idea…" Bow nodded.

"Are you just saying that because you like me?" Chopper gawked.

"Maybe... But I think we can all agree on getting out of here."

* * *

**Out of Forever Forest-**

Everyone (excluding Bow) sighed in relief as they got out of Forever Forest. They were all covered in a couple of bruises and cuts from fighting a couple of Piranha Plants. They also got stuck because of a couple of prickly plants.

"I'm never going back there again," Bruce sighed.

"Thank god we're out of there..." Koopla smiled. "While it wasn't as bad as the desert, I want to see an actual sky."

"Oh! I made it out of the forest! I could kiss this ground! **_Yaaaaahoo!_**" They noticed that Jr. Troopa also made it out of the forest and was now running somewhere else.

"I say we just leave him be," Chopper suggested.

Once they all returned to Toad Town, they saw the Toad Guard still at his post. But apparently, something felt a little different.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Chopper saw some kind of C Unit robot fly by Toad Town. They went to the guard to see what's going on.

"There's been some robots coming around here. They said they were looking for some eight year old kid." the guard explained. "But compared to ghosts, these robots are NOTHING!"

"You're Fice T., the guard of Forever Forest, correct?" Parakarry asked. "The name's Parakarry. I deliver letters. I believe I have one for you. Hang on a moment."

He took out a letter, and he gave it to Fice T. "Another letter, dully deliver. A postman's work is never done."

"I wonder who 'Bootler' is." Fice T. opened the letter and noticed that it was in ghost writing, turning his face white. "…Ugh… Oh, no… No-! This is from that ghost! It says, 'I'll creep up on you while you're sleeping… Boo!' He loves scaring me! You think…he'll really…? Creeping…darkness… Oh, woe is me! I'll never sleep… Get a hold of yourself, Fice T.! Stand tall! Fear not! I'll be OK, take this."

Fice T. gave Chopper a Star Piece, and he put it away. They waved goodbye as they left him, but Bow didn't seem happy for some reason.

"Hmph... He doesn't know how to notice a beautiful ghost girl like me." Bow huffed.

"Uhhh... What?" Chopper gawked.

"He wasn't even scared of me!"

"Maybe he didn't see you..." Parakarry trailed.

"Maybe you're right. Anyway, let's go look around." Bow grabbed Chopper by the hand and dragged him across the bridge. However, they stopped for a minute when they heard a voice.

"Resistance is futile. Where is the boy?" There wasn't much else, but the robot left and simply went west of Toad Town, not noticing Chopper.

"Hey, that robot looked like that robot we saw from Koopa Bros. Park! There's more of them around here?" Koopla gaped.

"I don't know. This is weird… Let's just follow that robot." Chopper suggested. They headed to the left, but before they could do something else, Chopper suddenly heard a voice.

"**_Chopper!_**" Twink came down to Chopper, who waved to him. "Chopper! Chopper! Good to see you!"

"It's good to see you!" Chopper smiled. "I already defeated Bubba Blubba already, and I just noticed a robot come by here."

"Yeah, we heard that you defeated Bubba Blubba! I knew you could do it! I just knew it! When we heard the news, the princess felt relieved."

"That's good news. Anything about the next Star Spirit?"

"Oh, yes… I've got new information about the honorable Star Spirits who are still imprisoned. Have you ever heard of the Mechanical Box? It seems that one of the honorable Star Spirits is being held there. …But where on earth is the Mechanical Box? I have no idea…"

"Maybe that robot might know where it is. So, that might be a good idea to go follow." Parakarry suggested.

"Yeah, you should do that! Right now, I have to go back to the princess now. Good luck, Chopper! Princess Peach and I are always cheering you on."

With that, Twink flew off.

"So, you're trying to rescue the princess from Bowser? Reminds me of seven months ago when I helped Mario with that." Bow remarked.

"You were with Mario before? He's kind of like an idol for me." Chopper stated. "Him and also two others that you probably don't know about. And yes, I gotta save the princess…and ALSO beat Bowser, Maquano, and stop Staris."

There was a yellow house all the way to the left that seemed to have some noise going on…mechanical noises, actually.

"Hey, what's going on over there?" questioned Bruce. "Maybe there could be something interesting in that place."

"Let's go take a look, then," Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and Bow walked to the house, and Chopper opened the door. They found a brown floor, furniture covered up in white sheets, and a white wall. Nothing really appeared to be around here.

"Hmmm… I have a feeling we need to stay hidden." Bow said. "Let me hide you guys so if anyone comes in, they won't spot us."

"Wait, why do we have to…" Chopper's words were interrupted when Bow covered his mouth and made him invisible. The others became invisible as well.

"I don't think you should've covered his mouth," Koopla said.

"Well, he looked cute when his mouth is covered," Bow giggled. "But anyway, let's just remain silent and wait..."

"Aimlessly..." Bruce added, receiving strange looks from others.

A C Unit came into the room, and it walked to the door. Basically, these C Units have round heads, a small body, and some skinny arms with guns attached to their hands. In their body, they have a stripe of any color.

The C Unit walked to the wall, and it opened a part of it that appeared to be some kind of door. The robot headed in there.

"Whoa… That's actually a door? That's interesting…" Chopper gawked as he got Bow's hand off his mouth. Everyone else became visible and opened the door. Bow frowned now that she wasn't able to see Chopper with a covered mouth.

In the next room, they saw a gray box. A spring was right next to them that could be used to go into the box.

"I thought this was a toy box?" Parakarry remarked. "Last time I came here, it didn't look like this."

"Sounds like Bowser wanted to change it up a bit," Bow shrugged.

"So… THIS place is the Mechanical Box?" Chopper gawked. "Ummm… This is pretty interesting, I have to say. Kind of small, actually... Let's head on in."

Chopper jumped onto the spring, and it sent him into the box. It looked like he shrunk when he got in. Koopla jumped in, and then Bruce and Parakarry.

"For some reason, I have a feeling that this box may seem a bit different than what it was before…" Bow trailed. "But, we shall see soon for ourselves! **_Gwaaa ha ha!_**"

Bow simply flew down into the box, shrinking in size as the box opened. What would lie in this box? And will there be someone waiting for them?


	21. Switching Sides

**CHAPTER 4**

**-The Four of Mechanical Box-**

Chopper landed on the ground, rather than a spring, which was rather unfortunate him. Once he got up, he saw that there appeared to be teleporter. He also noticed that there was a broken down train as well. The Toad conductor that used to be there was now gone. Chopper tried to check and see if the train would do anything, but sadly, it didn't. So many things have happened with this train...

"Whoa… This is the Mechanical Box? Well, it sure does look mechanical all right." Chopper noticed the machinery in the area and the Save Block. He decided to hit that first before doing anything else.

Chopper heard someone coming down, and he saw Koopla and Bruce falling above him. He immediately jumped out of the way before he could get flattened like a pancake.

"Ouch… I felt like I cracked my skull…" Bruce moaned. "Wait, I don't have a skull, don't I? I'm a Bob-omb…"

"_I _have a skull…and it's pretty hard," Koopla screeched, rubbing his head in pain as she got up. "There's no way my skull's going to crack. I've been through much worse."

"Like what?"

"I hit my head on a diamond."

"Did it hurt?"

"Yeah. It really did."

Parakarry began to come down, and he simply hovered down with his wings. The others couldn't help but feel jealous of this.

"Well, you folks sound like you are in pain. Did any of you get hurt?" Parakarry asked, worried about any injuries they could've suffered from. "I wish I could help, but I'm only a postman."

"Nobody got hurt. At least that's what I think." Chopper assured.

"So you're fine?" Bow asked as she flew down to the group. "That's good! I wouldn't want anything bad to happen to you, wouldn't I?" she began to pinch Chopper's cheeks again.

"Hey hey hey! Watch the face! That actually kind of hurts, to tell you the truth, Bow." Chopper cried, rubbing his cheeks.

"You know, if you want me to stop, all you have to do is kiss me on the lips."

"...No. That's disgusting."

"All right, I guess I'll continue to pinch your cheeks!"

"You can pinch mine if you want," Bruce spoke. "I don't mind at all. You're still pretty hot to me…but I know we gotta focus and all that."

"Weren't you obsessed with Bombette? You were all over her seven months ago. Did you get over that already?" Bow asked.

"Yeah, I did. I knew I had to move on in life, so I did that. So… Now I can…" Bruce noticed something his fuse. It seemed that one of the C Robos fired a laser at his fuse.

"Uh oh…" Everyone backed away from Bruce as he blew up. The C Robo simply cackled in a robotic voice. Chopper picked up a rock that was on the ground, and he hit the C Robo, making it hit the wall and explode.

When Bruce fell back onto the ground from the laser, everyone could tell that he was going to get pissed off.

"WHO DID THAT!? COME ON OUT AND SHOW YOURSELF! I'LL BLOW YOU RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX!"

"Bruce, the robot's gone," Koopla informed.

"What? Dang… I wanted to blow him up. Oh, well. All we can do right now is move."

Chopper saw a path going southwest, so they all headed toward that path. They could see on the walls, some wheels moving around. There appeared to be some metal blocks on the ground as well.

A C Robo noticed Chopper, and he called for two others. Chopper made a First Strike on it, dealing 2 damage to it.

"Let's try to wrap this up," Chopper declared as he whacked the first C Robo with his hammer, while Bow smacked it, destroying it. The C Robo remaining walked toward Chopper with some kind of laser sword and attacked Chopper. But, he ended up guarding it.

The other one came to attack, and he guarded that one's attack as well. Chopper did a Power Jump and then Bruce Body Slammed it to destroy it. The C Robo left walked toward Chopper and jumped on him. He guarded that, and the C Robo was angry.

Chopper jumped on the C Robo, and to finish things off, Bow used her Smack to give it one heck of a beating. The fight awarded Chopper with 6 Star Points, and they noticed a chest up ahead to the left. A C Robo that appeared to be a black color with gray eyes was protecting the chest.

"Who's that uh…robot clown?" Chopper scoffed. "Why is he guarding that chest? Let's go see why."

They walked to the C Robo, and they noticed he had a cape wrapped around him. If you don't know, they're called Anti Robos.

"Scanning target… What do you want?" the Anti Robo asked. "The treasure in here is guarded by me. I suggest you get away now, or prepare to be annihilated."

"We want to see what's in there. I'm sure we can take you on!" Chopper replied.

"You wish to battle? You are out of your mind. You shouldn't battle someone like me. You sure you wish to battle against me?"

"Bring it on!" Chopper had his fists clenched. He knew this Anti Robo is a villain, so he'd have to face him anyway.

"As you wish. Battle mode has been engaged. Don't say I didn't warn you."

**Tattle: **_Bad news, Chopper. You're facing off against an Anti Robo. These things are very, VERY tough. I don't think it was even a wise decision to pick a fight with him. Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 10, Defense Power: 0. He can dive down at you, and that can do 12 points of damage. Chopper, I suggest trying to protect yourself as much as you can! Take him out FAST!_

"Whoa… I never knew your tattle actually said that he has 50 HP, and an attack of 10. I'm pretty sure this wasn't such a good idea to fight him."

"_That's why it's bad news,"_ Toadsmeth confirmed._ "But, the good news is that if you use Repel Gels, and have Bow smack the hell out of it, you might be able to survive."_

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce, and he stomped on the Anti Robo seven times. That was a pretty good start, in his eyes.

"So, the professor said that I would be useful?" Bow smiled. "Well, then I will definitely help you. That's why I'm still with you, anyway."

"I thought it was because you liked him for saving your kind?" Koopla mentioned.

"That too."

Bow appeared by the Anti Robo, and she smacked it five times. All together, they dealt 13 damage. The Anti Robo brought its laser sword out, and it swung it at Chopper. He didn't guard it, so it left him with 15 HP left.

"OK, that does hurt. So, we need to finish him off FAST." Chopper said, getting ready to attack again. He walked toward the Anti Robo and he used his Power Bounce to stomp on him seven more times for 8 damage. Bow smacked the Anti Robo, and then the Anti Robo walked toward Chopper to dive down on him. He quickly guarded the attack, and he took 11 damage. The Anti Robo was kind of disappointed that it didn't fully hit him.

"Yeah, I better protect myself now. With only 4 HP, I might be done for." Chopper took out a Repel Gel and he rubbed it on his arms and hands.

Suddenly, Chopper became transparent. Everyone could tell that this was something like Bow's Outta Sight ability - except this time, he can actually attack while invulnerable.

Bow smacked the Anti Robo again, now that it is her turn, and she smacked it five times, making it spin around a little. Afterward, the Anti Robo attacked Chopper with its laser sword, but it doesn't do anything, since Chopper was transparent.

"Yeah! That's right! You can't hurt me!" Chopper smirked as he used his Power Bounce to stomp on the Anti Robo seven times.

"The Anti Robo only has 11 HP left. So, if you're still invisible, we got this fight." Bow confirmed. She immediately disappeared and appeared by the Anti Robo. With that, she smacked the heck out of it, bringing it down to 6 HP.

The Anti Robo tried to attack Chopper by diving at him, but he failed. But, once he moved back, Chopper was no longer transparent.

"This isn't good… I'm vulnerable again." Chopper gulped.

"Relax. It only has 6 HP left," Bow assured. "We can take this Anti Robo out quickly. So, go ahead and attack him."

Chopper only used his Jump to attack the Anti Robo, and to finish it up, Bow used her Smack on it. He was awarded with 16 Star Points. The Anti Robo ended up blowing up, and the chest was now able to be opened.

"Let's see what's in there," Koopla suggested. Chopper opened it up, and he found a Power Plus Badge.

"Ooh! This thing can increase my attack! Maybe I should put this Badge on!" Chopper checked his Badges and when he looked at the Power Plus Badge, his expression changed.

"It requires 6 BP! What the heck?! That's WAY too much for me! I only have 12 BP…and only 3 BP left on me."

"Yeah, I have to agree with you. That's a little too much for one Badge." Parakarry nodded. "But, I guess it's because it's a powerful one."

"Well, we can't really do much around here. Wait, I need some more HP to recover. I think I'd have to go…back to Toad Town to one of the inns. So… I guess we better go head back and then return."

* * *

**Five minutes later-**

"I wonder if we're going to be doing a lot of backtracking..." wondered Koopla as they returned to the Mechanical Box.

"It doesn't matter to me, because I have no legs," Bow said.

"I wish I had arms," grumbled Bruce.

"We might as well just move on. Hold on, let me hit that yellow ? block over there." Chopper hit the block, and it only contained a coin. "What? A single coin? That's not fair!"

"There's no point in wasting our time here," Parakarry stated. "Why don't we go check out the next area?"

"Good idea."

* * *

**Next area-**

After quite a conversation, they made it to the last area of the Blue Area. It was a pretty big area, but there were only two C Robos and also one box with some door that required some kind of code. If you don't know, the sky is a light gray color to fit with the dark gray mechanical ground. But, for some reason, it felt like they were being watched.

"Guys, it feels like we're being watched for some reason..." Chopper trailed. "It's like…that box over there seems to have blue eyes looking at us, waiting for us to open it. Don't you guys agree with me there?"

"Hmmm… I guess I would say that. Though nothing really scares Boos, those blue eyes do seem a bit scary." Bow agreed. "Don't get me wrong. I'm not actually AFRAID of them."

"Oh, really?"

"Do I have to make you calm down with some affection?"

"_Gulp..._ No."

"We're sure you're not afraid of those eyes," Koopla believed. "I'm not afraid of them either. Anyway, is there really anything we have to do around here?"

"How about we take care of those two C Robos? We'll get to the box later." Chopper suggested as he landed a First Strike on the first one and then used his hammer to hit it afterward. Bow smacked the C Robo, destroying it. The last C Robo left attacked Chopper with its laser sword, but he guarded the attack.

Chopper walked toward the C Robo and jumped right on it. To finish things up, Bow used her Smack. They were awarded with 4 Star Points. Afterward, they began to check for anything else around. Sadly, they couldn't find anything. Just machinery on the walls.

"Well, this doesn't look good," Bruce frowned. "I was hoping we could find something useful around here. Turns out there's _NOTHING_."

"Well, this place _is _rather empty," Parakarry agreed. "I'm sure there wouldn't be anything hidden around here. I don't really know about this place, because I only went into Shy Guy's Toybox."

"Well, anyway. Maybe we should go check what's in the next area." Chopper shrugged. "I remember seeing a path to the southeast. So, let's go there."

Once they headed back to the beginning of the Blue Area, they decided to stop and relax for a minute.

"Well, at least there aren't any enemies here," Koopla sighed.

"It couldn't possibly get any worse, right?" Parakarry asked.

"Parakarry... Don't say that..." Bow said with a glare.

"Oh, come on! That doesn't usually happen! It's always a..."

"Don't move. Stay where you are."

"It's always a what?" Bow glared at Parakarry again, who grinned sheepishly.

They all looked up and saw C-2 Choppor hovering down with his jetpack. Chopper gaped as he jumped a bit. Koopla clenched his fists and got in a fighting stance, while Bruce readied his fuse in case if he had to light it up.

"It's that robot again!" Chopper gasped. "What was his name? C-2 Choppor? He's come back to get his revenge!"

"Does this robot want to challenge us again? He's not going to be able to succeed this time. There's five of us, and only one of him!" Koopla scoffed.

"He looks tougher this time. But, I can handle him!" Bruce smirked. "I managed to take care of him before he could attack Chopper!"

"Hmm? That robot looks a little different than the others..." Parakarry noticed. "Why does he look kind of like Chopper though? This is weird…"

"This robot looks like Chopper? Meh, not really much." Bow shrugged. "I mean, Chopper is cuter than this robot. Robots are never really cute anyway."

C-2 Choppor landed down on the ground, and everyone got in their fighting stances. C-2 Choppor responded by aiming his gun at them. But, after realizing who one of the people were, he lowered his weapon.

"Huh? You're not going to fire?" Chopper gawked as C-2 Choppor walked over to him.

"Chopper… I have not come to hurt you." the robot stated. "I need your help, and you need mine."

"What do you mean? We're perfectly fine. We can handle this place. Why are you saying we need your help?"

"And why should you help us anyway?" Koopla asked.

"Statuses tell me that I have left Bowser for good," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "Those C Units he got rid of… They are in the Mechanical Box. Chopper, help me rescue them."

"Rescue them? But aren't they the bad guys?" Chopper gawked. "I would help them if they were good..."

"They are not truly robots. I need your help to free them from the inside."

"Free them from the inside? Are you saying that they're powered up?" Bow questioned.

"Affirmative. Star Kids are what's giving them power."

"Star Kids? ! Why would Star Kids be powered up by them?" Koopla gaped.

"That's just cruel!" Bruce said in an angry tone.

"Scanners indicate that there is one in the Blue Area," confirmed C-2 Choppor.

"So you want to join us to stop Bowser and also rescue the robots that are here? Umm… I don't know what to say, there..." Chopper trailed.

"I have deleted my master registration. I consider you a friend, Chopper. I know the truth and require your assistance."

"…All right, I guess you can. I mean, that sounds a little sad. Stars are actually controlling the robots. Does this mean you're really a Star Kid?"

"Negative. I am the second C Unit that was created. I never had a Star Kid put in me. My creators only used Star Kids after me after finding out that those would work best."

"OK, Choppor… I will help you destroy the C Units so that the Star Kids can be set free. You can also join me on my quest."

"You absolutely sure about this, Chopper?" Bow asked. "This could be some kind of trap."

"Yeah, the hot ghost is right," Bruce agreed. "Just because he said that Star Kids are being trapped inside doesn't mean that I trust this guy!"

"He speaks the truth, guys," Chopper replied. "If you can look deeply at that red scanner of his, you would know how it has been for him."

"All right, I guess I'll accept that, then. He might be pretty helpful against these other C Robos." Bow sighed.

"Fine, he can come. But… I still don't trust him." Bruce said, glaring at C-2 Choppor. He didn't appear to glare back.

"I, C-2 Choppor, will fully accompany you. Consider me fully at your service. Initiating friendship with Chopper." C-2 Choppor said.

**C-2 Choppor joined your party! Press (v) to have C-2 Choppor scan anything and fire at it. He can use this to shoot things that are too high or even too far for Koopla to hit. Not only that, but his scanner will allow Chopper to see through the dark if you use it in a dark place and find hidden things. While in battle, he can shoot enemies and pierce their defense with his Shoot attack or fire at multiple enemies with Multi-Fire.**

"We must go, now. There is a key that unlocks that blue box. Follow me if you want to unlock it." C-2 Choppor suggested as he walked to the southeast path. The others followed him.

* * *

But, while they were doing that, Kammy Koopa appeared by a chest and used her magic to make a Mushroom appear.

"Nyeah heh heh… Perfect. Chopper hates this thing, so he'll surely turn back. Uh… I think…" Kammy said with an unsure look. "That doesn't look like the sort of thing that would bother Chopper. I wonder if I should really trust what Choppor said…"

Kammy began to wonder about this. "Well…it doesn't matter. King Bowser ordered it. And he's the boss! …Though maybe Maquano would've known some better things. He DOES know more about Chopper than we do."

Kammy immediately flew off. Chopper's greatest weakness was just left there. But, was it REALLY his weakness?

* * *

In the next area, there appeared to be a spring by some big gray blocks. But it couldn't be activated if you jump on it. Luckily, there was a switch in the area.

"Stay on the spring. I can get you all up there." C-2 Choppor scanned the switch, and when Chopper got on, he fired a yellow blast at the spring. It sent Chopper up onto the block. He helped the others get across, and then he hovered up with his jetpack. There was another spring on the block, and it allowed them to cross the gap.

They landed on the ground, and they found more C Robos. However, C-2 Choppor was able to destroy them with his Shoot attack. Luckily, Chopper leveled up and chose FP this time.

"Whoa, that's pretty cool. Do those C Robos have Star Kids in them too?" Chopper asked.

"Affirmative," C-2 Choppor confirmed as Star Kids flew out of the C Robo, cheering now that they were free. Afterward, they noticed a wall blocking their way up ahead. There was a green square on the ground and a switch nearby. There was a yellow mechanical pincer with black stripes above the green square. Chopper got on the green square and C-2 Choppor fired at the switch. The pincer grabbed Chopper, and it brought him over the wall. He saw a chest and also a Mushroom lying there.

"A Mushroom? Who put this here?" Chopper picked it up. "Oh well. Finders keepers!"

Chopper opened the chest that was being guarded by the Mushroom, and he found a Blue Key. He put the Mushroom and the key away, and he used the spring to get back to the other side.

"I found the key that we need! Yep, I think we can use this to go save that C Unit that's in that box."

"Excellent. Then we must head back to where you were at after fighting the Anti Robo." C-2 Choppor suggested.

* * *

**Area with large, blue box-**

"If whatever's in there is really it, then I'm expecting a fight. But, I'll be sure to smack that robot to the ground." Bow assured, getting her fan out. "Don't get yourself hurt, OK, Chopper?

"I've gotten hurt plenty of times, and you never said that..." Chopper trailed.

"Is that your girlfriend?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"No..."

"Well, I can say that we are," Bow confirmed while Chopper shook his head. "Don't listen to him, OK?"

"Hey!"

Annoyed, Chopper went to the box and put the key in the code slot. What was surprising was that the code was just the key. The box opened up, and C-3 Cosmo was revealed to be inside.

"C-3 Cosmo..." C-2 Choppor muttered.

"Identifying target!" C-3 Cosmo stated. "Target: Chopper. Status: Soon to be eliminated. You got three seconds to run, or be destroyed."

C-2 Choppor immediately aimed his gun at C-3 Cosmo, ready to destroy and free his friend.

"I'm here to save you... Don't worry..."

**Tattle: **_This is C-3 Cosmo. He is the third of the C Units. He looks a little different than C-2 Choppor, just with no visor and two guns instead of one. Max HP: 25, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 1. C-2 Choppor is definitely the key to beating these robots. Why? His attacks are capable of blasting through the robot! Don't get me wrong, Chopper. You can attack the robot. However, C-2 Choppor's moves ignore defense, so that should help. But, be careful when it fires missiles or freezes you. It can do that._

Chopper walked to C-3 Cosmo and whacked it with his hammer. Since C-3 Cosmo had a point of defense, he only dealt 3 damage to it. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at C-3 Cosmo and fired a yellow blast at it. His attack did the same amount that Bow's Smack did when she wasn't upgraded.

"Target confirmed! Fire!" C-3 Cosmo confirmed.

"Crud..." Chopper gulped.

C-3 Cosmo fired a missile at Chopper. He was able to guard the attack and use his Power Bounce on the blue robot, stomping on him six times. Due to him having an extra point of defense, his jump only did 1 damage each time.

C-2 Choppor fired a yellow blast at C-3 Cosmo, and it began to damage him a little more, making sparks fly out of it. C-3 Cosmo hovered up and began to fire multiple ice blasts at Chopper. He got hit by the three blasts, each doing 1 damage.

"All right, he's almost done for right now. Only 8 HP left. As long as he doesn't recover or anything like that…" Chopper huffed.

Chopper went ahead and used his Power Bounce once again. He was able to stomp on C-3 Cosmo four times. C-2 Choppor finished it off by firing a yellow blast at C-3 Cosmo. It finished the robot up, and they were awarded with 14 Star Points.

"Well, that wasn't so hard, to tell you the truth. You wiped him out in only one minute." Bow sighed. "But, that's because you're Chopper."

"That was more Choppor who fought the robot. Not me." Chopper responded. "He DID finish C-3 Cosmo off..."

"Yeah, that's true," Parakarry agreed.

"OK, I guess Choppor did more work," the Boo sighed again.

C-2 Choppor saw a bright light coming from C-3 Cosmo. It looked like this robot was going to explode.

"We must move out of the way. This robot will soon explode." C-2 Choppor warned. They all got out of the way and watched as C-3 Cosmo blew up

C-2 Choppor saw a blue Star Kid fly out of the robot, now free.

"C-3 Cosmo. Rescue complete."

"Wait... That Star Kid was blue!" Koopla gawked.

"So, the first few C Units with Star Kids were different color?" Chopper asked.

"Affirmative," C-2 Choppor nodded.

"Wow, that's interesting..." Bruce trailed.

"How many more are there to be saved?" Chopper asked. "Because we gotta go save the other ones too."

"There are only two others left. My big brother does not have a Star in him, nor do I have one. However, to make sure Bowser's plans are stopped, I will make sure I set every single Star Kid free from every single C Robo and make sure no C Units are left."

"That might take a while... Wait, did you say you wanted to make sure all C Units were gone? Does that mean you..."

"It's better not to question him, Chopper," Bow suggested.

"Scanners indicate that there's a large chest in the vicinity," C-2 Choppor informed.

Chopper saw a big chest in the box that was near C-3 Cosmos remains. He walked over to it, and he opened. White gloves with a fire glow popped out and landed in Chopper's hands.

"What the… Gloves?" Chopper gawked.

**You got the Super Gloves! Chopper can now use the Hand Ability, which allows him to shoot fireballs from his gloves to light up anything or burn enemies!**

"Super Gloves? Huh… Kind of interesting here. But, if it allows me to shoot fireballs like Mario, then I'll take it!" Chopper smirked as he put the gloves on. He noticed a little glow of fire around his hands that slowly disappeared. With that, they headed to the main area of the Blue Area.

"Hmmm… I think something needs to be lit up." Chopper saw some kind of candle by the blue teleporter pad, so he went up the steps and lit up the candle. The teleporter pad revealed a bright orange pad beside the dark purple and dark gray pad. From what they could tell, the teleporter to the Orange Area was working just fine.

"Interesting… So doing that will activate the teleporter pad." Parakarry smiled. "Well, we can finally get out of this area! So, let's move!"

"I would certainly like to go to a different area. So, let's just use it and go to where our destination leads us to." Bow suggested.

"Yes, we must use this to find the others and rescue them," C-2 Choppor agreed. "Come, Chopper. This should take us to the Orange Area."

They all began to use the pad one at a time, with Chopper and C-2 Choppor going last. They rescued one major C Unit, but there was still two more left to save…

* * *

**That's right! C-2 Choppor is the FIFTH party member! You know, it's kind of similar in Paper Mario 2... Vivian's the fifth party member, and not to mention she fights Mario, which is something C-2 Choppor has done. Coincidence? No idea... :P**


	22. Orange Like a Hot Crater

There appeared to be a glowing blue teleporter pad on the ground in the Orange Area of the Mechanical Box. Instead of the color blue, the whole place looked more orange. There were cogs moving on the walls, and in the background, the sky changed to an orange. The gray ground even had a bit of orange shining on it compared to the Blue Area.

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, Bow, and C-2 Choppor appeared from the teleporter pad, and they moved down the steps to the ground.

"So this is the Orange Area? Well, if it was green, it would definitely fit my color." Bow commented as she crossed her arms. "Oh, and it would also fit yours too, Chopper."

"Yeah, that's true," Chopper agreed. "So we're in the Orange Area, and according to these pads, we have a Purple and Gray Area. I wonder where the Star Spirit is among those areas..."

"The Star Spirit you are looking for is being held in the Gray Area," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Oh, wow! You already know where it is?" Parakarry gaped.

"I overheard Bowser suggest that my brother guard the Star Spirit. Each major C Unit seems to stay in a specific area of their color. That tells me that he is in the Gray Area."

"Well, I guess that makes it a bit easier for us to go there," Bow smiled. "For a robot, you sure know a lot."

"But, it's in a secret passageway. It is hard to find."

"It's hard to find?" Koopla face palmed. "I knew there was a friggin' catch... How exactly do you know this uh…robot?"

"My name is C-2 Choppor, if you must know. And my scanners know this because I saw the Star Spirit get trapped in the Gray Area."

"That's pretty helpful, Choppor. So… Which way do we go?" Chopper pondered before looking over to the left. "Hold on, let's go to the left."

"I'll stay right behind you, Chopper. If you get afraid, I'll scare them for you." Bow assured, flying over to Chopper. "But… You will have to cover your eyes first."

"Negative. Robots are not afraid of ghosts." C-2 Choppor stated.

"Wait... What? Robots don't fear ghosts? ! How could that be?"

"The only way to defeat them is to attack. Lasers work well against them."

And that's when it hit Chopper.

"Wait… Could I get the Laser ability if I inhaled one? I mean, that would be VERY helpful to get that ability." Chopper explained. "You know what? Let's go see what's up ahead."

They headed to the path to the left, which led them to a a medium-sized area. There was a track in the middle of the path, but they couldn't get over there because it was being blocked by glass.

They just continued on and found some C Robos with a red plus sign on their heads around, which allowed them to heal. There were ones with arrows on their foreheads that have the ability to shoot lasers.

"There are too many robots that look like you, Chopper..." Bow sighed. "Sometimes I wonder why they were made to look like you in the first place..."

"Probably because the first creation that looked like me worked," Chopper shrugged.

"Wasn't this guy one of the first, though?" Parakarry asked, pointing at C-2 Choppor.

"Negative. My older brother was made before me." confirmed C-2 Choppor.

"No, there was another," Chopper mentioned. "But he left Maquano in order to get rid of my himself... Maybe I'll explain another time. But, in the meantime..."

Chopper inhaled the C Robo that could shoot lasers and swallowed it. He had a high-tech visor, with his left eye having a a glowing spot that could shoot lasers. LASERS!

"Whoa... That looks pretty hi-tech." Bruce gaped.

"I still don't understand what the heck you can even do..." Koopla trailed, confused with Chopper's new ability.

"Most of us probably don't understand his ability," Parakarry informed.

Chopper, meanwhile, fired a laser at the C Medic, destroying it instantly. The next area up ahead was just the same, but instead, they saw an orange robot standing there, not moving at all. It looked like it was just an inanimate object.

"Is that another one of the robots?" Bow asked.

"It doesn't appear to be doing anything..." Chopper trailed, knocking on its metal body. "And it's kind of cold too... Wouldn't it be hotter if it's orange?"

"C-4 Crater isn't moving. Something seems to be wrong." C-2 Choppor noticed as he turned to the group. "…We must take the other path to the right in order to awaken Crater and rescue him. He can only be saved if he is moving."

"Really?" Chopper gawked as he raised his visor. "That's a shame there. All right, we'll go back. It might be pain, though."

They made it back to the main area of the Orange Area, and they saw a path going to the southeast. Since it was the only path left, they headed on over there.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kammy Koopa was by another chest. She used her magic once again to make…a Thunder Rage appear. Yeah, a Thunder Rage.

"Hmmmmm... A Thunder Rage? That's rather unusual, to be honest..."

* * *

Back with the others, they saw a spring by a wall, and over by a bridge to the north, there was a walkable path. They could also see a switch as well.

Chopper got on the spring, and C-2 Choppor shot the switch. The spring launched him up onto the high ledge, where he found a chest over to his left. He opened a chest, which contained a Defend Plus Badge.

"Hey, this should be pretty useful! A Badge that can raise my defense! Woo!" Chopper checked his BP to see how much it would take up…and he had that same reaction.

"What! ? 6 BP? You gotta be kidding me! Oh well…" Chopper sighed, and the others (with the exception of Parakarry and Bow) got up with C-2 Choppor's help. There was a spring to the right that Chopper could whack his hammer with, and they got off higher ground and made it to the other side.

"Hmmmm? What's this?" Chopper noticed an orange panel up ahead with words written on it. So, he walked up to take a look at it.

_Warning: This panel is flammable. Whatever you do, DO NOT USE FLAMES ON IT!_

"Scanners indicate you can burn that," C-2 Choppor informed. "You're Elemental Hand ability should allow you to burn that down. Go on ahead."

"All right, this should be interesting," Chopper had a fireball coming from his hand, and he hurled it at the panel, burning it down.

They all went through the tunnel now that the panel was burnt down, and they began to take the path out of the tunnel. Some C Robos were around, but Chopper's laser and C-2 Choppor's weapons took care of them easily. They saw a chest after taking the orange path, which contained an Ice Power Badge.

"I see a Thunder Rage over there. Who would leave something like that here, though?" Bow asked, knowing that Thunder Rages don't magically appear.

"Who cares! It's ours now!" Chopper smirked as he took the Thunder Rage and opened the chest. It contained…Fuel? It's just some fuel for rockets!

"What in the world is that? It looks like it's nothing but fuel..." Parakarry gawked. "How odd… This is rather new..."

"Maybe we can use that to get that robot guy to move. Then, we can probably, well, 'rescue' him, as you said, Choppor." Bruce shrugged.

"Affirmative. Now, let's bring that back to C-4 Crater. I just hope we can rescue him soon rough…" C-2 Choppor said.

* * *

**Area with C-4 Crater-**

After backtracking their way back to the area where C-4 Crater stood, Chopper pulled out the Fuel and dumped it on C-4 Crater. Unfortunately, nothing happened. The robot still didn't move. C-2 Choppor began to inspect what was going on right now. Something definitely is wrong.

"Scanning problem. C-4 Crater needs some heat. Chopper, use your fire and get him moving again!"

"All right," Chopper shot a fireball at C-4 Crater. Suddenly, its eyes became orange, and it began to move. It aimed his two guns at them all.

"Eradicate all intruders!" C-4 Crater shouted. "Target locked on! Prepare to feel the hot fury of C-4 Crater!"

**Tattle: **_This is C-4 Crater. He is the fourth C Unit that has been created. He seems to use fire. Max HP: 30, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. He may not have any defense, but he can prove to be rather challenging. Don't let his flamethrower burn you, because you'll take damage each turn for three turns! So, make sure you take him down FAST!_

"Whatever you say, Toadsmeth…" Chopper shrugged. He put his hi-tech visors down and aimed at C-4 Crater.

"Gotcha!" Chopper fired a laser at the robot, and it did a good 4 damage, which is usual, since he has his hammer (Copy Abilities's power depends on what hammer you have).

C-2 Choppor aimed at C-4 Crater by scanning him, and then he fired a yellow blast at C-4 Crater. This stunned him a little, but he got back up.

"Target locked on! It's time to feel the burn!" C-4 Crater shouted as he used his flamethrower attack on Chopper. Luckily, he was able to guard the attack.

After the flamethrower stopped, Chopper fired a laser, and it pierced through C-4 Crater.

"Let me help you, Chopper. I think I should get my turn to fight. I should be able to weaken him a little bit more." Bow said as she appeared by C-4 Crater and smacked the robot five times, making him spin around.

"_**Gwa hee ha ha! **_See? That should help you a little bit more, my little darling."

"Uhh… What did she just call me?" Chopper gawked as he tilted his head.

"Does not compute," was all C-2 Choppor could say. Chopper smacked his forehead.

"Guys, just focus on kicking this robot's shiny metal butt!" Bruce shouted until he realized something. "Hey, that can be a new thing to say on these guys."

Koopla nudge Bruce a little. "Hey! Oh, fine! It was a pretty good one, anyway. The good jokes ALWAYS have to get ruined…"

C-4 Crater used its flamethrower on Chopper. But, he immediately ducked, and the flames got Bruce instead, lightning his fuse.

"Oh for the love of-" Bruce ended up exploding right by Bow, leaving her face covered it soot. Parakarry got soot on his wings, irritated the two. When Bruce fell to the ground. Bow smacked him with her fan.

"Hey! Why did you do that?!" exclaimed Bruce. "It's not my fault I blew up!"

"Well, next time, don't blow up in front of me," Bow warned. "Or else next time, I'm going to REALLY give you a big smacking."

"Wow, even though you're being pretty scary and all that, I feel like I'm getting more attracted to you by the minute..."

"I saw this coming..." Koopla face palmed.

C-2 Choppor fired a blast by Bruce's feet. "Silence. Now is not the time for this. We're still trying to rescue C-4 Crater."

"Yeah, let us do what we gotta do!" Chopper said as he made a fireball appear from his right hand. He shot it straight at C-4 Crater.

C-2 Choppor hovered up with his jetpack, and he began to fly towards C-4 Crater, firing a laser blast at him.

C-4 Crater aimed both of his guns at Chopper and used a double flame thrower attack on him. This attack can do 5 damage. But, Chopper guarded the attack, so he was safe from taking a lot of damage.

"All right, we can wrap this up no problem," Chopper shot a fireball at C-4 Crater, which burnt him up a little. Then, to finish it all up, C-2 Choppor fired a blast at C-4 Crater with his gun. It looked like Crater was having some kind of seizure. But, in the end, he was defeated.

"Woo hoo! We got 18 Star Points!" Chopper cheered as he waggled his finger, while C-2 Choppor brought his gun up and fired up at the sky for his victory pose.

C-4 Crater had a shining light coming from him and soon exploded. An orange Star Kid flew out of the remains of the burning robot body and cheered.

"I'm finally free! Thank you for rescuing me, people!" the Star Kid thanked as it immediately flew off. C-2 Choppor watched it fly away.

"C-4 Crater… Rescue complete." he said his accomplishment words, and he noticed some sparkling energy making a path for them.

"Let's go see where that's going to," Parakarry suggested. They all agreed, and they went back to the main area of the Orange Area. They saw that the purple pad was now glowing. From what they could tell, this meant that they could go to the Purple Area.

"Well, why don't we go to the purple pad?" Chopper suggested. "We still have one more major C Unit to rescue anyway!"

He stepped on the purple pad and was instantly teleported out of the Orange Area. Parakarry was surprised about this, and so were the others.

"Hmmm… Let me test this out." Bow suggested as she floated to the pad and pressed on the purple one with her stubby hand. When she was teleported out, everyone began to do the same thing.

"Only one more C Unit to rescue… We must go rescue C-5 Nebula." C-2 Choppor said to himself as he stepped on the purple pad and teleported out of the Orange Area.

* * *

**All right, they managed to "save" two of the robots. They really need to just save one more, and it's all done for them. Yeah, not really a long chapter or anything. Chapter 5 should be a little longer, though...and I'm going to like that one. But, we'll discuss Chapter 5 another time. So, we'll go to the Purple Area next time.**


	23. Purple as a Nebula

The purple teleporter pad took the six to the Purple Area, but upon coming out of the pad, they toppled over each other down the stairs. Well, Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry did. Bow and C-2 Choppor were the last ones to use the teleporter, so they were the last ones to get out, and once they saw them toppled on the ground, Bow began to laugh a bit.

"Ah, it sure is funny to see you all toppling down the stairs," Bow giggled. "I mean, it IS funny, and that's something that I never really get to see often. However, I just hope Chopper isn't hurt..."

"Errr... Not at all!" Chopper lied, lying on the bottom of the pile. "No need to worry! No comfort here, please!"

"Well, you guys should know better," Unfortunately for Bow, this only got angered Koopla.

"Seriously, do you think it's FUNNY to see people getting hurt?!" Koopla growled. "It's not something to laugh about. Well, even if I DID beat some Koopa robbers and actually laughed at them, it's still wrong to just laugh at someone who got hurt that's on YOUR side."

"Well, we Boos sometimes find it funny when living beings such as yourself get hurt. It's how we are, isn't that right, Chopper?"

"Um… Sure, I guess." Chopper shrugged as he pushed himself out of the pile. "Although, I don't even know much about the Boos anyway..."

C-2 Choppor walked over to the left and noticed that there was no path going that way. He looked down at the purple ground and then looked up at the purple sky. Yeah, a little similar to the other areas, but there's purple this time.

"There's no path over here. C-5 Nebula must be somewhere else around here." C-2 Choppor looked over to the right and noticed a path. "Yes. This is the path. Everyone, C-5 Nebula is this way. We…must rescue him. He is the last one that we must save."

"I hope I don't get blown up again by another robot," Bruce hoped, frustrated. "I mean, that was the SECOND time it happened to me when I don't INTEND to blow up! Yeah, let's go find that robot and we'll teach him a lesson!"

"Bruce, we're not going to kill the robot," Parakarry said in an attempt to calm Bruce. "We're simply going to free him by, well, destroying him."

"That's something we already know already," Koopla informed.

"Well, the robot is really a Star Kid, and it needs to be free. Whoever trapped those Star Kids in those robots is going to pay."

"I know Bowser couldn't have done it. He's not good at building things." Chopper pondered. "But… I have a feeling Maquano was involved in this. We'll try to see. For now, we better go find uh…Nebula."

He got his hi-tech visors ready and began to walk on ahead. C-2 Choppor looked at Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry, who got themselves up. He turned to Bow, who simply followed Chopper. So, C-2 Choppor just moved up ahead, following Chopper.

Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry got out of the pile they were in, and they also followed the other three to the next area.

* * *

Meanwhile, Kammy appeared on the top of some spinning wheel, and she used her magic to summon…a Super Soda. She was pondering whether this was actually something he fears.

"Hmmmmm... Was that robot lying?" Kammy pondered. "I mean, a Super Soda? This looks like something a kid would drink..."

* * *

Back with the others, they saw a conveyer belt up ahead of the large area. The first one was going right, and the other two were going to the left. C-2 Choppor walked on ahead and stopped at the conveyer belts. He was holding his gun arm in his normal position.

"C-3 Cosmo… C-4 Crater… They have been rescued so far." C-2 Choppor confirmed. "C-5 Nebula… Location: up ahead. Perhaps…C-1 Mega's location: unknown."

"Wouldn't he be in the Gray Area, though?" Chopper asked.

"He doesn't appear to be on my charts. However, I do believe that he could be in the Gray Area."

"Then what are we doing? We should be finding this C-5 Nebula." Bow said as she grabbed Chopper's hand.

"Whoa!

They noticed some metallic fences on the conveyer belt. Chopper got on one of the conveyer belts so it would take him all the way across, and then he used the one moving down, and then the one going to the right. Bow and C-2 Choppor managed to catch up to him. When Koopla stepped on the conveyer belt, it made her trip.

"DANG IT! I'm TIRED of these frikin' things!" Koopla yelled.

"No need to yell like that," Bruce sighed.

"I'll yell however I please! I just fell, so I can do it if I want to!"

"Ooh… That must've hurt." Parakarry cringed as he helped her up. "There you go, missy! Try to be more careful next time."

"It would be better if you called me Koopla... But, all right. Thanks for the help." Koopla ran on ahead to follow Chopper, while Parakarry used his wings.

Chopper stopped when he found another fence, but this one was apparently blocking his way. "What? I can't do anything to get through this cage? That's not fair!"

"I can actually help you," Bow smiled.

"That look tells me you want something from me..." Chopper gulped.

"Well, I'll help you through this fence if you kiss me, that is."

"Eww! No way! I'm not going to do that!"

"Bow... Just help him already." Koopla sighed.

"Fine..." Bow sighed, getting a little irritated as she turned Chopper invisible and phased through the fence. "I was hoping I'd actually get my wish... But, oh well."

C-2 Choppor aimed at the cage, and he blasted right through it. Who needs to go invisible when you can destroy the cage?

"...And now I realize that he couldn't done that," Chopper face palmed. "But, hey! At least I didn't have to kiss Bow-OW!"

He felt Bow smack him in the face, making him fall over. Bow gave a "Hmph!" as she flew past the conveyer belts.

"OK... I really shouldn't get a girl mad, honestly..."

"Errrr... I think we'll just stay here." Bruce stated, falling over on the conveyer belt. "I'm having a hard time with this..."

"Yeah, same goes for me," Koopla agreed. "We'll wait here, all right?"

"I guess that's all right..." Chopper trailed.

After getting past the conveyer belts, they saw some slot machines, but the bad news was that they appeared to be broken an unusable. Chopper even tried them out, but they didn't seem to work.

"The slot machine's not working..." Bow trailed.

There were some C Robos around that wanted to fight them, so Chopper simply shot them with his lasers. Unfortunately, this ended up costing his ability when he got hit. Luckily, C-2 Choppor blasted them and destroyed them, freeing the Star Kids from inside.. Up ahead were a couple of steps.

After going up some steps up ahead, they found some spinning cogs. They simply jumped on them and found a ladder up on the high ledge, so Chopper climbed up and got to the top of the area. He saw only a Super Soda and a chest.

Once Parakarry and Bow flew up, they saw the Super Soda. C-2 Choppor simply climbed up the ladder.

"Another item left here? Someone appears to be littering here..." Bow trailed.

Chopper picked up the Super Soda, and he put it away. "Well, we can't leave it here. So, we'll just take it for now."

Once he opened up the chest, he noticed nothing was in there. Absolutely NOTHING! This really doesn't make much sense, though.

"There's nothing in the chest? Oh, come on!" Chopper began to look deeper in the chest. "Nope. I don't see anything in here."

"Danger! It's a trap!" C-2 Choppor pulled Chopper out of the way as the chest blew up. Parakarry got in his shell, and Bow covered her face.

"What the… That chest was a trap?!" he gaped. "But… Who put that there? I mean, REALLY… There's not really anyone around here who could do such a thing."

"**_GAAAH! Guys, get back here!_**" That voice sounded like Koopla's. Chopper took a look at what was going on over there, and a big red ! appeared over his head.

"Huh? What is it, Chopper?" Bow asked.

"A purple robot is over there, and it's aiming its weapon at them. Yeah, not a good thing…" Chopper sighed as he shook his head.

"A purple robot? Now what could that possible be?" Bow pondered. C-2 Choppor took a look with his scanners.

"…Nebula," C-2 Choppor confirmed as he flew back over to Koopla and Bruce.

"Well, we can't just walk back. We gotta go faster." Parakarry declared. "So, Chopper… Need some help getting all the way back to Nebula?"

"Why, certainly!" Chopper grabbed onto Parakarry's arms, and they began to fly to where C-5 Nebula was. Bow simply followed the two.

* * *

**Back by Koopla and Bruce-**

"All right, look! What do you want from us, robot?" Bruce asked.

"Target must be eliminated! You two are the target. I am the eradicator." C-5 Nebula stated as he aimed his two guns at Koopla and Bruce.

"Oh no ya don't!" Koopla got in her shell and rushed toward C-5 Nebula. But, he managed to kick her while in a shell.

C-5 Nebula then kicked Bruce onto the ground, which left both of them injured. C-5 walked toward them and aimed his gun at them.

"It's time to finish this," But, before he could finish, he got hit by a blast, and then a fireball. He turned around and saw Chopper, Parakarry, Bow, and C-2 Choppor, who had his gun aimed at C-5 Nebula.

They landed on the ground, and C-5 Nebula immediately aimed at them. Chopper and C-2 Choppor stepped forward in their fighting stances. The others got in theirs as well.

"You will all be eliminated. After being left here by King Bowser, all I can do now is just find things to eliminate. It is terrible."

"C-5 Nebula… I am not here to kill you. I'm only here to rescue you. No, not your robot self. Your real self." stated C-2 Choppor. "I apologize for doing this, but there is no other choice. I cannot let you stay on Bowser's side."

C-5 Nebula didn't really respond, but he still aimed his guns at them. They knew they had to fight now.

**Tattle: **_That purple robot is C-5 Nebula. He is the fifth one of the C Units. He seems to have some hatred in him because of what Bowser did to him. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. He's the toughest of the C Units for now. Even if he lacks defense, he still has that Cosmic Beam attack that can do 6 damage! But, honestly… What DID Bowser do to make him this mad?_

Chopper charged up a fireball, and he fired it at C-5 Nebula. The robot had some flames around him, but they quickly went away.

"Your attacks cannot burn me, target. Not even ice and fire can affect me in any way. Nothing at all." scoffed C-5 Nebula.

"Those may not…but I can." C-2 Choppor aimed at C-5 Nebula and fired a blast at him.

C-5 Nebula fired some kind of cosmetic energy at Chopper. He wasn't able to guard the attack, so he took 4 damage from it.

"All right, maybe I should do a little Power Bounce. It'll help for a little bit." Chopper ran toward C-5 Nebula, and he jumped onto him. He was able to bounce on him seven times. But, once C-2 Choppor shot a blast at C-5 Nebula, it left him with only 20 HP.

C-5 Nebula hovered up and began to fire missiles down. Chopper immediately defended himself, and he didn't take damage from the missiles.

"Ha! I bet you weren't expecting that to happen! Now to get you down from there!" Chopper jumped on C-5 Nebula, and he knocked him down to the ground. C-2 Choppor fired a laser blast at C-5 Nebula, and so far, he only had 12 HP left.

C-5 Nebula fired a Cosmic Beam at Chopper. Luckily, he was able to guard the attack, so it only did 5 damage instead.

"He's almost done. Three more attacks, and we'll win." Chopper shot a fireball at C-5 Nebula. Even if it didn't burn him, it still did damage. C-2 Choppor aimed at C-5 Nebula and fired a blast at him. C-5 Nebula just fired a blast, and it did damage to Chopper.

Koopla and Bruce were able to get back up, and they saw that C-2 Choppor wanted to do the honors.

"Yes, Choppor. You can do the honors. I think it's best if you did, anyway." Chopper nodded.

"Thank you, Chopper," C-2 Choppor turned to C-5 Nebula and fired a blast at him. It left sparks flying everywhere on C-5 Nebula. Chopper was able to collect 20 Star Points from the battle.

C-5 Nebula looked at C-2 Choppor and gave him a sad look.

"Choppor..."

"Forgive me, please..." C-2 Choppor trailed as he moved back and watched the robot explode. A purple Star Kid was set free, who began to cheer as it looked down at C-2 Choppor.

"You… You saved me. Th-Thank you so much… But, why would someone destroy its own kind?" the Star Kid asked.

"We want to save the Mushroom Kingdom," Chopper explained. "Plus, Choppor wishes to stop Bowser and his C Units by destroying each and every one of them,

"It's almost like destroying my own brothers, however..." C-2 Choppor trailed.

"Well, I happen to know where the fourth Star Spirit is," the Star Kid informed. "I'll leave a little trail that can help you get to it."

The Star Kid immediately flew away while saying, "Thanks again!" A light mist of energy came down, and when they all headed back to the main area of the Purple Area, they saw the gray pad was now glowing.

"We must head to the Gray Area. The Star Spirit is there." C-2 Choppor stated. Chopper nodded, and they used the teleporter to move on.

"Let's just hope we don't find any trouble with the fourth Star Spirit..." Chopper hoped.


	24. C 1 Triple Mega: Triple the Power

As our heroes teleported into the Gray Area, they noticed that it didn't look as nice as the other three areas. In fact, it simply felt dull to them. Nothing more, nothing less. But, there was something good about this area. There was a Save Block, and a Heart Block! Chopper decided to use both of them to recover his HP and FP.

"This ground is just completely gray. It feels really dull." Chopper grimaced. "Why can't this be the Green Area or the Rainbow area? I don't like it."

"Bowser wanted to change everything into this. It's not the C Unit's fault for this." C-2 Choppor explained. "I would've made it the Red Area, but I couldn't do anything about it."

"A Green Area would've been nice here," Bow agreed. "...Come to think of it, this place USED to be a Red Area!"

"Could we stop wasting time and move on already?" Koopla suggested. "We can't just stay here forever..."

They all saw the path that went southwest, so they took that path. They found a bunch of blocks and a lift that could take them up. There was a small block over the blocks, so Chopper jumped on it and used the lift to go up. Bruce tried to get on, but he ended up bumping into the block.

"Dang it… I wish I had arms." Bruce sighed, but then looked over at Bow. 'Umm… Hey there, my lady. Think you can give someone that's attracted to you…such a myself, a hand?"

"Heh heh… So you actually call me 'my lady'?" Bow giggled while blushing. "Well… I might as well help you up. Just this once, though."

"Get out of the way," C-2 Choppor said as he moved Bow out of the way and fired at Bruce's fuse. His face became bright red as he seethed in anger.

"WHAT!? WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? IS THIS REVENGE?" Bruce exclaimed exclaimed as his fuse got shorter.

"Negative. You will see when it goes out. Everybody stand back." C-2 Choppor suggested as everyone began to back away. Unfortunately, Chopper was already on the lift.

"Oh crud… Am I seriously going to get it now?" Chopper gulped.

"I can't just leave Chopper to get blown up! I don't want him to get harmed!" Bow said worriedly as she made him invisible so he wouldn't get hurt. "Relax, I'm here to help you."

"Wait... You smacked me earlier! You just forgave me now?"

"Meh, smacking you like that seemed a bit rude on my part. I don't want to act like a spoiled princess that gets everything she wants. Although, kissing me would've been nice."

"I know nothing on kissing..." Meanwhile, Bruce glared at C-2 Choppor, who lowered his gun. Everyone stepped away from the Bob-omb as steam literally came out of his head.

"You robot… You just wanted to destroy me. No wonder you were keeping your attention towards me. You're just one son of a…"

Before he could finish with what he was about to say, Bruce ended up exploding, and he flew up high. He landed all the way at some entrance. Bruce looked rather…surprised that he was here first.

"Huh? I'm actually here before them?" Bruce gawked. "Well, I guess that robot really was helping! I should thank him for what he did…later."

There appeared to be three platforms moving around vertically in a circle. Everything around them was a gray color. After Chopper became visible, he jumped onto one of them. Bow followed him over there.

"I can handle this stuff. Not so hard for me." Koopla grinned as she cracked her knuckles and got on the lift and then to the wheel. C-2 Choppor used his jetpack to fly instead of jumping on the platforms, and Parakarry flew as well. Chopper jumped off the circular platforms and landed on one of the blocks and then jumped down onto a lift that began to head down.

Down on the ground, there was a Fiery C Robo. Chopper simply fought it with his hammer only, since jumping on it would make him get hurt, and using fire would heal it. C-2 Choppor helped him with the battle, since he doesn't need to attack them up close. Unfortunately, if Bruce, Parakarry, or Bow used their normal attack, they would get hurt.

"I could help you guys, you know," Koopla informed.

"Let them take care of it," Parakarry suggested.

"Fine..."

After defeating the Fiery C Robo, Chopper realized something. "Hold on a minute... Since that robot's on fire, would it be possible to take it out by, er..."

"Chopper! What kind of idea is THAT?!" Bow grimaced.

"I was just thinking of getting rid of it with water."

"Oh... Then yes, that's fine."

They found another lift up ahead, so Chopper got on it, which took him up onto the block. He saw another one to the upper right, so he got on that. Up ahead on a block was an Upgrade Block.

"An Upgrade Block!" Chopper gasped. "Choppor! I can upgrade you to a Super Rank with this! Parakarry, you're going to have to help me get over there."

Parakarry listened to Chopper and lifted him off the lift. They were able to make it to the block in no time.

"All right, it's show time!" Chopper jumped under the block, and he called C-2 Choppor to come over to him.

Suddenly, C-2 Choppor felt some more power going into him. He became Super Ranked! That means he has the new move Stun Shot! Basically, he can shoot an enemy and paralyze it…and it does damage to the enemy, but it IS affected by defense.

"New ability learned. New move: Stun Shot. Ability: Paralyzes an enemy for three turns. This will help." C-2 Choppor stated.

"Hey, guys! Can you get over here? I mean, this entrance over here is all dark! You guys gotta get here and do something!" Bruce shouted. He was beginning to get impatient since they were slowing him down.

Chopper sighed and landed by the entrance, and so did C-2 Choppor. Koopla got down to there as well. Parakarry and Bow simply flew down.

"All right, let's head on in here. Let's hope there's NOTHING in this place." Chopper headed on in first, and the others followed. Everything began to get dark once inside.

"Hey! I can't see where I'm going!" Koopla shouted. "Who turned out the lights in this place, anyways? Helloooo?"

"I can't really see here. Maybe I can make a little light." Chopper made a fireball from his hand appear. There was a little bit of light, but not enough.

"This area definitely doesn't really give me any problems," Bow noted. "Being a ghost, we can see what's in the dark. Though, I can't exactly tell you where you're going."

"Light visors turning on," C-2 Choppor's red visor began to make it light around him. Being a robot, he would have to have this hi-tech stuff.

The walls around them were a gray color, and they could see drawings of robots on the walls. There were pictures of C-1 Mega, C-2 Choppor, C-3 Cosmo, C-4 Crater, and C-5 Nebula. He noticed the pictures of C-3 Cosmo, C-4 Crater, and C-5 Nebula instantly disappeared.

"There are only two major units remaining… But, neither of them have Star Kids in them. Rescuing them…is an impossibility." C-2 Choppor stated.

"Well, we saved C-3 Cosmo, C-4 Crater and C-5 Nebula... But for major C Units, we have..."

"Choppor..."

"Yeah, you and... Wait, are you telling us that YOU need to be destroyed too?"

"I'd rather not let that happen..." Parakarry trailed.

"Affirmative. However, only when the mission is complete." C-2 Choppor stated.

"I don't think you haven't seen much..." Bow trailed. "You should really reconsider."

"Yeah, what about the Star Spirits and the Mushroom Kingdom? Don't you want the place to be safe?" Bruce asked.

"Hmmmm..." C-2 Choppor began to ponder before he scanned something in the room. "One thing confirmed. Hidden switch around here. Searching for switch."

"Huh?" Chopper noticed C-2 Choppor scan the room and find a hidden switch at the end of the room. He aimed his arm gun at the hidden switch and fired a small blast at it. The switch got hit, and they could hear something fly around. That switch must have triggered something.

"What was that?" Bruce asked.

"We better find out!" suggested Parakarry.

They all headed outside, and they saw a robot that looked familiar to C-2 Choppor flying away from them.

"Mega…" C-2 Choppor confirmed as he raised his weapon. "C-1 Mega was somehow sealed in that place. He is one of the major C Units remaining. My brother and I…don't have Stars in ourselves."

"Wait, your brother? That robot is your brother?" Parakarry gaped.

"Yes, C-1 Mega is my big brother. I heard Bowser say something about him holding the Star Spirit. If we can catch him, then we could probably confront him for the Star Spirit."

"Sounds like a plan," Chopper nodded.

"However, if he tries to fight us... I fear that it won't be like the last time."

They left the area, and they returned to the main area of the Gray Area. There's a path that's to the southeast, so they headed there to find a small fort that resembled toys. They noticed C-1 Mega blast through the entrance with a charged shot with no problem. With that, it flew into the doorway.

"Did that robot…just break through that metal wall without any problem at all?" Bruce gawked. "Whoa… And I thought I was the destroyer of walls. This kind of stinks…for me."

"We must follow him through there," suggested C-2 Choppor. "The Star Spirit you're looking for is just ahead. If he tries to stop us…we'll have to fight him to get it."

Chopper walked to the fort, and he noticed that it was dark in there. He turned around to the others. "Well… It's pretty dark in there. So, you're going to want to be careful in here. So… We're going to need some light for this."

"More dark places? This place seems to be crawling with them." Bow sighed.

"Turning on light visors. Let us go in." C-2 Choppor began to walk into the fort. Chopper followed him through, and so did Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, and Bow.

"Aw, come on! Another dark room?" Bruce whined.

"I said that it was dark in here..." Chopper trailed.

"Well, I wish I had night vision goggles. Because then I'll be able to see! Say, robot guy. You think you can turn on those light visors?"

"Very well. Light visors turning on." C-2 Choppor made the whole room light up, and they could see the gray ground and the gray walls. Up ahead, they could see a crack through the wall.

"C-1 Mega must've broken the wall already. Well, this kind of stinks." Chopper pouted. "But we still need to go through. The Star Spirit is there. Right, Choppor?"

"Status of Star Spirit: Positive." C-2 Choppor confirmed. "Affirmative, the Star Spirit is right through here. Come, let us go now."

They all headed through the path the crack took them through, and they found themselves in a big room. It looked the same as the other room, but there appeared to be some boxes of toys around, leaving them all confused.

"What the… There are toys in this room?!" Koopla gawked. "How could this be? It's a Mechanical Box!"

"Maybe Bowser left all the toys in this room. That's a good explanation." Parakarry pondered. "I mean, this used to be a toy box, and there were Shy Guys here. That's all I can remember."

"But, where is the Star Spirit?" Bow questioned. "I can't see it anywhere. Hold on… Someone would've been holding it by now.

"Yes, I am the one that holds the Star Spirit. I welcome you…to MY Mechanical Box! Especially you, brother." Everyone gaped as they saw C-1 Mega floating over by the stairs, holding a Bowser Card in his hands.

"Whoa… He speaks! I never knew that!" Chopper gaped. "Well, we speak a lot clearer than the other C Units. It must be because he's got no Star Kid in him."

"You figured that out, didn't you? I am C-1 Mega! …Well, I USED to be called that. My name is **C-1 Triple Mega**! **C-1 TM** for short. What does the word triple have to do with me? Well, I've gotten triple the power!"

"So, you've become a lot stronger? How did you manage to become stronger, though? In fact, why did you come here?"

"King Bowser told me I'd be some spare parts. But, Lord Maquano wanted me to become stronger than my brother. So, he got some Hellspawns to do the job of upgrading me! And the answer to your other question… I was sent here by King Bowser to take care of you, Chopper! …And how lucky I am to also find my little brother on his side. This is just perfect."

"Perfect? What do you mean this is perfect?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"I've grown so much hatred after you bested me back at the castle. I could see the look in your eyes! You didn't want to hurt me, so you went a little easy! You'd only fight for a purpose. Well, your big brother has something to tell you: robots are built to destroy, not help!"

"Mega, you don't understand. Bowser is planning on ruling the Mushroom Kingdom! He's going to end up dumping you into a factory when he doesn't need you. He even planned something out with Chopper. I lied to him so I could help Chopper."

"Wait, those Mushrooms, Thunder Rages, and Super Sodas were placed there by Bowser? And you told him that those are what I hate?" Chopper gaped before giving C-2 Choppor a thumbs up. "…I gotta say, Choppor. You really did help me there."

"If I were there, I wouldn't tell that. Chopper, this place was too easy for you. But, now…" C-1 TM aimed its two guns at the group. "…You're REAL challenge in this Mechanical Box is about to begin! You six will be a perfect test for me."

Chopper and the others got in their fighting stances, while C-2 Choppor looked at his brother as he aimed his gun at him. "Very well, Mega. If you refuse to give up the Star Spirit, we will fight you for it."

Chopper jumped toward C-1 TM, but ended up getting whacked to the ground by the robot's thick arms. However, he was able to get back up and get back in a fighting stance.

"This is it for you. King Bowser will no longer treat me like crap once you're out of the picture, Chopper." C-1 TM sneered as he looked at C-2 Choppor. "And… I can also tell that you left him, my brother. Either thing will work for me! But the Star Spirit shall NEVER be in your hands! You will be all annihilated by my missiles and machine guns!"

"I'd like to see you try!" Chopper taunted.

**Tattle: **_That's C-1 Mega. No, wait… His NEW name is C-1 Triple Mega. C-1 TM for short. He is the first of the C Units, and he sounds like he has a lot of jealousy towards his brother, C-2 Choppor. Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 1. He can summon some bombs that can deal 8 points of damage, and his Punch Omega can deal 7 points of damage. He can also fire a Hyper Beam at you, and that can do 10 points of damage. So, I recommend having Bow make you invisible, or stun him with C-2 Choppor's attack. If those bombs are out, you'll need C-2 Choppor to take them all out at once. Also, C-1 TM can use Recovery Mode to heal 10 HP. This robot sure seems like he has become upgraded. Look at the hatred in him. He looks like he wants to kill his own brother…_

Chopper charged up a fireball and fired it at C-1 TM. It only did 3 damage, since he has that point of defense. But, C-2 Choppor is who is the key to this fight. At least, that's what Chopper believed.

"Targeting C-1 TM. Fire!" C-2 Choppor fired a blast at C-1 TM, and since his attacks ignore defense, it did 5 damage.

"Gah! Hmph! I never knew your attacks could pierce through my metal body, brother! You've gotten a lot tougher than when I first faced against you." C-1 TM commented. "But, it's time I showed you what _I _can do thanks to this new body! I'll..."

"If you end up boasting, I'm going to kick you," Chopper warned. "We don't need more boasting villains, all right?"

"Bah... Fine."

C-1 TM fired a blast at Chopper, who was able to guard the attack. Chopper reached for his hammer, but noticed that the robot was off the ground.

"Well, since C-1 TM is floating, my hammer isn't going to reach him. So… I gotta stomp him, or use a fireball. But, if I jumped on him, it wouldn't do as much…"

"Then use a fireball on this robot. I'm sure that's going to work." assured Bruce. "Say, I wonder if you used it on Bow. Add her and fire…and she could be hotter."

Bow smacked Bruce with her fan. "Don't say that ever again. That was, in my opinion, the worst joke you've ever made."

"Ow! Sorry! I mean, I'm just so attracted to you… Dang Chopper and his mind controlling power to manipulate a girl to like him..."

"Shut up, Bruce. We're trying to fight, here." Chopper retorted as he charged up another fireball and hurled it at C-1 TM.

"The music playing here is rather catchy. I could listen to this song ALL day." Koopla realized as she tapped her foot to the song. What is this song anyway?"

"Beats me," Parakarry shrugged.

While they had their discussion on the song, C-2 Choppor took an aim at C-1 TM and fired directly at him. It pushed C-1 TM back, only to have him fly back to the group and fire seven missiles at Chopper, who only guarded four or them and took 3 damage in the process.

Chopper decided that he would use a Power Bounce on C-1 TM. He managed to stomp on him eight times, dealing 8 damage. C-2 Choppor fired at C-1 TM, and it left him with only 21 HP left. C-1 TM mumbled as a small amount of static came out of his body.

"You think this is over yet? Not so easily, it won't! This'll take care of things!" C-1 TM fired a bunch of bombs onto the ground. It looked like they would explode in two turns.

"Chopper, maybe you can inhale one of those bombs," Parakarry informed. "It might help you against this robot. A Copy Ability would be pretty helpful for you."

"I should do that…" Chopper walked over to one of the bombs and began to inhale it. Once he got it in his mouth, he swallowed it.

Chopper then had a blue floppy hat on his head and was holding onto a bomb. He jumped up in shocked and threw it. Luckily, it was thrown at C-1 TM, which happened to explode on him as well. C-2 Choppor followed up with his Multi-Shot, which destroyed the remaining bombs and also dealt some damage to C-1 TM.

"Initiating Recovery Mode! Now recovering 10 HP!" C-1 TM raised his arms up, and he began to heal himself, recovering 10 HP.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me! All that for nothing?" Chopper growled as he took out another bomb and threw ti at C-1 TM. C-2 Choppor fired at C-1 TM, resulting in his older brother to charge up power from one of his arms.

"This should make things easier! For ME, that is!" C-1 TM did his Omega Punch, and he successfully hit both Chopper and C-2 Choppor. It did 7 damage, which was rather big for a fight like this.

C-2 Choppor got injured, resulting in him lying on the ground with sparks flying everywhere. "Chopper… Just take care of him for right now."

Chopper knew he had to use one of his other partners. But, Koopla and Bruce couldn't do it, since they use ground attacks. If C-1 TM didn't have any defense, Bow would've been EXTREMELY helpful. But, she would probably be helpful when C-1 TM ever charges up an attack. His only option right now was Parakarry.

"Parakarry, you'll have to help me until C-2 Choppor gets up. So… You better get your act together." Chopper suggested.

"All right, I will do that! Don't worry, I'll take care of this robot no problem!" Parakarry assured.

"Good!" Chopper took out a bomb and threw it at C-1 TM, making more sparks come out of him. Once Parakarry flew toward him and used his Sky Dive, C-1 TM felt like he was in danger right now.

"Gah! Well, Chopper… I didn't know you had it in you." C-1 TM growled. "Fine, then. I will get cheap once again! Recovering 10 HP!"

C-1 TM recovered 10 HP, leaving him with only 20 HP left. Everyone groaned in frustration, knowing that this guy was definitely not going to let himself down.

"This cheap bastard never knows when to give up," Koopla grumbled. "And I can't do a thing to stop him!"

"Yeah! Dang me and my ground attacks..." Bruce sighed.

"I wish that I could actually _hurt_ him," Bow said as she crossed her arms in frustration.

Chopper took out a bomb and threw it at C-1 TM. Once Parakarry used his Sky Dive on him, the robot only had 15 HP left now.

C-1 TM began to charge up a move from his cannon. "You're going to be in it now, you meatbags! This attack should do the trick!"

C-2 Choppor got himself back up and noticed that C-1 TM was getting ready for a powerful attack. "Danger! Power Level on the attack is over nine thousand! …Negative, it's only ten. We must hide from the attack."

Chopper turned over to Bow. "Well, Bow, looks like you'll be of good use here. You should be proud."

"I'm finally going to be helpful in this fight," Bow gushed as she used her Outta Sight ability to make everyone invisible for the turn. "It also gives me another chance to feel your face."

"...Maybe I should've taken the hit."

C-1 TM began to fire his Hyper Beam attack that nearly filled the whole room. However, due to Bow's Outta Sight ability, they avoided taking damage.

Bow made everyone visible, and even kissed Chopper for a thank you, making him gag in disgust. However, he had to focus on the fight more, so he pulled a bomb out and threw it at C-1 TM for 3 damage.

C-2 Choppor aimed at C-1 TM now that he got back up and fired a blast at C-1 TM, leaving him with only 4 HP.

C-1 TM used his machine guns to fire at Chopper, which knocked his ability out, leaving Chopper frustrated. He was about to ramble on about it, but decided not to.

"Oh, come on! All right, let's just finish this up!" Chopper sighed as he charged up a fireball and fired it at C-1 TM. With this, the robot only had 1 HP left.

"This is it, my brother," C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at his brother and fired at him. As tough as the fight was, they managed to win.

Sparks began to fly everywhere around C-1 TM, and he looked like he was about to malfunction. They were awarded with 38 Star Points, with Chopper leveling up. He chose to upgrade his FP for the heck of it.

"No… I…c…can't lose… Being upgraded…" C-1 TM cried. "I still lost…to my younger brother! …Wait… I…can still…tell Bowser the…news! Brother… We will meet…some other time!"

C-1 TM flew out of the room as fast as he could by breaking through the ceiling. While he was defeated for now, everyone feared that it wouldn't be the last time they'd see him.

"Hmmmmmm... He got away." C-2 Choppor confirmed. "Mission failed...for now."

"So, what does this mean? Are you actually planning on leaving forever?" Chopper asked. "You were saying something about that earlier."

"You should really see what the Mushroom Kingdom is like," Parakarry suggested. "Besides, there probably might be more C Robos remaining too!"

"Yes, there are more C Robos remaining," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "Perhaps there is more to this world than I thought. For now, I will not leave you guys. Chopper, just promise me you will help me stop Bowser and keep peace in this world."

"That's exactly what I plan to do," Chopper nodded.

"However, I'm still undecided on what I'll do when every C Robo is destroyed. It's one of my main missions so far."

"Well, I'm sure you'll stay when we find more Star Spirits," Koopla assured. "Speaking of that... Where's the Bowser Card?"

"The Bowser Card's over here!" Bow called out as a sparkling light exploded and made a Bowser Card. A blue Star Spirit happened to be trapped inside.

"Yes, a Bowser Card. Mega didn't take the Bowser Card with him as he left." C-2 Choppor confirmed.

The Bowser Card floated above the ground as Chopper took a step toward it. He turned to the others, and they nodded.

"All right, here it goes…" Chopper grabbed the Bowser Card and held it up. It began to spin around and fade away. As it began to fade away, the fourth Star Spirit, Muskular, was slowly coming out as well, being free from his prison.

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_To save the fourth Star Spirit, Muskular, Chopper and team rescued the three C Units and defeated C-1 Mega, C-2 Choppor's brother. Slowly, it seems as if the life force is returning to the once bleak night sky… But the stars won't truly shine until the Star Rod is wrested from Bowser and Maquano's evil grasps. Three Star Spirits still await rescue. Where in the world are they being held?_

* * *

**Yeah, this was a different boss than what Paper Mario had. Yes, C-1 TM can be a rather tough boss with his healing and stuff. No, there's no Mk II for him. I thought being upgraded to Triple Mega would work better.**

**We go to the Peach Interlude next chapter, and we find out where the next Star Spirit could be... Oh, and maybe someone could be there as well.**


	25. Chapter 4 Interlude

Up in the dark blue and red sky in Peach's Castle, Peach was sitting on her bed, sighing. Twink was floating around as she pondered. After a bit, she got off of the bed, stretched and walked over to the fireplace. She knew that taking the door in front of her would result in her getting thrown back in.

"Hey… Twink. Those guards have stopped paying attention to us again." Peach noticed. "Let's sneak out of here. We might be able to find some news to help Chopper."

"Do you think it's still safe to use that secret path? Don't you think Bowser's figured it out by now?" Twink asked, looking unsure.

"It's still all right, Twink. Bowser hasn't noticed anything. He looks scary, but he's basically a major bonehead. Though… I'm not sure about Maquano. He looks kind of scary with that armor, but he seems like he has some good plans to stop Chopper. But, I wouldn't worry much on if he doesn't know too much about us. Things should be fine."

Peach hit the button that was under the portrait, and the fire from the fireplace went away. Once she headed on in and went through the tunnel, the two of them found themselves back in that room where Bowser stopped her.

Once they left the room, they were back in the dark room with a couple of Koopatrols patrolling while carrying flashlights.

"Ugh... Sometimes patrol time can be a pain." groaned the Koopatrol.

"Shhh… Let's walk carefully past them!" Twink whispered. Peach began to tiptoe her way to the door to the south east.

Once they went in, they heard a robotic voice. "Who's there? Who are you?"

"Uh oh..."

They both saw C-1 TM sitting by the table, looking malfunctioned for the moment. Peach decided to walk over to him and greet him nicely.

"Why, I'm Princess Peach," she said sweetly. "And who might you be?"

"So… You're Princess Peach? My name is C-1 Mega. Or rather, C-1 Triple Mega now. TM for short." C-1 TM introduced. "I was WAITING for King Bowser to get here, but I guess I should go to him instead to report you. You aren't supposed to leave your room."

C-1 TM was about to get up, but he soon realized that he was too damaged to move. "Damn… I'm so damaged up, that I can't really move. It's Chopper and my brother's fault for this. If I beat them, the Star Spirit wouldn't be with them now!"

"You were guarding the fourth Star Spirit?" Peach asked.

"Yeah, I was. If only I could go to the kitchen to reach that C Robo Fuel, I'd be a lot better!" At this point, something hit the robot. "…Wait a second. I'll do you a little favor: if you can make me a Robo Fuel Cake, I won't tell King Bowser that you left your room. That should be good enough to last me for about a decade. So, what do you say? Will you make that cake and help me refuel myself? I assure you that you have my word for this..."

"I'd love to cook for you, Mr. Triple Mega, but… I have no ingredients and no utensils."

"That's not a problem. There's a kitchen one floor below us. I heard that it's five-star. You can cook there. The Robo Fuel is already down in the kitchen. At least… That's where the Hellspawn wizard left it. Take this key so you can go down there to the kitchen."

C-1 TM gave Peach a pink Castle Key with a flower as the handle.

"I'll just wait here and wait for my cake, all right? And… Don't! Get! Caught! There are guards down there, and they'll take you back to your room."

"I'll make sure I don't get caught. I'll be back with that Robo Fuel Cake." Peach assured as she and Twink left the room and sneaked passed some Koopatrols to the locked door.

They went down the stairs in the next big room, and there appeared to be a blue door to the right. They carefully went past the guards, and headed on in there.

When she opened the door, Peach saw a kitchen with a brown floor, a yellow wall, and some counters with eggs, flour, and other ingredients. There was also some C Robo Fuel on the counter, which appeared to look like oil.

Peach looked around in the kitchen when she walked by the brown table. "Well, here's the kitchen. So… What shall we do first?"

"I see something!" Twink floated over to the book shelf that contained some recipes. "Princess Peach! This looks like a good cookbook. Let's use it, OK?"

Twink grabbed the gray book and flew back to Peach. He then opened it to a page on how to make Robo Fuel Cakes.

"How's it look? Twink? Is there the Robo Fuel Cake recipe on there?"

"Hang on a second… Yeah! This one's it! It says, 'How to Make a Robo Fuel Cake'."

"…Sounds good! Let's whip one up! OK, Twink, read me the recipe."

"Well… OK. Please listen carefully." Twink cleared his throat and read carefully. "First… Put Sugar and Eggs in a bowl. So ahead, Princess Peach. I'll read what's next once you've finished."

Peach picked up a bowl with sugar in it, and she put it in the blue bowl. After that, she grabbed some eggs and cracked them open and put the yolk in.

"OK, Twink! Read what's next."

"All right, let's go onto the next step then. Now… Mix and whip the ingredients in the bowl."

"That shouldn't be a problem!" Peach walked to the bowl, and she began to quickly mix the ingredients together.

After a couple of seconds of mixing, she finished and put the bowl back on the table. Twink appeared to look pleased. "That's it! Great job! Did it go well, Princess Peach?"

"Yeah, it's good!" Peach nodded. Twink took out the book again and began to read the next step.

"OK. Let's go on to the next step then. Now… Put Flour and Butter in the bowl. Go ahead, Princess Peach." Peach nodded to twink as she got the flour and put it in the bowl. Next, she added the butter in.

"All right, that's good. What's next, Twink?"

"It says to pour the ingredients into a pan after you mixed them," Twink read. Peach nodded and mixed the ingredients together before putting it in the pan.

"On to the next step! Now… Bake the batter in the oven for 30 seconds. OK. Head over to the oven."

Peach grabbed the pan, and she put the pan with the ingredients in the oven. After 30 seconds passed, she got it out of the oven.

"I think this is good enough," Peach stated as she held onto the pan with some oven mitts. "It actually smells really nice!"

"All right, now you gotta put that on the table to cool off," Twink noted as Peach placed it on the table. "OK. This is the last thing to do. We're going to put the C Robo Fuel into the cake to decorate it and allow the cake to have all the fuel in it."

Peach grabbed the C Robo Fuel, but when she got a big whiff of it, she didn't appear to like the smell. "This stuff doesn't smell so nice… But, it's what the robot wants."

Peach put the C Robo Fuel on the cake and went back to Twink. "All right, Twink. Let's go bring this to that robot."

"The cake looks great!" Twink cheered. "…Well, probably for the robot, at least. But, it still looks great. Let's go head back."

* * *

**Room with C-1 TM-**

"Here you go!" Peach smiled as she walked into the room and held the Robo Fuel Cake to C-1 TM.

"Well it's about time," C-1 TM said, looking a big impatient. "But aside from that, thank you, Princess Peach!"

Once Peach gave the cake to him, something opened up from below his eyes, which is where he put the entire Robo Fuel Cake in there. It looked like it was his mouth area.

"This… This is… Ahhh… I feel so good!" C-1 TM sighed as he flew back up. "Finally! I can get back at those two! I'm sure that they're heading towards **Blooper Cave**, which is right by **Yoshi's Island** to the east. I know that Bloopink is guarding it. …Wait! I think I said too much!"

_"I think I better go tell Chopper to go to Yoshi's Island,"_ Twink thought._ "This Bloopink sounds pretty threatening…" _

"What's going on in here! Whoever's in there, keep it quiet!"

"Who cares who it is? I'll just open the door, you angry Koopa!" the door opened, and Maquano and Bowser came walking in the room, with Camikon by Maquano's side.

"Lord Maquano… Isn't that…Princess Peach over there?" Camikon gaped.

"What? Princess Peach managed to get out again?" Bowser gaped before stomping his foot. "How the heck are those guards doing such a terrible job at guarding?!"

C-1 TM sweat dropped, but suddenly had an idea. "Err… AHA! King Bowser! I found Princess Peach walking around in here! So… Can you send me down to Yoshi's Island already?"

"What? No! You already failed to beat Chopper! In fact… Where is your brother? I need to go speak with him."

"Last time I saw him, he joined Chopper's side."

"What!? He LEFT me?!" Bowser gasped. "First this robot betrays me, and now the princess is out of her room! Guards!"

"What is it, King Bowser?" the two Koopatrols asked as they walked into the room.

"You guys don't know how to keep an eye out on the princess! Take her back to her room right now!"

"Yes, sir!" the two Koopatrols picked Peach up, while Twink managed to leave by going out the window.

"Nooooo!" Peach cried as the Koopatrols left the room with her. Once they were gone, Maquano's communicator went off.

"Ugh, hang on a second," Maquano took out his communicator, and he saw Bob in his bathing suit at some beach. In case you didn't know, Bob's a black color with purple eyes. He also has a red bandana on him. He has…a purple bathing suit.

_"Hey, Maquano old buddy!"_ Bob greeted._ "Since you kicked me out of your castle, I decided to go to the Mushroom Kingdom. I can see that castle up in the sky, too!"_

"Bob, why are you in the Mushroom Kingdom? And where are you?"

_"I'm at some island of some sort. There's these weird dinosaurs. I can see some kind of cave over some mountain."_

"Bob, get off of Yoshi's Island. Chopper is probably going to head there right now."

"_Chopper? Oh, you mean that kid that kicked your butt numerous times? Say, why do you always get your beaten by a ten year old anyway?"_

"…He's eight years old, you idiot."

_"Well, that makes it even BETTER!"_ Bob snickered._ "C'mon, everyone's going to laugh at you for losing to an eight year old! Even I could do better!"_

"Oh, really? I highly doubt that _you_ could beat him. All you'll do is act stupid. Just leave me in peace so I can make some plans."

"_Fine! I just wanted to be a boss, that's all! I mean, if I fight him, I'll become one heck of a boss! I'm gonna do that when he gets here! Oh… And I'm using your surfboard right now."_

"Nnnnngghhh!" Maquano instantly turned off his communicator in anger and put it away.

"Why does he always contact you?" Bowser asked. "I mean, he always acts so stupid. Anyway, Bloopink will surely handle Chopper once he gets into Blooper Cave."

"Yes, that won't be easy. Though he can stay underwater forever, he won't get past that giant Blooper. For now, let's just go somewhere else. I hope for god that Bob doesn't actually get here…"

Bowser, Maquano, and Camikon left the room, hoping that Bob doesn't come in and try to act like a complete idiot...as he usually does.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

Outside of the house where the Mechanical Box was, Muskular began to stretch now that he was free. Koopla was listening to what Muskular had to say, Bruce was still looking at Bow, Parakarry checked through his mailbag, Bow had her fan out, trying to keep Bruce away, and C-2 Choppor was doing absolutely nothing. Chopper began to listen to what Muskular had to say.

"Phew! Ahhh, fresh air!" Muskular sighed. "After being cooped up in there for so long, I could really use some outdoor exercise."

"It must've been tough being trapped in that Mechanical Box, wasn't it?" Chopper asked.

Muskular nodded. "My name is Muskular. Chopper, I must thank you for saving me. Now it's my turn to help you. Behold!"

Muskular raised his arms and let sparkles fall on Chopper. He could feel more energy going into him, and he clenched his fists as Chopper brought his arms up.

**Chopper's Star Energy goes up to 4! Chopper can now use Chill Out, a new Star Spirit Power! With Chill Out, Chopper can lower the attack power of all enemies!**

"Call on me whenever you find yourself in trouble," Muskular informed. "I'll always come quickly to aid you in battle. Now… I'm going back to my dear old Star Haven…"

"**_Chopper!_**" Twink came flying down to Chopper. C-2 Choppor instantly knew who he was from before.

"It's you..." C-2 Choppor trailed.

"Chopper! Chopper! I have news… News from the castle…" Twink turned around and saw Muskular. "Gasp! Honorable Star Spirit!"

"Hi! Hmmmmmmmmmm… Twink! It's been quite a while, hasn't it? We couldn't have defeated Bowser without your help." the Star Spirit smirked.

"You remember my name after seven months?"

"Ha ha ha! Why, of course! We're like family!"

"I… I… I'm so touched!"

"Ho ho ho! Don't make such a fuss, lad. I'm sure you'll go on to do great things! You even said yourself you would! I must take my leave now. Good-bye! Twink, Chopper!"

Muskular began to fly away back to Star Haven. Twink felt so surprised.

"Wow! I can't believe I got to talk to Muskular, the honorable Star Spirit again! I rarely have such a chance, even at Star Haven. I'm shaking!"

Twink then stopped for a moment and calmed down. "Oops, I'm sorry! I have some important news from the castle. According to the information Princess Peach and I got… It seems that one of the honorable Star Spirits is being held at Blooper Cave on Yoshi's Island. You wouldn't believe what the princess went through to get this information. I hope it will be of help…"

"Yoshi's Island? That's an odd name for an island." Chopper pondered. "What's there, Yoshis? What are they supposed to be?"

"Yoshis are dinosaurs that have long tongues, and they can flutter around," Koopla informed. "There's mostly green ones, but there are many of different colors."

"Anyway, I'm going back to rejoin Princess Peach now. Chopper, as always, good luck. The princess and I will keep looking for useful information." Twink waved goodbye as he began to fly off.

"So… How do we get to Yoshi's Island?" wondered Chopper. "I mean, it's on an island, right?"

"It's east of Toad Town. There's a harbor that's west of this area of Toad Town." Parakarry informed. "We can go check there if we want."

"Then, let's head there!" Chopper declared as they headed to the left and found themselves in a harbor. They could see a club called Club 64 nearby. But, in the harbor, they saw no boats or anything. However, there was someone there.

"Hey, is that Professor Toadsmeth? HEY! TOADSMETH!"

"Chopper?" Toadsmeth turned around and quickly went to Chopper and the others. "My god… I didn't expect to see you here. But, why are you over here?"

"We're trying to get to Yoshi's Island," Bow explained before frowning. "But… We don't have anything to get there. We need some kind of boat or something."

"A boat… Hmmm…" Toadsmeth began to ponder before a light bulb apeared over his head. "Good news, Chopper! I just happen to have a boat! But… It'll take some time to get out. So… Why don't you do something while waiting?"

"So we gotta wait? Well, that's a shame." Chopper frowned. "Fine, we'll go find something to do."

"I heard there's a Dojo that has a Buzzy Beetle named Chan, a Duplighost named Lee, and the master of the Dojo…The Master. You can go there while waiting."

"Toad Town Dojo? Hmm… Sounds interesting. I remember seeing two weird fighting guys when I came back to Toad Town. I'll go over there."

"Good! You can get a degree if you defeat The Master. But, I think I'll be done if you defeat one of them. So, good luck!"

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, Bow, and C-2 Choppor headed to that blue building in the first area of Toad Town. They found a door up the stairs and headed in.

The room they're in was small, but the ground, walls, and ceiling was brown, and it had a Kanji symbol on the wall. The Duplighost and Buzzy Beetle from before were here, and there was a Toad in a red robe with a white beard. He looked rather old.

"So, he's here..." Chan whispered.

"It's just like The Master predicted..." Lee whispered.

"So, I suppose now is the time for us to ready our skills against this boy."

"Yes."

Chopper looked over at the two, who appeared to be whispering. But, instead of walking to them, he walked over to The Master instead, who appeared to be meditating.

"Ah, so you're the boy who's been saving the Star Spirits," The Master slowly got up and bowed to Chopper. "I welcome you to my Dojo. I am The Master. I am the head of this Dojo. _…cough hack cough…wheeze…"_

"Whoa... Are you OK?" Chopper gawked.

"Please pardon me. My health is rather delicate. Every day we train in this Dojo to improve body and mind. If you have the purpose and the desire, you may challenge us. Tell me, what business have you here today? _…cough…hack…_"

"I might as well try this Dojo out. I'll fight any of you!"

"Hmmmm... So, he's going to challenge us." Lee mumbled. "We must be ready."

"Very well. Then Chan will fight you. Now, Chan. It is time for you to fight Chopper." The Master said as Chan stepped in.

"As you say, Master!" Chan faced Chopper. "Chopper! Here comes Chan the man!"

**Tattle: **_This is Chan, of the Dojo. He is training under The Master and is happy to fight us. Max HP: 15, Attack Power: 2, Defense Power: 2 Hammer attacks don't work well, but you can turn him over with Jump attacks. Once he's flipped over, he's easy. So you have the fight once he's flipped over!_

Chopper started off by jumping on Chan. He managed to flip him over and then stomped on his belly. Since he has 2 Defense on his shell, he only did 2 damage.

"Go for it, Bow!" Chopper said as Bow appeared by Chan and smacked him five times. Chan got himself up and attacked Chopper by tossing himself. He got hit by the attack, but it only did 2 damage.

Chopper flipped him over again, and then stomped on his belly. Bow attacked Chan again with her Smack, now that he was vulnerable.

Chan got himself back up, and he began to pant. "Not bad. You surely are a tough foe…" Chan attacked Chopper while in his shell, but he guarded the attack.

Once Chopper flipped Chan over and stomped on him one last time, the fight was over. Chopper and Bow won the battle! Chopper had his thumbs up after the battle, and the others smiled.

"Victory is ours. That was too easy." C-2 Choppor stated.

"Enough!" The Master called out. "The winner is Chopper! Chan, you must train harder. Very well. I give you this, Chopper" The Master gave Chopper a First-Degree Card.

"Ooh! This is pretty cool!" Chopper smiled.

"You are welcome to train here with us anytime… _Cough…wheeze…_"

"I'd fight again, but I gotta go. Guys, let's go head back to the harbor." Chopper suggested as he and the group left the Dojo.

"Well, he was able to best me..." Chan trailed. "You might be next, Lee."

"Then I will prepare myself to beat him," declared Lee.

* * *

**Toad Town Harbor-**

After getting back to the harbor, they saw Professor Kolorado was there, while Professor Toadsmeth didn't seem to be paying attention to him.

"Chopper? Is that you, my boy?" Kolorado gasped. "I didn't expect to see you here! Are you heading to Yoshi's Island as well?"

"Yeah, we're heading there," Koopla nodded. "Wait, you're going there? What for?"

"I'm looking for some treasure in Blooper Cave! It has been said many years ago that pirates used to live there, and they hid their treasure in there. I'm going to go to Yoshi's Island so I can find that treasure."

"Well, that's a coincidence. Maybe you can join us on our way to Yoshi's Island. It'll be…pretty nice, I guess..." Chopper shrugged.

"Good news, Chopper!" Toadsmeth began as he walked over to Chopper. "I got the boat in! And I swear, this one will be GREAT!"

"Ooh! I can't wait to get on this boat!"

* * *

**Ten minutes later-**

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, Bow, and C-2 Choppor were on a boat made of bamboo, leaves, and twigs. Kolorado was still on the dock, unsure about this.

"THIS…is the boat? Your greatest boat ever is just a boat made of twigs and leaves?" Chopper asked, giving an irritated look. Everyone else glare at him.

"Yes, it is! Isn't it fantastic?" Toadsmeth cheered.

"Fantastic? This thing could barely stay up!" Bow snapped. "And it doesn't feel comfortable at all! Think before you make something, Toad professor."

"Well, it's got a sail. That'll help you get through. And don't worry. I tested this boat out, and it works just fine!"

"If you say so…" Kolorado trailed. "Though, I still don't feel comfortable riding on this boat. But, it's better than nothing. Make some room, hm?" With that, he jumped on the boat.

"I've always wanted to visit Yoshi's Island!" Bruce smiled. "My ex-girlfriend went to Lavalava Island, and that had Yoshis, but this is YOSHI'S Island."

"C'mon… Let's just go already. I don't want to sit on this boat forever. So… Just get this dang thing moving." Koopla grumbled, getting impatient.

"Off to adventure then! Let's go!" Kolorado declared.

The boat began to move east, which was nice considering that the wind was moving in that direction. However, that didn't mean everyone was pleased.

"I can't believe we're on a bad-looking boat," Koopla groaned. "Chopper, do you ever think about how strange life can be? Because personally, I do."

"Yeah, life can be strange at times. But for now, let's sit back, and head on to Yoshi's Island!" Chopper suggested. "And hopefully, nothing bad happens on our way.

The boat began to leave the harbor, and it began to head on into the Mushroom Kingdom sea. But for some reason, it felt like everything won't be exactly how it's supposed to be at the island. It felt as if something was not right there...


	26. The Problem in Yoshi Village

**CHAPTER 5**

**-Welcome to Yoshi's Island-**

Chopper was lying on the poorly-made boat with sunglasses on. He could see the bright blue sky and the sun coming down. Seagulls could be seen flying around, and some Cheep Cheeps were jumping out of the ocean and diving back down into the depths. Koopla was just taking out a book on "How to Break Rocks," Bruce had his hat covering his face, Parakarry was still checking to see what mail he was missing, and C-2 Choppor was looking at the ocean. However, Bow was smirking for the moment.

"_It seems Chopper's a little distracted right now. So maybe just for a little fun…" _Noticing her chance, Bow covered her face.

She revealed her spooky face when she felt like it was at the right time. This caused Chopper's arms to flail like crazy as his sunglasses fell into the water.

"**_YAAAAAAAAH!_ **No! Not my sunglasses!" Chopper cried, trying to grab them. Sadly, he was too late. "Bow! Why'd you have to do that?"

"Oh, I couldn't resist that. Don't worry, that will never happen again. So, you forgive me, don't you?" Bow asked in a sweet tone.

"All right, I suppose. But that's because you're on my side. …At least, I know you are. Tell me you really ARE."

"I'm certain that I'm on your side. Who else would've helped you take down Bubba Blubba."

"...Good point."

"Warning! Huge ship coming by!" warned C-2 Choppor. "We must be careful right now."

"Huge ship? What do you mean?" Parakarry gawked.

Kolorado's eyes widened when he saw something up ahead. "Oh my… Look at that!"

They saw a big Ghost Ship sailing by. There were a couple of Dry Bone Pirates on there, who happened to be laughing at them.

"Open fire on those living beings!" one of the pirates shouted. Cannons fired at them, and the boat began to sink.

"Oh no! We're sinking!" Bruce cried. It was too late to even get out. The boat sank, and everyone sank with it.

"Yarharharharhar! C'mon, boys! Let's beat it!" the captain ordered. The Ghost Ship then dove down into the depths of the ocean. But… How exactly?

Unfortunately for everyone else, they were now stranded in the water. But because of the cannonball, it forced them unconscious.

* * *

**An hour later-**

At the shore of an unknown island lay Chopper. There were some waves that seemed to carry the rest of his friends onto shore.

"Weee-hooo!" Apparently, Bob was surfing around the island. He was flexing his muscles, despite him not being strong. "Yeah! Now THIS is paradise right here! I don't need to be back in Hell!"

He stopped on his surfboard when he saw Chopper lying on the ground. "Hey, that's the kid Maquano hates, right?"

Bob also saw Bow lying on the ground. "Well, hello… Did I just find a sexy ghost on the beach? You know, I could go over there and show how sexy I am... But, since this kid's here, maybe it's time I became what I always wanted to be: a boss!"

Bob swam towards Chopper on his surfboard, but he didn't notice a huge wave coming by. It got Bob, and it pulled him further into the ocean.

"**_NOOOO! DANG YOU, BEACH! NOW I CAN'T BE A BOSS! IT WAS MY LIFE LONG DREAM TO NOT ONLY BE A BIG JERK, BUT TO BE A BOSS! YOU WILL PAY, OCEAN!_**" his voice got softer as the waves carried him further back into the ocean.

Chopper's eyes opened, and he saw that he was lying on the sand. _"Unnghh... What just happened? Wait... Is this sand?"_

"So you're up, old boy? Oh, good. I thought I'd be the only one!"

Chopper got up before spitting sand out, and he saw Kolorado walk up to him.

"Where are we? Did we get to the wrong island?" Chopper asked, wiping some sand off his tongue.

"Well, while you and your friends were out, I saw a sign that said 'Welcome to Yoshi's Island'," Kolorado explained. "This place is smashing, don't you think so, my boy?"

"I suppose. Where are my friends?" Chopper noticed Bow lying on the ground, so he walked over to her and nudged her.

"You there, Bow?" Chopper saw Bow slowly open her eyes. He helped her up while she brushed the sand off of her bows.

"Where are we, Chopper? Is this Yoshi's Island?" Bow asked.

"Apparently it is. Kolorado even told me that this is the place. I wonder where the others are..."

"Finally, I'm no longer buried in the sand. I hated it." Chopper noticed C-2 Choppor getting himself out of the sand.

"Don't worry! We're here also!" the rest of the group turned around and he saw Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry running towards them.

"Splendid! We all found each other!" Kolorado cheered. "Now… How about we explore this island, hm? Perhaps we'll find something. Make haste!"

Kolorado began to move on through the beach, while Chopper followed Kolorado using his Speed Dash. But, he realized that he was actually getting ahead of him.

"How did you become so fast anyway, Chopper?" Bruce asked. "I wish I could have your speed or something like that."

"Some rainbow heart ended up giving me this ability, along with my jump and inhaling ability," Chopper explained. "It's so strange for a rainbow heart to do that..."

"Interesting..." Parakarry trailed.

They headed toward the next area, where they noticed that there were palm trees and some Poison Piranhas that are a yellow color with green lips. What makes it bad was that they're able to spit out poison.

Another enemy of the beach are birds that are a red color. They have green stripes, and they are pretty aggressive. They can shoot feathers at Chopper and also dive down and peck at anyone. Let's call them Island Birds.

"My, isn't this such a… AAACK!" Two Island Birds flew down at Kolorado and began to peck at him.

"Uh oh… That's not good." Chopper stepped back, and so did the others. C-2 Choppor immediately aimed at the birds.

"Yeeeeek! Help me, old boy! I'm in danger!" Kolorado cried.

"Hang on a second! I'll take care of them!" Chopper shot a fireball at the first bird, allowing him a First Strike. With his Peekaboo Badge, he could tell that they have 8 HP.

Chopper saw that the bird had an ability he could copy. So, he walked to the bird and began to use his Inhale to suck it up.

Once Chopper swallowed the bird, he had a Native American headdress on his head, and two feathers on the headdress that can be transformed into feathery wings whenever he wanted to fly. He has small two red lines on the side of his face. He has now become…Wing Chopper.

"Attacking Island Bird now!" C-2 Choppor was about to fire, but Bow immediately smacked the Island Bird, which forced him to bring his gun down. "Very well..."

The Island Bird left dove down at Chopper. He guarded the attack and took 3 damage, knowing that their Attack Power is 4. Chopper finished off the Island Bird with his Feather Gun ability, shooting a feather at the Island Bird, and taking it out.

Chopper waggled his finger after getting 4 Star Points, and Kolorado was just fine. …Aside from having some swollen parts on his face and body.

"Phew… You saved me! Many thanks, my fellow adventurer!" thanked Kolorado. "Well, enough of that! Let's pull ourselves together and press on, what say?"

They all simply followed Kolorado through the beach. Chopper whacked one of the palm trees to get a Star Piece. With that, they proceeded on to the next area.

This next area didn't really have much sand. In fact, they had to cross water. Kolorado was right where the water was.

"Well, we seem to be between a rock and a hard place right now," Bow noticed. "The beach ends here!"

"My scanners tell me that if we cross this water, we can get to a place called Yoshi's Village," informed C-2 Choppor. "Though I am resistant to water, I will not go in there. Hold on…"

C-2 Choppor noticed some kind of tree that looked big enough to make a bridge. But, he'd need to get a little closer to have a clear shot.

"Chopper, I need to get over there. You need to help me with that tree."

"But… How? ...Wait, I have this Wing ability! I'll fly over there!" Chopper jumped, and the feathers on his headdress became wings, allowing him to fly to the other side.

"Oh! Would you look at that! Such courage and power in him!" Kolorado gaped.

"True, and that he's a green color like me, which is something I like about him," Bow smiled, watching him and C-2 Choppor fly over the ocean to the other part of Yoshi's Island.

"He's nothing special, honestly..." Koopla trailed.

When they got to the tree, C-2 Choppor shot it with a blast, allowing it down into the water. It allowed Kolorado and Chopper's other partners to cross over.

Once they headed into the next area, they saw a couple of docks above the water forming a loop. The docks were skinny, but they could walk on them.

"A loop? That sounds pretty challenging for someone like me." Kolorado gasped. "But, fear not! I do have plans on how to handle this!"

"It's just a loop. Sheesh! I'll handle this!" Chopper walked up onto the dock and used his Speed Dash to get through the loop.

Chopper made it to the other side of the area where there's land, and he saw a sign. He began to read what it said.

_Yoshi's Village is up ahead._

"Oh, so we're pretty much done with the beach," Chopper realized. "That's great! Guys! We're near Yoshi's Village!"

C-2 Choppor used his jetpack to float over to Chopper, and Bow simply floated over. Parakarry took Koopla, Bruce, and Kolorado over. Though, Parakarry accidentally dropped Kolorado, who fell into the water.

"Noooo! I'm drowning! Somebody! Save meeee!" Kolorado cried.

Parakarry let out a sigh and grabbed Kolorado's arm. He then flew to Chopper and let go of Kolorado, who was soaking wet.

"So, basically… You never knew how to swim?" Parakarry asked.

"Of course not! Swimming is not really my thing. Archaeologists don't even swim." Kolorado explained. "So, that's one of the reasons why I chose to be that. That, and to find some treasure! But, I say, my boy. Where could that Blooper Cave be?"

"I don't really know. So quit asking me where it is." Chopper grumbled. "I'm sure you'd know more about Yoshi's Island. I know NOTHING about this place. In fact, I don't even know what a Yoshi looks like."

"You'll see when we head on into Yoshi's Village," Koopla assured. "I know you're dying to meet one, anyway."

"Uhhhh... Not 'dying'..."

"Well, uh..."

While they had their little conversation, Bob was able to get back to the island while surfing toward them. But, a giant wave came down at him. Once they turned around to face the ocean, they didn't see anyone around.

"Well, I know this ocean is nice and all. But, we gotta head on into Yoshi's Village." Chopper suggested. "The green jungle grass up ahead shows that we're getting there."

"Let us make haste then! I'll go ahead just to be safe!" Kolorado declared as he headed on into Yoshi Village. The others followed him in, not even noticing Bob.

* * *

**Yoshi Village-**

When they entered the village, they could see a pond in the middle of the first area of Yoshi Village. There were white houses around the village shaped like eggs with different color polka dots. Their colors are usually green, red, blue, and sometimes black. But there are unique ones like light blue, yellow, and pink.

But what caught Chopper's attention were the dinosaurs. They were in many colors, such as green, red, blue, etc. From what he could tell, they were most likely the Yoshi species.

"So these things around us are called Yoshis?" Chopper asked. "They seem pretty interesting. This village is also pretty cool, as far as what I can see."

"Yoshis don't really appear around Toad Town. They're only on Lavalava Island and Yoshi's Island. Nowhere else." Koopla explained.

"I heard Yoshis can jump pretty high and flutter up in the air after they jump," Bruce recalled. "It would be cool if we had a Yoshi on our team!"

"This place is pretty safe for the most part," Parakarry pondered. "…Except for those birds that tried to attack us earlier. Wait, they attacked Kolorado. Not us."

"It looks a lot different than Lavalava Island. But, it's a lot safer since there's no volcano." Bow sighed. "But, I don't see much around except for houses."

"We must be careful here," C-2 Choppor warned. "Well, the archaeologist must be careful. Through this village is another beach, and my scanners tell me that there are a lot of rocks there."

"Let's just explore this place. Maybe we can get some info on the Star Spirit." Chopper suggested. "If we can find their leader, maybe we'll find out where the Star Spirit is. We can find out where this cave is!"

Chopper began to look around in the village, but he decided to start off by talking to the red Yoshi that was closest to him.

"Hello there, strange little boy!" the red Yoshi greeted. "This is Yoshi's Village. Where are you from, exactly?"

"I'm from Clara. That's a planet far from here." Chopper explained. "We were wondering where we could find the Star Spirit."

"Star Spirit? Well… I think our leader, Yoshgin, knows something about a Star Spirit. At least that's what I THINK…"

"Where is your leader?" C-2 Choppor asked as Chopper's partners caught up. "We must go see him about this."

"His house is right by the beach. The beach he's near has a lot of rocks, and it's said that only the hero of Yoshi's Island can move the rocks over and find three torches that are like a triangle. Though, none of us Yoshis can do it. But, if you can…perhaps you can actually help us with our problem."

"Ummm… All right, then." Chopper passed by the other Yoshi houses and headed on into the next part of the village.

They all saw some kind of pond in the middle of the next area, just like before, and at the bottom of the water was a chest.

"I'll go get that chest," Chopper declared as he jumped into the pond and sunk down to the bottom. He opened the chest, and it contained a Fire Rain Badge. It allows Chopper to shoot fireballs up into the sky, and have them come down on enemies. Chances are that it would work great against ice enemies.

Chopper got out of the pond, but noticed how small the pond is. "That's odd. I thought there would be more water here."

"Yeah, I find it odd too. It's like the Yoshis are staying away from the ocean or something." Bow noticed.  
"It was fine over where we were, but not here."

"Let's just move on," Koopla suggested. They moved on, and to the last area of Yoshi Village, there were only three houses and one big Yoshi house. This must be Yoshgin's house, so they headed in.

The house had a light brown floor and some stones on the walls. There were shelves with a book that had something to do with a hero helping.

"He's not here? That's a shame… Well, let's go check the eastern beach, then." Chopper suggested.

They left the village and headed towards the path to the eastern beach. That is, until they heard a familiar voice.

"**_Yaaaaaaargh!_ **Yeeeeek! H-E-L-P… HELP!" they all saw Kolorado getting smacked around by two Poison Piranhas.

"I don't know why, but that looks funny," Koopla smiled.

"You like to see your uncle get hurt?" Bruce gawked. "That's kinda cruel..."

"Oh, yeah... That's not a good thing."

"We can't just let him get hurt," Bow noted.

"Oh, all right… I'll get rid of these Piranhas." Chopper sighed as he landed a First Strike by shooting a feather at one of the Poison Piranhas. Thankfully, these Poison Piranhas didn't have their heads sticking up, so jumping on them would be fine.

Chopper attacked the Poison Piranha again with his Feather gun, and C-2 Choppor got his chance to attack the Poison Piranha, so he fired a blast at it, destroying it.

The Poison Piranha remaining somehow made it toward Chopper and bit him. Luckily, Chopper guarded the attack. With that, Chopper flew up and dove down at the Poison Piranha with his Wing Dive, hitting it successfully.

Bow floated to the Poison Piranha and she smacked it five times. The Poison Piranha still had 1 HP left, unfortunately.

The Poison Piranha tried to spew out some pink poison breath at Chopper, but he managed to guard the attack and not become poisoned.

"All right, time to finish this up!" Chopper shot a feather at the Poison Piranha, and it was gone.

Chopper had his thumbs up from the battle after getting 6 Star Points. Bow had her fan out and laughed as usual, and C-2 Choppor shot up at the sky. The others did their victory poses too.

But because of being attacked, Kolorado was all battered up a lot more than before, and he looked like he was exhausted. But, he still had the energy in him.

"Phew… You saved me once more." Kolorado sighed. "You're top notch, Chopper! Now, while I was exploring here, I noticed the ocean over there by those docks going further out into the sea. Look at the ocean. It looks like it's been covered with some kind of black stuff!"

"Dock? Hmmm…" Chopper saw a dock over the ocean, and it looked rather long. "C'mon, guys. Let's go explore those docks. …And maybe it's best if we don't touch that water."

Chopper began to go up onto the dock, and he began to use his speed to get through. Kolorado followed him onto the dock and so did the others.

"Man, this is a pretty long dock," Bruce huffed. "It's like someone had A LOT of spare time to make this. It's really interesting."

"We're certainly getting further away from the beach. We CAN'T touch the water." Koopla alarmed. "It looks really bad right now."

"Wait… The water's starting to clear up. And I think I can see an island over there at the end of the dock. It looks like a small one with a palm tree and…a Yoshi?" Parakarry looked confused.

Chopper stopped at the dock, and he saw the island. "Guess I gotta use my wing ability to get to that green Yoshi over there."

Chopper jumped off the dock and began to glide over there. Kolorado saw him fly all the way over. Chopper's partners stopped right at the end of the dock.

"Well, there's no way I can cross this. So… I'm stayin' here." Koopla stated.

"It looks like it's my turn," Kolorado jumped off the dock…which only resulted in him falling into the water.

"Yeeeeeep!"

Kolorado tried so hard to get over to the island, which somehow resulted in him swimming. Everyone else was confused by this too.

"How the heck did he do that?" Bow gaped.

"I have no idea..." Bruce gawked.

The Yoshi on the small island looked like he was meditating. He had a feather on the right side of his head. Once Chopper landed on the ground, the Yoshi opened his eyes and turned to Chopper.

"Huh? Who are you? Are you one of the natives?" the Yoshi asked.

"Natives?" Chopper noticed he still had his Wing ability on. "Oh, sorry. I'm not a native to this place. This is just an ability I have on. My name's Chopper and I'm from Clara. You must be the leader of the village, right?"

"Yes, I am. My name is Yoshgin."

Kolorado got all the way to the island, and he was panting, and also soaking wet. "That sure was something, eh? All we need to do is find that treasure in the cave."

"Cave? Don't suppose you're going to the Blooper Cave on the other side of this island, are you not?" Yoshgin asked.

"Yeah, we're going there. I'm trying to get the Star Spirit that I was told about in there." Chopper informed.

"Ah, so you're going for the Star Spirit? Well, I don't know much on how to get to the cave, but my grandfather does know. He is very wise, and he knows many things, especially the way to Blooper Cave."

"Really? Where is he?"

"Well, he's always at the top of Yoshi Mountain. It's a long climb up, and only a Yoshi could get up there. But… If you can get up there, then perhaps it might be you who can help us with our problem.

"Problem? What's the problem?" Kolorado asked.

"Chopper, did you see the water back at the beach? It is black. Do you know where that's coming from? It comes from Blooper Cave. A giant Blooper that lives there is polluting our ocean, and it prevents us Yoshis from collecting water or go for a swim. If you want to climb up Yoshi Mountain and stop the Blooper, you must prove you can do this. Follow me."

Yoshgin jumped off the island and passed Chopper's partners, going back to the beach.

"I say, Chopper. We'll get help in no time!" Kolorado cheered. "But… He said you must prove that you can do this. We might as well follow him."

Chopper grabbed Kolorado and flew back over to the dock. They all headed back to the beach, seeing the polluted waters. On the beach, by the rocks, Yoshgin was waiting for them.

"This place used to be a sacred place for us Yoshis," Yoshgin explained. "We would wait to see if there would be one to figure out this puzzle. I can't exactly tell you what to do, because if you are the one, you'd know what to do."

"Hmmm… I might remember what that Yoshi said. Let's see what I can do." Chopper pondered.

"Try to take your times, Chopper. You don't need to rush this." Bow suggested. "Think carefully, and you'll do it."

"My scanners indicate there is something that…"

"You cannot help him with this, I'm afraid." Yoshgin noted, making C-2 Choppor stop.

Chopper looked at all the rocks, and he checked the ones that seemed to be like a triangle. He turned them over by a simple push, and three crystal balls appeared. They all looked like they were empty.

"Hmm… I think I gotta use fire for this." Chopper shot a fireball in each of the crystal balls, lighting the crystals up.

Suddenly, they could feel a tremble around the beach. They saw all three lit up crystal balls shoot a beam at one another, and something began to happen at the village.

In the third area of Yoshi Village, by Yoshgin's house, a stone gate began to rise up, which meant that anyone could head into Yoshi's Mountain.

"I don't believe it… You managed to figure this puzzle out." Yoshgin gaped.

"That wasn't a hard puzzle to figure out..." Chopper trailed. "It was pretty obvious."

"...Yeah, it did look obvious," Koopla agreed. "How could someone NOT figure that out?"

"Chopper, perhaps you are the one that can beat the Blooper and save our waters," Yoshgin smiled. "Maybe you and your friends are the heroes we've been looking for!"

"Well, my boy, it seems that we can head on through Yoshi Mountain!" Kolorado cheered. "We just need to find his grandfather and find out where Blooper Cave is!"

"But, just because you figured out the puzzle doesn't mean you can make it through Yoshi Mountain. There are many high ledges you gotta go up, and I don't think your jump could reach those heights. If you found a Yoshi, then that's a different story. But, for now, I must go back to meditating. I wish you luck, Chopper."

Yoshgin went back onto the docks and to the island to continue his meditating. "So, what do you say we go, eh? C'mon! Our adventure has only just begun!"

"All right, Kolorado. We'll go already." Chopper sighed.

They headed back into Yoshi Village, and they saw the stone door that rose up. Up ahead was a couple of trees and large leaves. They could see that there was a lot of water around as well. It kind of felt like it was a jungle area.

With that, they headed through to find Yoshigin's grandfather.

* * *

**All I can say is that I like Chapter 5, especially with what we'll see in the next part. :P**


	27. The Ladies Man

When they reached the next area, they could see a lot of trees around and also green grass. They noticed a path up ahead that led to a large pond. From what they could see, they liked it so far.

"Whoa, would you look at this! This place looks pretty cool." Chopper smiled.

"Indeed it is, my boy!" agreed Kolorado. "This is Yoshi's Island after all! Most of this place is mostly paradise! …But, it doesn't seem as much now with that nasty Blooper polluting their waters. Oh, how terrible it is... But, I'm sure you can take care of that Blooper and give 'em a good whack! …Or two."

"So, you just want us to do everything?" Koopla face palmed. "Uncle, I thought you were no coward. Should I tell them what happened seven months ago at Mt. Lavalava?"

Kolorado began to sweat a little. He knew his but got burnt multiple times while being there. He tried to come up with something, but it wasn't going to be easy.

"Ummm… Don't worry, niece! I will make sure you are all safe on this adventure! I will run up ahead and see if we can find anything. You guys can follow me if you want. If you're looking for anything, take your time. But once you're done with that, we gotta go immediately."

Kolorado began to move on while Chopper began to search the bushes and the rest of the area. He noticed a ledge that appeared to have a yellow ? block floating above it.

"Hold on a second…" Chopper jumped up and began to flap his wings with the help of his Wing ability. He got to the platform, and he hit the yellow ? block. It contained a Yoshi Fruit, which can recover 20 HP and 15 FP.

Chopper took the fruit and put it away. It'll become useful a lot later, he thought. With that, he jumped down to the group.

"I got this Yoshi Fruit that should become useful. So, let's press on, shall we?" Chopper suggested as they all moved on until they encountered a fire enemy called a Lava Bubble, which attacked Chopper first, removing his ability.

"Well, that's a shame, Chopper. You don't have your Wing ability on now." Bruce noted.

"Well, I can still copy THAT enemy's ability… Watch!" Chopper inhaled the Lava Bubble, and once he swallowed it, he gained a gold tiara with a green gem in the middle with flames bursting on his head. He had light red skin, and his gloves and shoes were a darker red. Chopper clenched both of his fists, and he had a flaming glow around them. He's gotten the Fire ability, and now he is Fire Chopper.

"So you're Fire Chopper? Well, you seem to look pretty hot." Bow joked, making Chopper back away from her. "No! I mean you have flames coming from your head. But, where did your antennas go?"

"My antennas? Oh, crud… I forgot about those. ...Oh wait. I'm fine without them. No need to worry, Bow. I'm fine with this Fire ability."

Chopper noticed a large bush blocking the path to the next area. "Chopper, why don't you burn that bush down. I'm sure Kolorado had to go through a lot to get passed that bush." Parakarry suggested.

Chopper spewed out fire with his mouth, and the bush began to burn down. A path was revealed, so they moved on ahead. Unfortunately, this area had a lot of water, which wasn't good for Chopper's ability. There appeared to be a path going north across the water.

"A deep pond is to the north," C-2 Choppor informed. "To the right is more water. I am not sure how that archaeologist managed to swim through this…"

"Let's go to the right," Chopper suggested as he jumped into the water. However, he noticed the flames on his head were gone. His antennas could be seen again, but his skin was still a red tint. All he could do in the water was spin around like a Fire Spin attack he could do with his Fire ability.

Chopper swam to the right, with Koopla, Bruce, and Parakarry swimming after him. Bow didn't need to swim due to having no legs, and C-2 Choppor hovered over the water to prevent himself from getting wet.

"I don't wish to have my circuits malfunction," C-2 Choppor stated.

"Water will do that?" Bow asked.

"I'm not sure. I've never been in water before." he said as they followed the rest of the group ahead.

At the next area, the water ended by new land, and they saw Kolorado soaking wet. There appeared to be a big rock in the way. It, unfortunately, prevented him from getting through. Once they all jumped out of the water, Chopper's flames returned.

"You should throw me at the rock!" Bruce suggested.

"If you think you can do it, knock yourself out," Chopper picked Bruce up, and since he's got fire on his head, it made Bruce's butt a little hot.

"Ow ow ow ow ow! Throw me already! My biscuits are burning! Wait, Bob-ombs don't have biscuits…"

"I love biscuits."

"No time to think about biscuits!" Koopla shouted. "Just throw him already!"

Chopper accidentally threw Bruce at the rock, and when he tried blowing it up, it didn't do much, unfortunately.

"What? The rock didn't explode? Well that's a bad thing. I'll give it a try!" Koopla got in her shell and tossed herself at the rock. It didn't do anything to it, sadly. "Nothing. This rock's too hard for me to crack. We might as well turn back when he could've a while ago."

"Hold on… I can destroy this thing no problem." C-2 Choppor aimed at the rock, and he fired a blast at the rock. Unfortunately, it didn't work for him either. "Access denied. The rock will not be destroyed. But, we cannot give up just yet. We must get the Star Spirit on the island."

"We know that already," Parakarry noted.

"I'm just reminding you the objective."

"That's the spirit, old robot!" Kolorado cheered. "Yes, I'm sure you all can figure out something. But, there's one thing that has me confused…"

"What? Is there something on my head?" Chopper asked as Kolorado turned to him.

"Why, yes there is! Chopper, my boy. How did you get those flames on your head? Do you have some sort of super power?"

"It's a Copy Ability. Look, we don't have the time to be speaking about what's on my head. I wanna go back and see what we can do to get rid of this rock."

"Oh, yes! Do that! I apologize for distracting you! We can't go on without breaking this rock!"

Chopper jumped back in the water, and he began to swim back to the other area. The others followed him, and they headed back to the previous area. There were some Cheep Cheeps that tried to attack, but thankfully, they were able to take them down.

"Ugh, Cheep Cheeps... How much I dislike them." Bow grimaced. "I never liked seafood to begin with."

"Do people eat these things?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah, some people do," Parakarry explained. "Man, you don't know too much about this world... We should start giving brochures!"

"I should've given you a little tour," Bow said sweetly. "You would've liked one, right?"

"Thanks, but when we're on a quest to collect seven Star Spirits, I don't think so," Chopper replied as they then got out of the water, and headed to the northern. They found a huge body of water in this area, and it looked rather deep than the water in the other area.

"So, Chopper… Do you feel like going for a swim? I'm pretty sure we did when that boat sank. But this time, a REAL swim."

"Of course I'm going in the water, Bow. There could be something over here that's pretty helpful." Chopper nodded. "So, we're ALL going down into the water."

"All right, but this may be tough for me," Bruce sighed. "I've got no arms to help me swim down. So, I may not be as fast as you guys."

"Let me make sure the mail in my mailbag doesn't get wet," Parakarry noted, making sure that his mailbag was sealed shut. "All right, let's go down."

Chopper jumped into the water, doing a cannonball. The splash wasn't so big, but at least he made a decent jump. Koopla jumped in, and then Bruce tried his best to dive, despite failing horribly. Parakarry made a quick jump into the water and he began to follow the others down, holding his breath.

"You know, I really don't want to go underwater if it means I have to get my bows wet..." Bow sighed. "I think I'll let them stay here and take care of things from here."

"You know that we all must work together if we are to succeed," informed C-2 Choppor. "It requires you to help us."

"Ugh... Fine. If you're not going to leave until I go down there, then I have no other choice." Bow sighed and went in the water, which didn't seem to affect her that much, considering that she's only a ghost. C-2 Choppor decided to go in the water, and surprisingly, it didn't cause his circuits to malfunction. Everything seemed just fine.

"Hmmmm... So water won't harm me." When C-2 Choppor used his jetpack, bubbles shot out instead of fuel, which helped him follow the group down. Once Chopper and the group reached the bottom, they saw a tunnel by the rock. They decided that they should go in the tunnel and investigate. What was bad was that Koopla and Bruce couldn't breathe underwater, preventing them from speaking. Bruce, on the other hand, didn't need to hold his breath when he has no mouth.

"Poor Koopas... They can't breathe." Bruce frowned.

"I see a cave up there. Let's head on into there." Bow suggested. Chopper nodded, and they swam to the cave, which seemed to have some air inside. Once they got out of the water, Koopla and Parakarry took deep breaths, relieved that they got out of the water. They saw a fuse sitting on the ground in front of them. Chopper's flames seemed to lighten up the room.

"Oh? What's this? This looks interesting…" Chopper blew a small amount of fire, and the fuse lit up. They could feel some small explosion within the cave.

"What was that? I think it came from outside…" Bruce heard.

"It must have. C'mon, people. Let's go check where Kolorado was. I think there must've been something that happened over there."

* * *

**Outside-**

Once they made their way out of the cave, they were suddenly stopped by a voice.

"Bloobloobloop! (Hey, you're that Chopper!)" Two Bloopers swam down to the group, who all got in their fighting stances. "Bloobloop (Yeah, you're the one. We got orders by Bloopink to take you down!)"

"Crud…" Chopper sighed, readying for an attack. From what they could see, the Bloopers only had 8 HP, and an Attack of 4. Not too bad, so Chopper used his Fire Spin attack on the first Blooper, and then to finish that one off, C-2 Choppor fired a blast at it.

The Blooper remaining spewed some ink at Chopper. Thankfully, for the water, it was able to be washed off easily. Luckily, Chopper was able to attack with his Fire Spin attack, and then Bow smacked the heck out of the Blooper. They were awarded with 4 Star Points.

"Bloobloobloop! (Oh, man! This kid's tougher than we thought!)" one Blooper cried. "Bloobloop! (We gotta get out of here!)"

And at that point, they swam away from them. After exchanging victory poses, they swam back to where Kolorado was. However, they noticed he was no longer there. I could be because the rock wasn't there either.

"Hey, the rock's not here anymore! We must've gotten rid of the rock back over there! I don't really need this ability right now." Chopper smiled as he removed his Fire ability. Afterward, they moved on to an area with high ledges before them to the north. Kolorado was pondering as he looked up.

"Ah, good timing, Chopper! While you were gone, the rock blew up!" Kolorado noted. "I decided to press on, but I noticed that the way we need to go is too high to reach. Was this the place that the Yoshi told us about?"

"This is the place. Sadly, none of our jumps can work here... I wish I had a higher jump, because this place would be a lot easier!"

They noticed a bush was moving around, which startled everyone.

"Hmmm? What was that?" Parakarry asked.

"Scanning bush," C-2 Choppor stated as he began to scan the bush. Unfortunately, he didn't get too much. "Target unknown. Perhaps looking at what's in there would work?"

"I'll go check in there," Bow declared as she floated to the bush.

"Well, hello there, hot stuff!" Bow saw a Yoshi with a black toupee, sunglasses, and a black jacket. She got startled and smacked the Yoshi with her fan.

"OW!" the Yoshi cried. "Hey, I was just bein' cool with ya! What's the big idea hittin' a gentlemen such as myself?"

"Who's in that bush?" Chopper asked.

"Nobody interesting," Bow said as she floated over to Chopper. "Maybe you can check what's in the bush. You can do it for me, OK?"

"Why do you always want me doing things for you? I know you're supposed to be a princess, but I'm not your servant! In fact, if it wasn't for me, you wouldn't be here!"

"Actually, you wouldn't be here if it weren't for me," Bow smirked. "That Star Spirit brought you to my mansion, and I know you needed it."

"Well I'm not someone you can take advantage of."

"Maybe you're wrong," Bow covered her face, but instead of scaring him, she revealed her cute appearance, with her glittering eyes and her pink blushes. Chopper gawked as he stepped away, trying to get out of a trance.

"Uh… Nice try, but I'm still not doing it." Chopper denied, blinking a few times. However, Bow flew over to him and kissed him on the cheek, making him jump in fear.

"Ack! Gross!" Chopper cried. "Aw, come on! Fine, I'll do it!"

"Hee hee... Thank you." Bow changed back and gave him a wink. Chopper wiped off the kiss on his cheek as he walked over to the dazed Yoshi.

"A Yoshi? Huh… He looks a little different..."

"Huh? Yer a lot different yerself!" the Yoshi retorted as he got out of the bush. He noticed Kolorado, Bow, and the rest of Chopper's group.

"Hey, so the chick's with ya, I presume? I guess she hit me 'cause she belongs to ya."

"What? No! She's not my girlfriend." Chopper retorted. "And who are you, anyway?"

"Me? Well, the name's Yosho. I was just mindin' my own business in the bush until a Blooper attacked me. Yeah, I had to hide 'cause there were too many, but I would've taken them on if there were fewer. I think my decision was wise."

"Or you're just making that up," Bow added, who Yosho ignored.

"So, what's yer name?"

"My name's Chopper. Chopper of Planet Clara." Chopper introduced. "That's Koopla, the Bob-omb's Bruce, the mailman is Parakarry, the ghost that saw you is Bow, and that robot buddy of mine is C-2 Choppor."

"And I'm Kolorado," Kolorado greeted. "Pleasure to meet a Yoshi!"

"Well, good to meetcha!" Yosho grinned. "Say, kid, don't suppose yer goin' up to Yoshi Mountain, aren't ya? If ya do, you've got guts, but that won't help ya. Hold on, let me check yer guts right now."

"Guts? What do you mean by tha- OW!" Yosho punched Chopper right where his stomach would be, and he began to take a deep breath after that. "Hey! Why did you do that? That really hurt!"

"Hmm… Yer gut meter… I don't get it... Do ya even have one? ...Well, I did punch where it was supposed to be. Anyway... I might have to try again."

"Oh, come on!" Chopper cried as he got punched once again, taking deep breaths afterward. Bow got a little mad and was about to smack Yosho with her fan again, but Koopla and Parakarry held her back.

"I'll teach him to hurt Chopper again!" Bow growled.

"Ah! I see now!" Yoshi smirked, now finished with his punching. "Wow, you sure have a good gut meter! Not as good as mine, but not too bad! I like ya, kid! An' that's not somethin' I say to people!"

"So you're saying I have a good gut meter? Is that a good thing?" Chopper asked, tilting his head.

"Hell yeah it is! It's like a party in yer gut or somethin'! But, how come you came to Yoshi Mountain? No non-Yoshi has ever made it up, and I'm sure you can't jump high enough to get up there."

"We need to go to Blooper Cave to rescue the Star Spirit. In fact, I'm doing this so I can defeat Bowser, save Princess Peach, stop Maquano's plans, and defeat Staris before the Mushroom Kingdom gets destroyed."

"Whoa, that sounds like a big story ya have there! And it sounds pretty cool. I'm comin' with ya! …If that's OK with you."

"All right, I guess it's fine by me! …Just don't punch me again."

Yosho punched Chopper again in the stomach, and it made him pant. "Then join you I will! You're makin' the right decision having me join ya! ...Especially when ya have that cute chick with ya!"

"Which 'cute chick' do you mean...?" Chopper moaned.

"Oh, yer girlfriend, I guess."

"This is going to be great..." Bow face palmed.

**Yosho joined your party! Press (v) to climb onto Yosho's back and move around. If you press (A) while on his back, he will jump up. His jump is higher than Chopper's normal jump, and you can even flutter for a short time. When in battle, Yosho can attack enemies with his Ground Pound attack or use his Egg Throw ability to lay an egg and throw it at an enemy.**

"Didn't I say that she wasn't my girlfriend?" Chopper recalled.

"Technically, we are," Bow declared, holding Chopper's hand.

"I thought you said that saving the Mushroom Kingdom was our biggest priority?"

"It is, but we can't leave this relationship out."

"Hey, there's not way you're going to get her!" Bruce growled, glaring at Yosho. "I saw her first, you know!"

"There's no time to be arguing. We must climb up Yoshi Mountain and find the Yoshi Elder." C-2 Choppor stated.

"He's right. Chopper, get on my back!" Chopper got on Yosho's back, and he hurried over to the high ledge. Yosho jumped, and he got up there.

Bow simply floated up to Chopper once he got off, and Parakarry helped the others get up, including Kolorado. C-2 Choppor simply flew up.

"Well, now that we got this done with, we can press on, my boy!" Kolorado declared. "That Yoshi friend of yours will definitely be of good use! Let's go!"

"Yeah, the Koopa with the mustache is right. Let's get goin', guys!" Yosho suggested. Chopper agreed with this, and they all headed on to the next area, jumping up some parts of the area to lead up to the mountain.

When they reached the top of the highest ledge in the area, they saw the grass was still the usual green color, and all the trees that were on the ground were no longer covering the whole area. They could see the beautiful blue sky and the fluffy white clouds. Chopper felt like he wanted to reach up to the clouds and lay on them. However, they weren't exactly at the top yet. The mountain was still pretty high, but they can probably reach a higher distance with Yosho, even if he looks like some gang member. But, they could tell he wasn't a bad guy.

"Whoa, this mountain is huge!" Chopper gaped. "It didn't look as big as when I saw it before! How high is this mountain, anyways?"

"Well, it's about two thousand feet. That's all I know about it." Yosho said, making everyone's eyes widen. "But, the old geezer's up there. He's always meditatin' like some frog on a lily pad. I'm not jokin' here. Yer gonna see him doin' just that when we get up there."

"So you're saying that this Yoshi Elder just sits on a rock all day and meditates?" Bow smirked as she rubbed her stubby hands evilly. "Hmmm… It would be interesting to give him a little scare…"

"No, Bow. We gotta talk to him." Chopper said, shaking his head. "We have to get to the Blooper Cave, and the only way to do that is to talk to the Yoshi Elder. No scaring."

"Yeah, the kid's right, hot lady ghost. We don't need to scare the hell out of the Yoshi Elder." Yosho agreed. "He's actually pretty dang wise! You'll even see fer yerself!"

"How old is this Yoshi anyway?" Koopla asked. "It's like he's REALLY old or something along those lines."

"Well, that's a rather tough question to answer…" Bruce trailed. "I doubt Yosho even knows how old the Yoshi Elder is."

"That's not anything to worry about, honestly. I just realized that I actually have a letter for him." Parakarry recalled. "So, there's a good reason why I'm going to him. I wonder what mail he's getting..."

"Well, then that's somethin' good fer all of us!" Yosho declared.

"Warning! My scanners show some more enemies up ahead!" C-2 Choppor alarmed, raising his arm gun. "Danger level: Medium. We should be fine. Everyone stay together for now."

"What're you, some kind of robot?"

"He is a robot," Chopper noted.

They reached another ledge and took a small little path to find some more ledges to climb up. Kolorado looked a little nervous when they saw how high they were going.

"I say, Chopper… We seem to be getting rather…_gulp_…high. I say we listen to the robot! He's got all the details here!" Kolorado suggested.

"We'll be fine! We can just escape from battle if anyone attacks!" Yosho assured. "It'll be super easy, archaeologist! So don't try to be a big crybaby about it an' turn back, because I'm NOT turnin' back. There's no goin' back when yer on Yoshi Mountain."

Yosho jumped up onto the high ledge, and the others got up with the help of Parakarry. When they headed to the next area, they saw a Yoshi statue with water coming out of its mouth. But, they noticed someone else there. Well, two people, actually.

"Hey, it's those two again!" Chopper noticed, pointing at two thieves.

"That bean an' the leaf that's drinkin' water?" Yosho gawked.

"Yeah, them!"

"C'mon, Rookie! Hurry up with the water!" Popple shouted. "We gotta go find that treasure in the Blooper Cave and get going, see?"

Rookie was drinking the water coming from the statue. "Sorry boss. But, I need the water in order to survive. That's how I was born. Wasn't I so dark and withered when you found me?"

"Yes… That is true... But, we've got no time for drinking! We need to get the treasure before those people come here, see? And I'm certain they're supposed to be here."

Popple turned to Chopper, startling him. "Oh, boo! They are already here! Quick, Rookie! We need to flee!"

"Yes, boss!" Both Rookie and Popple began to flee, heading on to the next area. However, Popple came back with an evil grin on his face.

"See how you like this!" Popple threw a bomb by the path to the next area, and flames suddenly burst out, blocking the way.

"Uh oh… That's not good. He got fire all over there!" Kolorado gulped. "Now how are we going to get past this?"

"Hold on a moment…" Chopper walked to the water the statue was shooting out and began to take a drink from it. Well, more likely he inhaled it.

Chopper swallowed the water, and then he began to change again. This time, he had a golden crown containing a cresting wave on his head. He also changed to a translucent blue color, with purple shoes. His gloves didn't change too much. They still remained a while color.

"I think I'm Water Chopper! Yeah, I'll go take care of that fire now." Chopper squirt some water at the flames and managed to extinguish them. "All right, guys. Let's go after them!"

Everyone agreed and they all headed into the next area, and they noticed flames in two paths. There appeared to be a small ledge rising from the ground with two other ledges that seemed to be jumpable.

"Get on my back, Chopper! I'll get ya to whatever's up there!" Yosho declared. Chopper got on his back, and he jumped up to that higher ground. All there was was a yellow ? block containing a Honey Syrup. There was also an Upgrade Block.

Chopper hit the block in order to upgrade Yosho, knowing he wasn't upgraded yet, and he became Super Ranked. This gave him the ability to eat his enemies and spit them out with his Gulp attack. His attack power was stronger, too. Once they got down, they noticed some small black penguins on flying carpets. They could be up in the air sometimes, and they'll swoop down at you. From what some of them knew, they were Pidgets.

"Pidgets? Sounds a little strange, if you ask me..." Chopper trailed.

"Everything seems strange to you," Bow stated.

"Not really..."

They fought a Pidget that tried to attack them, and they won the battle. They had 10 HP, an Attack of 4, and 0 Defense. With that, Chopper shot water at both burnt paths to extinguish the fire. They headed north to notice on the north part of the area, there were a couple of ledges to climb. Thankfully, there were some stone ladders to help them climb up.

"Yeah, the Yoshi Elder's up there!" Yosho recalled. "But, you'll have to climb up that mountain to get to him. So, ya think you can do it?"

"Of course I can! Just watch me climb up here!" Chopper, instead of climbing, ran up the wall to get to the entrance. The entrance to the inside of the mountain had some seal to it.

"Nope, not gonna work," Chopper jumped back down to Yosho. "We can't get in there for some reason. Maybe we should chase after Popple?"

"That sounds like a good idea!" Kolorado declared. "Why don't you guys go around there, while I stay here and wait for you to come back!"

"All right, fine, you chicken. C'mon, guys. Let's go."

They began to leave the area, and they headed to the right path to a new area. There was a pond and also a blue ! switch down there. Chopper swam down to hit the switch. To the right, a rock blocking the way got destroyed, and it allowed them to keep going. They continued on to the next area until they reached some more ledges to climb up.

There didn't appear to be another path around. A Save Block was nearby, and they could also hear the sound of someone's voice. From what they could tell, it sounded like Popple and Rookie.

"Wow, look at how high we are…" Bruce gulped, looking down. "I wish we could turn back, but we have no other choice."

"You don't have to go up there if you want," Bow informed. "You can stay here. I'll go up there with Chopper…and I guess Yosho can take him up."

"I sure will! How about we spend some quality time later at my place…or even yours." Yosho grinned.

"You wish. I don't go for Yoshis. Besides... I already stated that I would be here with Chopper before you even showed up."

"Umm… Let's just go up." Chopper suggested as he sweat dropped.. He got on Yosho's back, and he began to jump up to the higher ledge of Yoshi Mountain.

"Turning jetpack on!" C-2 Choppor shouted as he flew after Chopper. Parakarry thought it would be best to follow them.

"So you're leaving us here? You gotta be kidding me…" Koopla grumbled. "You don't do that when there are seven people here!"

Popple was holding on to a ruby stone, and he began to take out his sack to put it in. But, he heard people coming up to him.

"Boss, we got a problem! They're here!" Rookie swung his two poison swords and got in his fighting stance when they reached them.

"So they're here? Well, looks like there are more of them!" Popple groaned. "A robot and some Yoshi came here! Listen, the ruby's mine, see? We found it first!"

"We probably need that to get to the Yoshi Elder. So I think YOU better give it to us!" Chopper shouted as he got in a fighting stance.

"If you want this, then we'll battle for it! Rookie, go for it!"

"As you wish, boss!" Rookie roared as he readied his two poison vine swords.

**Tattle: **_This guy again? He sure never quits, right? Well, he seems to have improved a little bit. Max HP: 30, Attack Power: 3, Defense Power: 0. He'll steal your items like before, and he'll even steal your hammer. But, I'm sure you can take this guy on no sweat! Just be careful with your items, all right?_

**Tattle: **_This is Popple's helper, Rookie. He still seems to have amnesia, I guess. And his power has grown stronger. I'd be careful if I were you, Chopper. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 4, Defense Power: 0. He'll poison you like before, so you want to take him out first. But, for some reason, it feels like he's got some new tricks up his sleeves…_

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce on Rookie. Luckily, he was able to stomp on him nine times, and THAT did 10 damage. Pretty good start, in his eyes.

"All right, time to show ya what I got here!" Yosho declared as he began to flutter toward Rookie. He managed to land a Ground Pound on him, taking 5 out of him.

"Oof! Boss, that Yoshi he's got with him is pretty tough!" Rookie cringed. "What should I do with him?"

"Take out his party member! That'll work!" Popple grinned.

Popple ran toward Chopper, and he attacked him with a simply jump. He didn't guard it, so took full damage from his attack. Rookie jumped over Chopper and landed in front of Yosho. He swung one of his swords at Yosho, striking his easily.

"GAAH!" Yosho shouted as he fell to the ground.

"Oh, great! Yosho's injured!" Chopper gaped

"Relax, buddy… I'll help ya as soon as I recover..."

"All right… Maybe fire can work on Rookie." Chopper became Fire Chopper, since if he used water, it might heal Rookie instead. He used a Fireball attack on both Popple and Rookie. Rookie took 6 damage from it because of him being a leaf.

"**_Yeeeeeeeooooow!_**Fire! Hot hot hot hot! It buuuuuurns!" Rookie cried, being burned for two turns. "Ack, I hate fire more than anything else in the world!"

"How did he figure that one out? !" Popple gaped. "Boo! Boo I say! Fire will not save you here, I'm afraid!"

"Allow me to help you, Chopper," Bow appeared by Rookie and smacked him five times. Popple growled as he ran towards Chopper and stole a Mushroom from him. He held the Mushroom in his hands with an evil grin.

"I'll be taking that, see?"

Rookie charged at Chopper and swung his poison sword at him. Luckily, he guarded the attack and didn't become poisoned.

Rookie felt the burn from him, and it made him take 1 damage.

"Ouch!"

"Man, fire is becoming pretty useful here!" Chopper did his Fire Spin attack on Rookie, and it made him take 6 damage again.

"Aw, man… I'm not feeling good, boss." Rookie wheezed. "If you knocked that ability off of him, then I'd feel a little better."

"Don't worry, Rookie. I already got things planned, see? No worries." Popple grinned.

"Now using Multi-Shot," C-2 Choppor fired two blasts, and it hit both Popple and Rookie. Popple ran towards Chopper again, and he used a headbutt to attack him. He was able to knock away Chopper's Fire ability.

"Aw, man! You gotta be kidding me!" Chopper frowned as he got hit by Rookie's sword, now becoming poisoned by his attack.

Yosho got back up now, and he noticed Chopper was a little purple from the poison. "You don't look so good, kid."

"Blame the poison…. OUCH!" Chopper got hurt by the poison, but he managed to finish Rookie off with a fireball.

"Urghh… I feel some burning in me!" Rookie fell to the ground, finished for now. "It's all...up to you..."

"Rookie! No…" Popple gaped. "But I'm not giving up, see? I can still take you all on!"

"Let's see ya try!" Yosho jumped to Popple and he did his Ground Pound ability on him, leaving him with 16 HP left.

Popple used the Mushroom on himself to recover 5 HP. But, it didn't do much when Chopper used his Power Bounce to stomp on him seven times. Unfortunately for him, he was still poisoned.

Yosho made another attack on Popple, and he used his Ground Pound attack on him again. His sunglasses shined as he grinned.

"See? This is what you need to be cool! Not some weird robber costume of some sort!" Yosho declared as he held two thumbs up while his teeth flashed.

Popple ran toward Chopper and rammed into him again. This time Chopper guarded his attack. Chopper walked towards Popple, and he whacked him with his hammer. To finish it off, Yosho used his Ground Pound on him, and he was defeated. After collecting 20 Star Points and upgrading BP, because of leveling up, Popple dropped the ruby stone.

"Urgh… How… How did we lose?" Popple moaned. "Rookie! You were holding us back, you leaf! If you hadn't drank so much water, we would've had the treasure! But, we still have one more thing left…"

Popple took out a smoke bomb and threw it in front of them. Once the smoke went away, they were gone.

"Where do you think they went?" Chopper asked.

"They jumped off the mountain…" Yosho trailed. They could see them falling off the mountain. "Yeah... Such a smooth move they pulled off."

"Kind of stupid, if you ask me," Bow snickered.

Chopper picked up the ruby. "OK, guys. We got the ruby, and now I think it's time to go find the Yoshi Elder!"

They all left the area, and they began to head back to where the stone door with that empty ruby holder was. They knew the Yoshi Elder would be beyond that room, and getting to him would be a SNAP. Hopefully he wouldn't be in any trouble.


	28. Kolorado's Epic Fail Adventure

The party got back to where Kolorado was standing. He appeared to be napping, with a snot bubble coming from his nose. Everyone grimaced at the sight of the nose bubble, especially Bow, who looked the most disgusted. It's like Kolorado was just too lazy and just wanted to get some sleep. They knew they had to do something to get him up.

"Uh… Can anyone explain why Kolorado is sleeping?" Chopper asked. "I mean, he knew we'd be back. Someone wake him up."

All it took was a simple smack from Bow to wake him up.

"Who! What! Where! I'm sorry, my wife! It's not my fault I left the pie in the oven for over an hour when it was meant to be in there for twenty five minutes! Koopla, I didn't mean to accidentally take your sneakers to a trip to Dry Dry Desert!" Kolorado cried.

"You _WHAT?!_" Koopla exclaimed.

"Umm… What did I just say there, Chopper? I fell asleep while you went out to do stuff, and since I got so bored, I did just that. Is there anything you got, my boy?"

"I got a ruby stone from that shadow thief and the leaf," Chopper said as he pulled out a ruby stone. "I think it'll fit in the door over there. …And why do you keep calling me 'my boy'?"

Chopper got on Yosho's back, and he jumped up to the door. Chopper inserted the stone in the door, and it opened up, revealing some sort of cave.

"It's up here. Let's go, buddy." Yosho suggested.

"Going through a cave to meet him? Well this is definitely old for me." Bow sighed.

They headed into the cave, and they found a ladder and a Save Block at the end of the pathway. Chopper hit the Save Block to save his game, and then they climbed up the ladder.

"Umm… I can't get myself up there. I don't have any arms." Bruce noted.

"Don't worry, I'll get you up…" Parakarry assured as he helped Bruce up the ladder.

C-2 Choppor noticed some kind of hole with something in the way. "Chopper, my scans indicate there is something you can move at the top of the ladder."

"Really? Let me see…" Chopper pushed something at the top, and he saw the sky. He got out of the cave and found himself at the top of Yoshi Mountain. He could see the Yoshi Village to the left, and an ocean filled with ink around a cave. From what they could tell, that was Blooper Cave.

"Huh? Who're you people?"

As Chopper helped the others out, they turned around and saw an old Yoshi with a cane and a white beard. He appeared to be meditating on a rock.

"Are you the Yoshi Elder that Yoshgin was talking about?" Chopper asked.

"My grandson sent you? Hold on… Let me take a good look at you, son. Come closer…"

"Uhhhhhh... I'm not so sure about that."

"Go ahead, Chopper. Just go to him. He told ya to do it." Yosho suggested.

"Uhh… All right." Chopper slowly walked toward the Yoshi Elder, and when he got near him, he began to cough, making him cover his face to avoid getting his spit on him.

"_Cough… Hack… Wheeze…_ Sorry, son. Now, what is it that you want?" the Yoshi Elder asked. "I just needed you to come closer so I can hear you."

"Oh, all right. Well, we need to get to Blooper Cave. Your grandson wanted us to see you so we can know how to get there."

"I see… Let me think for a moment." Chopper nodded, and he waited for about a minute. After a little bit, the Yoshi Elder knew.

"Tell me son… What's your name?."

"My name's Chopper."

"I see it now. Chopper, there is a vine you can grind down that'll take you to a beach where Blooper Cave rests. There's some water there that's polluted, so you'll want to be careful. Once you're in the cave, the ink shouldn't be inside. Expect to do a lot of swimming in that cave, because Bloopers stay underwater for the most part. If you have the Water ability, you should be able to swim around without any problems. Did you understand all that?"

"Yeah, so I gotta go down the vine to the east and I'll be at Blooper Cave. It makes perfect sense, Elder!"

"Good, now let me meditate at peace again. That Yoshi with you will be definitely of good use in the cave." the Yoshi Elder then stopped for a moment. "Hold on one moment. I need to give you this. This will be very helpful."

The Yoshi Elder gave Chopper a red orb called an Ultra Stone.

"That's an Ultra Stone. I kept it on my staff for many years, and when the one who climbed up Yoshi Mountain would come, I would give it to him. Whenever you find a Super Block, you can upgrade one of your party members from Super Rank to Ultra Rank. This should surely help you on your quest. Now that I explained that, I wish you luck!"

The Yoshi Elder sat back down on his rock, and Chopper looked at the vine. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go down to the east!" Chopper walked to the vine, and he began to head down, grinding on it as if he was sliding down the vine.

C-2 Choppor began to follow him with his jetpack. He didn't need to use the vine. Bow and Parakarry didn't have to either.

Koopla headed down on the vine by going into her shell, and Bruce slid down on his butt. Kolorado looked at the vine as he began to sweat.

"I say, is this actually safe to be doing? I'm rather worried I'll get hurt if I go down this vine. Well, I have to try!"

Kolorado got on the vine, but he ended up flipping upside down because he lost his balance. His feet were still keeping him from falling off, but he went down like that, and he got hit by some trees.

Chopper saw the beach coming near, so he jumped off the vine and landed on the sand. He saw a huge gray cave with rocks around it up ahead. Luckily, there were logs to get there.

Once the others got down, and Kolorado recovered from being dazed, they used the logs to get across, and they landed in front of the cave. There was a Save Block and a Heart Block, so Chopper hit both.

"Well, let's not waste any time, Chopper," Kolorado suggested. "Of course, you can lead the way, since I don't think I could really handle this and all. You protect us from any harm!"

"What? You gotta be kidding me…" Chopper face palmed. "My partners and I will take care of this, all right? Now let's just get in."

"If anythin' dangerous is found in there, we'll take care of 'em in a snap!" Yosho assured, turning to Chopper's friends. "Right, guys?"

"Affirmative," C-2 Choppor nodded. "We can not spare any time to do anything else. We must go. We need that Star Spirit to stop Bowser…and also get revenge upon him for what he did."

"It sure seems dark in there. But, I could care less." Bow smiled as she looked at Chopper. "If you need a hand to hold, I'm here for you, Chopper."

"Hey! I know for a fact that I can handle this cave! I'll even prove it just for you, Bow!" Chopper declared, stepping back from her. "Let's head on in and NOT get scared by the darkness inside."

Kolorado decided to just move on ahead. But, when they got in, it didn't become so dark. However, they could see the grayness around them since they're on a place made of rocks and stones. They could see some water droplets coming down from the ceiling. It's really a small area, despite it being bumpy.

"So this is Blooper Cave, huh? Bow, you thought it would be dark here. Is it dark at all? Absolutely not!"

"Well I thought it would be. But, you never know. We could end up finding ourselves in a dark area with no light." Bow noted.

"Yeah, and perhaps you and me could spend a little quality time in that room. _Alone_…" Yosho smirked.

"Yosho, is that all you do? Hit on girls?" Bruce asked.

"Well, I gotta do somethin' in my life. I'm pretty much a ladies man! Yup, everyone wants a piece of Yosho."

"Oh man… Not this again…" Chopper face palmed. But, he decided to press on and not worry about it. C-2 Choppor followed, and so did Bow. The others caught up.

But, the entrance to the next part of the area got blocked when a Blooper appeared right in front of Chopper.

"Bloobloobloop! (Oh, great… The kid Chopper King Bowser told about is here! I better go warn the others!)" it shouted as it left the room.

"Whoa… That was weird…" Chopper looked confused. But, he decided to press on along with the others.

They found some rocks that were floating on the water. Some of them drifted back and forth, while others stayed put. Thankfully, there wasn't any ink in the water. Kolorado was standing near the first floating rock, pondering,

"Hmm… I sense danger here…" he murmured. "All adventures are dangerous, though, so what of it? We must press on toward the glory of an unknown treasure!"

Kolorado took a couple of steps back, and then he charged toward the rock and jumped on the first rock. He saw that it was sinking down into the water.

"Uh oh… This isn't good." the rock sank down deeper into the water, and so did Kolorado. To everyone's surprise, he rocketed up in the air after being bit in the butt.

"**_Yeeeeeeeeeeeoooow!_**" Kolorado landed back back by the group and held his butt in pain.

"What's wrong with this rock? It sank right into the water! Chopper, how about you go on first."

"Really? Fine, I will!" Chopper jumped onto the rock, and he jumped onto another before they sank into the water. "Wait, why am I trying to not fall in the water? It's not going to HURT me or anything!"

But when he looked down, he noticed a couple of blue and white fish called Piranhas swimming around.

"There's Piranhas down there. So, it may not be a good idea fallin' in there…unless you want to get some Star Points." Yosho informed. "But, all I see down at the bottom is sand. But, I guess it's part of the ocean."

Yosho jumped over to Chopper, and Koopla and Bruce jumped on the rocks to get to him. For Bruce, this was not an easy feat to get through. They got to the end of of the room, and they saw a big rock in their way. Chopper simply threw Bruce at it, who proceeded to blow it up.

The next area had more rocks floating around on the water, and there appeared to be another area up ahead on a rock. They had to jump onto a couple of rocks to get over there. There appeared to be another doorway to another area underwater.

Apparently, there was a gap to get to the area up ahead, so Parakarry carried Chopper over there and also Koopla and Bruce. Luckily, Yosho could jump high enough to prevent himself from falling in.

The next area was flat, and it had Cheep-Cheep Puffs that could stay above water. They could even poison you as well. Chopper simply defeated them with his hammer, because stomping on them could cause them to puff up and have their spikes appear. He even burned one of them with his Fire Hand ability.

Chopper then got on Yosho to jump over some high ledges, and they found an Upgrade Block up ahead, so Chopper hit it.

"Hmmm… Who do I want to upgrade? That's the tough question…" Chopper pondered. "I know!"

He decided to upgrade Bow to Ultra Rank, which didn't make Bruce so happy.

"You're picking Bow over me? That's not fair… Though, I can't compete with a hot ghost…" Bruce grumbled.

"It would've been cool if I got the Ultra Rank, but it's yer call, Chopper." Yosho assured. "If ya want to upgrade me next, I'd be fine by that."

"It doesn't matter. I am getting my Ultra Rank first, and that proves that Chopper cares about me the most. No need to worry about that." Bow smiled as she pinched Chopper's cheek, which irritated him.

"I just wanted to upgrade you because your one of the most useful party members on my team," Chopper informed. "…Though I think C-2 Choppor is better than everyone else in fighting. No offense, people."

"Yes, it is true. My attacks aren't affected by defense." C-2 Choppor stated. "But I wouldn't consider myself 'the best'."

Bow had the blue power orb go into her, and she learned the move Fan Smack, which allows her to smack enemies with her fan five times in a row, each doing 2 damage.

"My Fan Smack! Now I can finally smack my enemies with this!" Bow squealed. "I thank you, Chopper, because if I didn't have this, then I don't know what I'd do!"

"Now then… Let's just head back to the other area and dive back into the water." Chopper and his friends headed back, and they went into the water.

Koopla sighed as she began to hold their breath. They could see some Buzzy Beetles with oxygen masks on, with spikes on their shells going after them. They saw to the right at the bottom of the water, a metal block that was a red color with a yellow trim. There was a Save Block also, so Chopper saved his game for the heck of it.

"Hmmm…" Chopper swam to the block, and he whacked it with his hammer. Sadly, it didn't do anything.

"My scanners show that there is a hidden floor panel on the ground. Chopper, use your Spin Jump right over there." C-2 Choppor pointed to the center of the floor, and Chopper used his Spin Jump on it, sending him through a hole in the ground. He began to see that he was going deeper in the Blooper Cave. The others followed him down as well.

They all found themselves in an area of a cave with two blue ! switches across a large gap. It was a little too far for Parakarry to fly Chopper across to, so their only good choice here would be Koopla. There were also some blue blocks that could be pushed on a higher ledge in the area to the northern part of the area, and it seems that only Yosho could reach there, due to the ledge being pretty high up. Hopefully, that block could be used to get across the gap.

"Hmm… All right, we gotta hit that blue switch over there first, so Koopla, I'm gonna need you for this one." Chopper pondered.

"Well it's about TIME!" Koopla grinned. "I was hoping there would something where I'm required to do something. But since there's this here, I feel a little better. So, just kick me while in a shell, and let's get this started."

Chopper walked to the edge of the inky water from the Bloopers, and Koopla walked to the edge as well. Chopper stepped back, and when Koopla got in her shell, he kicked her at the switch. This made the entrance to the next area that was sealed off open.

"That did something. So, this means we gotta push that block down there, am I correct?"

"Well, it would make sense to do that," Yosho replied. "That's how we can probably get to the other side anyway. So, go ahead and do that, Chopper."

Chopper got on Yosho, and they jumped up the ledge. Chopper pushed the blue block down, and then he pushed it down into the water, allowing it to float.

"That was a pretty good plan, Chopper. Now that you did that, I can fly you over there. Come on, let's go!" Parakarry declared as Chopper grabbed Parakarry's arms and began to fly across the water. They refused to touch it, feeling that they would get infected by the ink's poison.

Both Chopper and Parakarry got to the other side, and Yosho got Bruce and Koopla over there. As for Bow and C-2 Choppor, they simply flew across, not needing to use any help.

"All right, good. We got over to the other side." Chopper sighed. "I wonder why there's ink in that water. Oh well. Let's just get going."

They headed into the next area, and they saw some floating rocks in the polluted water. To the upper right, there was a metal block, and to the left, there were moving rocks that lead to the other side of more rocky ground. There were some Bloopers in the water too. However, what caught their eyes the most was a large chest. But, the metal block to the upper right was blocking their way to get it. Thankfully, there was another way to get over there, and that's with the rocks.

"OK, I think we gotta use those rocks. The other way isn't going to work out for us. So… I'll go first for this." Chopper jumped onto the rock floating near, and it began to drift away. A Blooper came out of the water, but he fried it up with his Fire Hand, which allowed him to jump onto the next rock.

He got to the other side, and Yosho decided to follow him, because to get to the chest, they had to jump over a tall wall, and only Yosho's jump could work.

"Now that I'm here, I can help ya get what's in the chest," Yosho declared. "Oh, and that cute ghost chick Bow IS yer girlfriend, right?"

"..."

"I'll take that as a yes, then. But, I still can't stop hittin' on her. Sorry, but it's my thing to hit on some hot girls."

"Then go hit on Koopla. I don't think she'll care…and you probably won't get badly hurt like from Bow."

"How about we discuss this later. Let's get yer thing and get out of this place. The water around here ain't good to be around anyway."

"All right, I was thinking the same thing," Chopper got on Yosho's back, and he jumped over the wall and got to the big chest.

"Oh, you're already there? Go ahead and open the chest." Bow suggested. "Let's hope it'll help you get out of here."

Chopper walked to the big chest and began to open it. A red hammer with face being yellow came out of the chest. Chopper smiled as he held the new hammer up high.

**You got the Ultra Hammer! The attack power of Chopper's Hammer and Copy Abilities increases! On top of that, you can now destroy Metal Blocks!**

Chopper simply threw his Super Hammer into the chest, and he closed it shut before doing anything else.

"This hammer will DEFINITELY be of good use! Let's see what this thing can do!" Chopper walked to the Metal Block and took out his Ultra Hammer, which smashed the Metal Block. This caused Koopla, Parakarry, and Yosho to have their mouths drop. Bow smirked at this, and C-2 Choppor simply nodded at Chopper.

"Holy crap… Did he just…smash a Metal Block? But I thought Metal Blocks were impossible to destroy?!" Koopla gaped.

"Let's just head back to where that one Metal Block was standing," Chopper suggested. "I can smash that now."

* * *

**Room with Metal Block-**

They all headed back to where the Metal Block was blocking the way underwater. Nothing seemed to change in the room, so it wasn't going to be a problem getting rid of it.

Once Chopper smashed the block, the water in this area began to drain and go down the hole.

"The water drained? Now that's something you don't see every day." Bruce gawked.

"Yeah, I agree," Chopper nodded.

"Coming through!" Kolorado jumped down and walked to the doorway. "My finely honed intuition tells me that great discoveries lie just beyond here… But, now that you smashed that block, we must go. Onward to glory!"

Kolorado headed on through the next room, and Chopper and his friends followed. They saw they were on a high ledge in this new room, and they could see water down below with Bloopers and Piranhas. There wass also a grinding rail to help go down to a lower ledge.

Kolorado then began to smell something. It got his attention. "Hm? It smells like treasure! Treasure, old boy! Make way—I'm going ahead!"

And at that moment, Kolorado began to run on ahead, but he noticed once he moved, he was not on the ground. He was over the water now. Kolorado began to fall, but he was trying to hurry toward the edge as his legs fluttered, somehow not falling just yet. But, once he got near the ledge, he plummeted to his doom.

"GyaaaaaAAAaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!"

As they heard him scream, they heard a loud splash.

"Is he all right? I mean, he fell right in the water!" Bruce gaped.

"I'll ask him," Chopper looked down and noticed Kolorado was floating in the water. "Hey! Kolorado! Are you all right! ?"

"Don't you worry, my boy! Everything's fine down here!" Kolorado assured. "The water doesn't have any ink in it, so I should be fine! I think I should be safe!"

Suddenly, a Piranha bit Kolorado in the butt, and he shrieked. "You go on ahead! I'll try to take care of this!"

Kolorado grabbed the Piranha, and he began to whack the Piranhas and Bloopers that tried to attack him. He didn't seem to be winning the fight, unfortunately.

"He's...whacking them with a fish," Chopper blinked.

"You heard the archaeologist! We better move!" Yosho shouted.

"All right, fine," Chopper got on the rail, and he began to grind down. He was near the water when he got to the next doorway, and there was even an Upgrade Block.

"Ooh! An Upgrade Block! But… Who to upgrade…? Oh, I know…" Chopper got Yosho to come over, and he felt power going into him. Yosho became Ultra Ranked, which gave him the ability to use his Yoshi Charge, allowing him to run over a couple of enemies on the ground as he charges toward them.

"Sweet! I got my Ultra Rank! Man, I KNEW ya'd choose me to be the one to upgrade next! Yer awesome, dude!"

"Thanks, Yosho," Chopper smiled. Once everyone got down to him, they moved on. They were in another tunnel like the beginning of the cave, but C-2 Choppor sensed something.

"Danger! My sensors detect something behind us!" C-2 Choppor warned. A round Thwomp surrounded by spikes called a Spiny Tromp came down, and it began to roll after them.

"Yeeeeeeeeeek! Run for it, guys!" Chopper cried as he began to speed down to the exit and escape out of the doorway. Bow got out next, and then C-2 Choppor, Yosho, Koopla, Parakarry, and then poor Bruce, who almost got crushed.

They found themselves in a room with water around. Apparently they were going to have to swim in order to get through this room. Chopper jumped in the water and began to swim to the other side. He decided to become Water Chopper because he could clean things off and swim faster.

At the other side where there's another entrance, there appeared to be some Blooper Ink. Chopper spewed out some water at the ink, and it began to wash off. The others got to him, and they found themselves in an area with, to the upper left, a Spiny Tromp and all the way to wall with nothing interesting. All they could see was a block that looked like it could be used to get onto the ledge where the Spiny Tromp was being blocked by the Metal Block.

Once they took a step to that wall that's shaded lightly, they could hear Kolorado's voice again.

"Chopper! Wai… Wait one moment!" They saw Kolorado quickly running to the wall His clothing looked like there were bite marks, and he even had some scratches on his face. "Huff huff huff… According to the information I've gathered…the hidden treasure should be right around here. But I need to go a little farther!"

"Let me see if I can smash that Metal Block over there. I'm gonna need to push this block, though." Chopper noted as he began to push the block all the way to the ledge to the left. He smashed the Metal Block, and the Spiny Tromp began to roll down.

"Guys, I suggest you move out of the way!" Chopper fled to the wall and got out of the path the Spiny Tromp was moving. The others knew they had to move, but Kolorado didn't move.

The Spiny Tromp rolled over Kolorado, and it smashed through the wall. It left him in a worse condition, having more scratch marks on his body.

"_**Aiigh!**_"

"Uh... Are you OK?" Chopper asked.

"Barely nicked me…my boy… Oh…my poor shell…ow…"

"See, uncle? This is what happens when you don't get out of the way." Koopla groaned. They simply left him and moved on through the doorway, and they found themselves in a room with a path leading to a doorway. There also appeared to be a slope going down into the water.

Kolorado, who somehow managed to recover from the injuries, ran over to the wall, only to be disappointed to find nothing.

"Close! So very close! My treasure-hunting senses are going simply mad right now! My intuition tells me…" Kolorado looked at the entrance to the next room up ahead. "It's over here!"

Chopper noticed a Heart Block near him, but before he hit that, he and the others followed Kolorado.

They saw the next area had nothing, but Chopper found a Super Shroom and Maple Syrup. Kolorado looked at the wall, where the Spiny Tromp was stuck, and he saw nothing.

"Oh… Huh? There seems to be nothing…" Kolorado sighed. "Alas… Even my finely honed intuition can be wrong on occasion. I shall not give up just yet! Let's head back the other way. Perhaps the treasure is a bit deeper down in the cave. Chopper, you go check over there first!"

"All right, I might as well," Chopper sighed. "Guys, we should be prepared for this, because we did not see ANY giant Blooper around here. So we might be a little close."

"That Bloopink is goin' to get it for polluting our waters!" Yosho growled. "Chopper, keep that Water ability on, 'cause it's goin' to help us beat him!"

"I will. C'mon guys. Let's just leave Kolorado to his stuff." They all agreed with Chopper, and they began to head back to the last room with the slope going into the water. Perhaps Bloopink is underwater?

* * *

**Well, now you see why it's called "Kolorado's Epic Fail Adventure". :P**


	29. Bloopink: He Loves to Pollute

Chopper wanted to hit the Heart Block before heading down, since his HP was pretty low from getting in some fights with enemies. Down the slope was some water, and it looked clear as crystal, which was nice. A lot clearer than any other water in the Blooper Cave. Everyone seemed relieved about this.

"Let's get this over with and fight whatever's down there," Chopper suggested.

"It depends on how long I have to hold my breath though," Koopla noted. "I can hold mine for five minutes, but I don't know if that'll be enough for whatever might be up ahead."

"Don't worry about it. It's just water." Bow assured. "The water looks beautiful, like my sparkly eyes."

"Sparkly eyes? I don't think I have…" Bow turned to Chopper, and he noticed her eyes sparkle. "…seen them. All right, I see them."

"C'mon, guys! Let's just get ourselves in that water an' go swimmin'!" Yosho declared. "You came fer the Star Spirit, so yer all gonna go underwater!"

"I guess I'll go first, then," Chopper began to go down the rocky slope, and he sunk down to the bottom. He knew his Water ability would somehow come in handy.

Koopla held her breath, and she dove into the water. Bruce managed to go down, and then Parakarry began to follow. Once the others got into the water, they saw there was a path down to the lower right. But, a Metal Block appeared to be in the way. There was also a Save Block nearby as well.

"Hold on, let me save first," Chopper swam to the Save Block, and he hit it, saving his game. With that over with, they began to press on.

This room was actually pretty big, and it was a little dark. The whole place wasn't entirely filled with water, but at the top of the room was the surface. Koopla, Parakarry, and Yosho immediately swam up there and they began to catch their breaths.

"Man… I REALLY needed to catch my breath there." Parakarry wheezed. "I don't really see much in the water. All I can see is Chopper, Bruce, Bow, and C-2 Choppor."

Chopper looked around if anything was in this area. He couldn't see anything. All he could see is Koopla, Parakarry, and Yosho.

"I thought there would be something here. I can't see anything here except for those three!" Chopper frowned. "I guess we should turn back."

C-2 Choppor began to see something on his scanners. "My scanners show something IS in here. It looks like a tentacle."

"I see it too. Wait, it looks like that tentacle… Oh no." Bow gasped as she saw three tentacles were going after Koopla, Parakarry, and Yosho.

"Guys! Watch out!" they all shouted. The three heard them, but they were suddenly grabbed by the three tentacles.

"Agh! What is this!?" Koopla exclaimed as she was pulled underwater.

"Somebody help me!" Parakarry cried while getting pulled down.

"Gah! This isn't good." Yosho gulped, getting pulled down.

Chopper and the others saw the three tentacles, with the three being held in them.

"Bloobloobloobloop! (You made it, Chopper! But your friends won't!)"

"I have no idea what whatever spoke just said. I'm confused." Bruce gawked.

"I don't understand it either," Chopper said. "Choppor, can you turn that light on while underwater?"

"Yes, turning light visors on now!" C-2 Choppor turned them on, and they all saw a big, gray Blooper with some black ink on his face and white eyes.

"Whoa… That thing's big!" Bow gaped.

"Bloobloobloop! (Yeah, I'm big. Big deal. Bigger is always better!)" Bloopink scoffed. "Bloobloobloobloop! (King Bowser ordered me to guard the Star Spirit, so you're not getting it easily!)"

"Look, I don't know what you just said, but just give me back my friends!" Chopper shouted.

"Bloobloop! (You want your friends back? OK, I'll give them back!)" Bloopink threw Chopper's partners at them, but thankfully, they were able to avoid getting hurt. "Bloobloobloop! (This cave is mine, and I'll never stop polluting the Yoshi's water! Time for you all to taste a good tentacle sandwich!)"

Bloopink had his two tentacles ready for action. Koopla, Parakarry, and Yosho swam back to the others, ready to battle.

**Tattle: **_That's Bloopink, the big bad Blooper. He's pretty big, and he looks really angry. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 0. He's got two tentacles with 8 HP, and they can help him attack you. Chopper, if he uses ink, be sure to wash that away with your water! Yosho can throw eggs at him to get rid of the ink too. But, taking those tentacles out first might be a good idea._

"Hmm… Maybe I should start out with that Tsunami Wave attack…" Chopper summoned a huge wave, and it hit Bloopink and his tentacles, taking away 8 from him and his tentacles, and that got rid of his tentacles.

Yosho gave Chopper a thumbs up, since he couldn't talk underwater. He swam toward Bloopink, and he used a Ground Pound on him. Bloopink shot a bunch of ink at Chopper. Since his Water ability was still on, he didn't get poisoned by it.

"Yeah, having this surely does help. I'll give him a good stomp or two." Chopper jumped up onto Bloopink, and he stomped on him twice, taking 4 out of him.

"Hmm… My Smack is stronger now. So maybe I should lend a hand." Bow declared.

"Go right ahead. You'll do some good damage anyway."

Bow appeared by Bloopink, and she smacked him six times. This gave Bloopink a bump on his head.

"**_Bloop! (Youch! That really hurt!)_**" Bloopink cried as Bow cackled. Out of anger, Bloopink spewed out ink at Chopper, who tried to swim away from it. Thankfully, he was actually able to guard the attack.

"All right, then… Take this! I'm gonna fry you up in no time!" Chopper swam toward Bloopink, ready to shoot a fireball, but he noticed that his flames didn't work.

"Flames don't work underwater, I'm afraid," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Oh, man! Well, I'll do this, then." Chopper spewed out some water at Bloopink, which did a good 6 damage. C-2 Choppor aimed at Bloopink, and he shot him right in the face. He wasn't Ultra Ranked, but his attacks were at least strong enough to do more than 4 damage.

Suddenly, Bloopink's tentacles recovered, and they were ready to attack the group. Bloopink used them to whack Chopper, and then spewed ink at him. Luckily, he guarded all of those.

"I think this should finish him off," Chopper spewed out some more water, and it made Bloopink sink to the ground.

Yosho swam up to the surface and noticed Bloopink lying on the ground, with X's on his eyes.

"Huh? He's beaten already? That wasn't so hard… That was...kind of easy."

"That's it? That was just…EASY! I mean, C-1 TM was harder than him! And he wasn't bigger than him!" Chopper pouted. "That was LAME."

Suddenly, Bloopink's eyes opened again, but this time, he didn't look like he was messing around. His eyes turned more of a gray now as he got back up.

"…Guess he didn't give up yet," Bow gaped. "He got himself up, and he looks a lot more threatening…"

"Bloobloobloop! (You thought this is over? Think again!)" Bloopink was covered in ink now. If he got touched, someone was going to get poisoned...

**Tattle: **_Bloopink's not giving up yet? It looks like he's really going to get you now. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 7, Defense Power: 0. His tentacles can do more damage too. But, if you use water on him, the poison might go out, and his attack may not be as strong. Not only that, but he can charge up a REALLY strong ink attack. He's still got a strong attack, so he's not going to give up so easily. So, let's hope this doesn't turn out so bad for you_

"I should start it off with what I did before," Chopper used his Tsunami Wave again, which made a huge underwater wave hit Bloopink and his tentacles. His tentacles weren't moving, and the poison washed off him.

"Good, his poison's gone! Now to get in the action!" Yosho held his breath, and he began to do a Ground Pound on Bloopink as he dove down. He hit him directly in the face. However, one of Bloopink's tentacles came back, but before he could strike, they heard someone's voice. It sounded familiar to everyone but Bloopink.

"Chopper! You shan't fight alone! Kolorado to the rescue! Hii-yaaaaaaah!"

"Bloobloop? (Who said that?)" Bloopink gawked.

Kolorado came charging in, with an oxygen mask on. He made a kung fu sound when he lashed out toward Bloopink. Unfortunately, he got whacked away by one of Bloopink's tentacles and hit one of the rocks on the wall.

"Oof! Oh, why didn't I see this coming?" Kolorado moaned as he tried to reach to Chopper.

"So sorry, my boy, but that's all I can do at the moment! Good luck with all this!" Kolorado fled the battle by attempting to swim away horribly.

The tentacles fired an ink bomb, and Bloopink was trying to get his poison back, so he wasn't able to attack.

"Those things can be dangerous. Though they have low HP, they can deal A LOT to you." C-2 Choppor informed.

"Well, then maybe Yosho's eggs can do something. I'll attack first, and then you go Yosho." Chopper planned.

Chopper spewed out some water at Bloopink and Yosho laid some eggs. He threw them at the tentacles, the ink bombs, and Bloopink. Luckily, the bombs were destroyed.

Bloopink got his ink back, and he was back to being furious.

"Bloobloop! (All right, I'm ready now!)"

"But, I'm gonna get rid of it!" Chopper shot some water at Bloopink, and the poison went away from him. The Blooper moaned as its eyes were sealed shut

Yosho used a Ground Pound on him, and it left Bloopink with only 2 HP left.

"We have this in the bag!" Bruce declared.

But, unfortunately, one of Bloopink's tentacles hit Chopper, and it removed his power. So, he didn't have his Water ability to help him now. But, it didn't matter anyway.

"All right, my Water ability may be gone, but we got this fight! Watch!" Chopper swam to Bloopink, and he stomped on him, which caused the Blooper to fall over. Chopper sunk down to the ground and made a pose. Everyone was glad that the battle was over. But, something else happened too...

Bloopink ended up hitting a part of the wall, making a hole. It was a secret passage! Not only that, but the water around the room began to drain, leaving the whole room with air.

"Oh GOOD! I don't need to worry about swimmin' now!" Yosho cheered as Bloopink shriveled up and shrank. "We're all right!"

"Well! That's that, then! Now there's nothing between us and some treasure, eh? Let's go!" Kolorado panted as he began to head toward the secret pathway up ahead.

But, before Chopper and the others went, they saw a sparkling light. It blew up, and it formed a Bowser Card. This one appeared to be a dark pink star, with an orange ribbon on her. It began to float down to the group.

"This is it. It's time to save the fifth Star Spirit!" Chopper declared as he grabbed the card, and he held it up. It floated up, and it began to spin around.

The Bowser Card was beginning to disappear, and it began to transform back to the fifth Star Spirit, Misstar.

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_Venturing deep into the wet and dark Blooper Cave, Chopper and friends dried up Bloopink…and rescued the fifth Star Spirit, Misstar, from a watery fate. But the "treasure" Kolorado is looking for is yet to be found. Wherever could it be? What's that…? Something…strange…is going on around here…_

Chopper then felt some shaking. He noticed some rocks began to come down.

"Yeeeep!" he shrieked as he saw a rock come down.

"Chopper, this way! We must hurry!" the Star Spirit Misstar cried. She headed toward the secret pathway, and it made Chopper and the others follow.

They began to see a stairway leading up that Misstar was heading up. Kolorado was still wandering around for the treasure. When they all got up the steps, they saw a crack in the wall.

"Ah ha! Treasure! …Er, no, it's…some sort of starfish…?" Kolorado gawked as he jumped down a step and began to ponder.

"Mmmmm. This won't do. The adventure's never over until the treasure is found!" Kolorado jumped up for a second, with a light bulb on his head. "Ah! Yes, of course! Perhaps that horrible squid monster had it and was hiding it somewhere! Yes, that's it! I'll just run back and check."

But, there appeared to be trembling. It felt like the cave was about to collapse. "Hm… Hmm? What's this trembling, then? …Probably nothing! Kids with fireworks, no doubt. Now, after that treasure!"

"No! Wait!" Misstar tried to stop him, but it was too late. However, Kolorado came rocketing up after everyone heard a biting sound.

"Yaaargh! OUCH! Oh, it hurts!" Kolorado saw that water was beginning to rise up. The rocks from the ceiling even came down on the doorway to Bloopink's lair.

"Thuh…those are Piranhas, aren't they? The water's coming near, and so are the Piranhas! We must flee! N… Nooo! The treasure is still here! I just know it!"

"Forget the treasure!" Chopper cried. "It's like you're saying you'd just get the treasure before saving your own life!"

"Chopper! This cave is going to collapse in any minute now. It's far too dangerous to go back the way you came. We have to escape another way!" Misstar cried. As Kolorado came back up, but Misstar noticed the crack in the wall.

"I feel a slight wind coming from this cracked wall… Chopper, can you blow up this wall?"

"It looks like it's my time to shine again!" Bruce declared as Chopper threw him at the wall, blowing it up.

Kolorado made a dash into the hole. "Chopper, hurry! The rocks might come down on us right now!" Misstar headed on through, and so did Chopper and his friends.

"We gotta hurry! If we stay here any longer, we'll be dead!" Yosho cried.

They saw some small ledges leading up, so they jumped up them and saw on a skinny tall pillar, a chest. Kolorado was trying to get a hold of it.

"Ah! I knew it! At last! The treasure is right there!" Kolorado cried. "So close… Can't resist… By the Stars, I'll risk my life for that treasure!"

"You're nuts!" Chopper shouted.

"But it's treasure! It's so important to me! I can't leave without it!"

Luckily, Misstar managed to grab Kolorado, and she also grabbed Chopper. Chopper grabbed onto Bow's arm, and she grabbed onto the rest of the group, as if they formed an entire chain.

They saw the rocks coming down, and also the water rising. Kolorado was being held upside down, apparently.

"My treasure! Noooooooo!"

They were able to make it out of the cave, and the treasure chest ended up landing right in front of Yoshgin's house. Kolorado thought the treasure would be gone, but he was wrong… But hey, they got out of the cave!


	30. Chapter 5 Interlude

"…Hey, Twink… How would you feel about sneaking out of here again? Shall we try?" Peach asked, becoming bored once again. It had been a couple of hours since she left her room again, and now she felt that it would be a great opportunity again.

"Princess Peach! You've gotten so bold!" Twink gaped. "But, you've always been bold when I came back here. Aren't you gentle and delicate?"

"Oh… Well, I… I am delicate! I'm behaving like a delicate princess, just like the Ministers taught me to! Being delicate is something that I like!"

"OK, OK… …I believe you, Peach. You're the princess… Anyway, let's go for it." Twink followed Peach to the portrait, and she moved it aside. Once that portrait was out of the way, Peach hit the red button, and the fireplace went out. Peach and Twink headed through the tunnel and got back to the room where it took them to.

They headed into the main hallway of Peach's Castle, and they both saw the Koopatrols with their flashlights. There appeared to be one Hellspawn in the room, talking to a Koopatrol.

"Yep, that Blooper got dried up all right. Chopper even got the fifth Star Spirit." the Koopatrol informed.

"I see… Well, the next Star Spirit is hidden pretty well." the Hellspawn recalled. "If Chopper's going to get to that next Star Spirit, he'll have to go to **Flower Plains**, which is hidden very well. …And of course, going through the **City of Flowersville**, and to **Flower**** Palace**."

"City of Flowersville? That city name sounds like it was from this show my kids used to watch. It definitely had a lot of violence in it."

"How much violence?"

"I told you. There's A LOT. And do you know what else is funny about it? Those villains are getting their asses kicked by three little girls! Isn't that kind of hilarious?"

"Yeah, that is. What? They got those kinds of heroes in that place? We're not afraid of anyone like that…"

Peach and Twink heard their conversation. Too bad they didn't know how to get there. But, they headed in through the first part of the hallway before leaving the castle.

"I say we go over there," Twink pointed to the small staircase to the left. Peach sneaked passed the guards, and she went in there.

This room used to have trivia quizzes, but all that was left were a couple of remains. But, at a desk to the left, Bowser and Maquano were talking. Peach noticed by a table near her, a Sneaky Parasol.

Peach and Twink hid behind the table, and Peach took the Sneaky Parasol. They began to listen to what they were saying afterward.

"Well that's just great! Bloopink got dried up by Chopper!" Bowser grumbled. "Grrr! He's becoming a pain like Mario now! But, no one could be just as bad as Mario..."

"Relax, Bowser. We knew Bloopink would get dried up." Maquano assured. "He's small talk now. The next Star Spirit is hidden safely by **King Lakilar**."

"Ah, yes… I gave the sixth Star Spirit to him. I know he can keep that Star Spirit safe from Chopper's hands. But, there's one small problem… The City of Flowersville."

"City of Flowersville? Oh, that flower city near the Flower Palace? Yeah, that could be a problem. I heard about these three five year old Dayzees that have some sort of power of some sort. If Chopper managed to get there, he'd have a bigger advantage if they aided him."

"Yes, that's true. Hold on… I think I might have a solution. Camikon! Get over here this instant!"

Camikon came in the room, and he had a magical sphere near him, with Mamar trapped in it.

"I am here, Lord Maquano! And I've come back with the second Star Spirit!" Camikon declared. Peach and Twink looked shocked to see Mamar in the magical sphere.

"What do you want with me?" Mamar cried. "I am already free, so there's nothing you can do."

"It doesn't matter if you've been restored or not. I still win!" Maquano grinned. "Now, Staris! I have something special for you!"

A yellow puddle of water appeared, and Staris began to rise from it. However, he wasn't as big as Bowser.

"What the… That's the thing I saw after I stole the Star Rod!" Bowser gaped. "Is this the thing that absorbs the power of the Star Spirits?"

"Yes, this is Staris. Well, he's Staris in his first transformation right now, but that's about to change…"

Staris glared at Bowser, knowing that he has the Star Rod. He tried to stretch his arm out toward Bowser, but Maquano raised his arm to stop him.

"No, Staris. He is on our side. Right now, you need more power. Take the Star Spirit's power and transform!"

Staris brought his arm back, and he turned to Mamar. He instantly grabbed her, making her scream.

"Stop this right now!" Mamar cried. Unfortunately, Staris didn't listen, and Staris began to absorb the power in her.

Mamar was pushed back, and she saw Staris's head a little more pointy, and he had bone on his left arm like his right arm. He looked more muscular as well, so he looked more threatening than before.

"Now, Staris… It's time for you to go to the City of Flowersville and take care of those pesky Dayzeeflower Girls. Now that you transformed, you should have no problem. In fact, I should even watch you destroy that city and take them down!"

Mamar managed to escape before anything else happened, and Staris nodded. He went back to being a puddle and disappeared. Camikon left the room as well.

"You think that thing's going to beat them AND Chopper?" Bowser asked.

"Hopefully he does. If not, then we'll need another Star Spirit or else we'll…"

"Hey, Maquano old buddy!" Someone popped up right behind Maquano, and when he turned around, his eyes shot wide open.

"BOB? Oh no…" Maquano face palmed. "Not you..."

"What? How'd he get in here?! Don't my guards EVER pay attention to anybody around here these days?!" Bowser growled.

"How did you get here, Bob?"

"Well, I tried to be a boss and get Chopper. But, the waves got me, and I found some flying Goomba kind of guy, so I grabbed onto his leg, and I got here." Bob explained.

Maquano was silent. But, Bob had another thing coming.

"Anyway, now that I'm here… Noogies! Noogies for the nerd!"

"_**NO!**_" Bob was about to give Maquano a noogie, but Bowser took out the Star Rod and used its power to knock Bob away.

"Get out of my castle, you idiot! I never gave you permission to come in here!" Bowser snarled.

"Oh, fine. Be that way." Bob got up, but then he noticed Peach. "Hey, take a look at this girl in a princess costume."

"Eep!" Peach gasped.

"What? Who are you talking to?" Maquano asked.

"The blonde in the pink dress. She's hiding by some table. I don't know why she's wearing that, 'cause it ain't Halloween!"

"'Blonde in a pink dress'? Hold on a moment…" Bowser walked over to the table where Bob was and saw Peach. "Gaaaah! Princess Peach? What's she doing here? She sneaked out again! Grr! Guards! Take Princess Peach back to her room! Now!"

Two Koopatrols came in, and they picked Peach up.

"Nooooo!" Peach cried as they took her back to her room.

"So, Maquano. How about we get back to those noogies?" Bob suggested

"Oh, I think I have a better idea!" Maquano suggested.

Outside of the castle, someone was being thrown out the window and plummeting to his doom

* * *

**Yoshi's Island-**

Misstar flew down to the beach near Yoshi Village, and everyone landed on the ground, sighing in relief.

"That was TOO close!" Chopper sighed.

"We were almost about to drown!" Yosho sighed.

However, not everyone was happy. They looked over at Kolorado, who had his head hung low.

"Oh, woe is me… My beautiful treasure…" Kolorado sighed.

"Listen to you!" Misstar snapped. "No treasure in the world is more valuable than life! Be thankful you escaped! To think! This island was put in terrible peril because of the meddling Bowser's men. I think it will work out OK. The collapsing of Blooper Cave means that no more ink will be around in the oceans, and Yoshi's Island will be just the same as it used to be."

"But… _Sigh…_"

Misstar turned her attention to Chopper with a smile. "Dear Chopper! You have saved five of us Star Spirits now! Just a few more to go! My name is Misstar. Let me grant you Power that will help you along!"

Misstar raised her arms and let the glittering energy fall upon Chopper.

**Chopper's Star Energy goes up to 5! Chopper can now use Smooch, a new Star Spirit Power! With Smooch, you can restore Chopper's HP!**

"I have to go back to Star Haven for now, but if you need me, please call on me at any time. I will be watching you and wishing for your success. I know you'll save the princess and stop Bowser, Maquano, and Staris, Chopper. Have faith. Thank you again for saving me. See you soon!"

Misstar began to fly back up to the sky to Star Haven. Kolorado was still depressed from losing the treasure.

"Smooch? What kind of ability is that?" Chopper gawked.

"It's similar to something I've given you before," Bow answered.

"I...don't like the sound of that."

"Oh… I was so close…" Kolorado sighed. "The treasure…right there… And then to get saved and yelled at by some sort of blooming great starfish…"

"It's not the end of the world, Uncle..." Koopla sighed. "There's more to life than treasure."

"No, dear Koopla. You not need to cheer me up. I guess all I can do is go back to the village..." Kolorado sighed as he drifted back to the village in solemn.

"That sure was a close one. I thought we were gonna drown with the Piranhas!" Yosho sighed. "Oh, man… I wouldn't have liked that.

"So… What now? Our boat we took to get here is wrecked, and we're basically stranded on this island for the rest of our lives." Chopper frowned. "I bet we'll even grow beards later on!"

"Beards? Why beards?" Bruce questioned.

"Because in the cartoons, when you're on an island long enough, you grow a beard! And I don't want a beard!"

"All we can do now is head back to Yoshi Village and see what's going on there," Bow suggested.

"Yeah, you're right Bow. Let's go there and see if anything's going on there." Chopper agreed as he used his Speed Dash to head back to the village.

"Man, what an awesome speed there…" Yosho smirked.

They followed Chopper back to the village (after Parakarry had to go deliver a letter to the Yoshi Elder), and they saw at Yoshgin's house, a chest. Kolorado was shocked to see it.

"Th… That's the treasure!" Kolorado gasped. "Who would've thought that I'd see the treasure here? !"

However, Yoshgin came out of his house to see them in front of the chest.

"Hmm? Oh, yes, it's you guys." Yoshgin smiled. "I see that you managed to defeat that evil Blooper, am I correct?"

"Yeah! We gave him a good pummelin'!" Yosho smirked.

"Oh... It's you again. I thought you got lost in the mountains?"

"Hell no! You see, I was rescued by a lovely girl, and we decided to spend a while making out in the bush. I still can't get my eyes off of her. She's so hot an'..."

"Keep saying that lie and I'm going to smack you," Bow warned, readying her fan. Yosho grinned sheepishly and stopped.

"Well, how's the water doin' so far anyway?"

"I saw that the water began to clear up…" Yoshgin informed before looking at the chest. "...And I found this chest here for some reason. You can have it if you want."

"Oh, yes! How joyful!" Kolorado opened the chest, but he was fairly disappointed with what he saw.

"This is it?" he pulled out a Dried Shroom. "This whole adventure was for a Dried Shroom? I must say, this was…fairly disappointing…"

Kolorado simply ate the Dried Shroom (as disgusting as it was), but he spat something out. It looked like some kind of golden artifact of a king. It was some kind of golden Koopa.

"Gasp! It IS an artifact! Oh, this is great! So this adventure wasn't all for nothing, my boy! Not only that, but the water's cleared up!"

"Yes, I must thank you for what you've done, Chopper," thanked Yoshgin. "Is there anything we could do for you to pay you back?"

"Well…" Chopper pondered. "…We need to get off this island right now. Our boat we had before was pretty bad, so we need a new boat to get back."

"Of course we can do that. We have some VERY good boats at the dock. Come, follow me."

They all followed Yoshgin over to the dock. They could see a white boat with some green polka dots like a Yoshi egg. They all looked surprised.

"Whoa! This is really somethin'! This'll get us back in no time!" Yosho gaped.

"You are free to use this anytime! Go ahead, use it right now!" Everyone nodded to Yoshgin and jumped in the boat.

"What a heady adventure!" Kolorado cheered. "Adieu, Yoshi's Island! Perchance someday I shall return to your shores!"

"Woooooooooooooooooooooooah!" they all saw Jr. Troopa swimming all the way to the shore. He got himself onto shore and was panting. Apparently, the boat already took off, so it was too late for him to make an attack.

"Wheeze wheeze wheeze… Yes! I…cough…did it! I swam…all the way!" Jr. Troopa stretched and got in a fighting stance. "All right, Chopper! Now I'm going to give you a beating you'll never…"

However, he gawked when he saw the boat already took off.

"What! Wait! Where are you going? Wait! Chopper, wait up! Come back here, you chicken!" This time, instead of swimming, Jr. Troopa used his wings to fly over the water. It seems like he had learned from before NOT to go back swimming.

"Shooooooooooooooooooooot!" Jr. Troopa growled as he flew after them. While Chopper and the others simply kept moving on their boat, which was a lot faster than before, Jr. Troopa chased them down.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

After a while, they all made it to Toad Town Harbor. They all got off the boat, and they stretched, relieved that they were back in Toad Town.

"So this is Toad Town, huh? Never really been here before, I'm afraid. It looks pretty cool, though." Yosho commented.

"Thank heavens we've arrived!" Kolorado sighed. "Now, boat-ferrying is one experience I shan't do again. Cheers for the ride, though! I'm in your debt. For now, I'm heading back to Koopa Village to relax. My wife must be waiting for me. Perhaps our paths will cross again in the future, my boy! Cheerio!"

Koloardo left the harbor and headed back to Koopa Village. Thankfully, this time, he wouldn't have to deal with anyone getting in his way.

"Well, that sure was something, huh?" Chopper smiled. "But, I feel bad that he always got hurt. He did some rather dumb things, so I can't blame him for getting hurt."

"Almost there!" they all heard the voice, and they saw Jr. Troopa fly to the dock and land on the ground.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me! HIM again?" Chopper sighed as he face palmed.

"Who is that? And did he just fly here?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"Wheeze wheeze wheeze… That…took a while to get here…" Jr. Troopa huffed. "But at least I didn't swim this time! Now, Chopper! You're mine this time!"

Jr. Troopa then began to charge towards Chopper, shouting, "Ayaaaaaaaaah!"

Chopper simply walked out of the way, and Jr. Troopa fell to the ground. He immediately got back up, growling at Chopper.

"Ouch! That's not fair! But, you'd better be ready! It's time to show you my new skills! Check this out! _**More power!**_"

Jr. Troopa's wings reappeared, and now a spike appeared on his head. "I know all of your fighting patterns now, Chopper. See my gear! The spike, the wings… You can't attack me now! I'm the smartest fighter alive! I can't be defeated! Wa ha ha!"

**Tattle: **_Jr. Troopa wants to fight again? Man, when does he ever give up? Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 1. Maybe one of your Copy Abilites or your Fire Hand can hit him, since those are things that can attack any enemy with spikes on their head and while flying. He's got guts if he managed to swim to Yoshi's Island. That takes A LOT of work to do._

Chopper started off with his Fire Hand ability, shooting a fireball at Jr. Troopa. He could've used his Wing ability for this, but maybe not at this turn.

"Yow! What the…? I didn't think you'd do that! Is that even legal? !" Jr. Troopa gaped.

"It appears that my attacks can actually reach him without touching him. I'll help you for the most part." C-2 Choppor declared as he aimed his gun at Jr. Troopa and fired a blast at him. Despite having defense, it was ignored by his attack.

Jr. Troopa flew toward Chopper, and he dove at him. Luckily, he guarded the attack, but that's still 5 damage.

"All right, time to take it up a notch!" Chopper became Wing Chopper, and he used his Feather Gun to shoot a feather at Jr. Troopa.

"Youch! That…feather is so pointy! How on earth can you attack me from here? I thought this would work out!" Jr. Troopa cried.

C-2 Choppor fired another blast at Jr. Troopa, taking away 5 HP from him, and it left him to only 22 HP left. Jr. Troopa dove at Chopper again, but he guarded it once again, and he attacked Jr. Troopa with his Feather Gun afterward.

"Hold on, Let me attack! I wanna use one of my eggs on him!" Yosho laid an egg, and he threw it at Jr. Troopa, taking away 6 HP.

Jr. Troopa attacked again, and he successfully hit Chopper this time. But, this didn't make Chopper quit so soon.

"So what if you got a spike on your head and wings. My Wing ability is going to help me with this fight! Take this!" Chopper shot a feather at Jr. Troopa, making him cringe in pain.

"Aiming at target! Fire!" C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Jr. Troopa, leaving him with only 2 HP left.

"This isn't over yet, Chopper!" Jr. Troopa growled as he dove at Chopper again and managed to knock his ability away.

"All right, you got my ability off. So what?" Chopper shrugged. "Big deal! You've got 2 HP left, and this should finish it up!"

He shot a fireball at Jr. Troopa, and his wings and spike went away, sending him to the ground. Chopper was awarded with 23 Star Points.

"No! I can't believe Chopper defeated me again!" Jr. Troopa whined as he lie on the ground. "I was ready this time, but I got my butt handed down. Stupid stupid stupid!"

"Well we can't do much. We should just leave him here." Koopla suggested.

"Yeah, sure. That's a good idea." Chopper nodded. They all began to leave, but Chopper stopped and ran back to Jr. Troopa and whacked him with his Ultra Hammer.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaugh-!"

Chopper snickered a little, since he always wanted to do that for a while. He followed the others to the center of Toad Town, where Merlon's house was. However, they noticed Professor Toadsmeth by the Flower Garden. He was actually building some kind of teleporter.

"Toadsmeth? You're still here?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, you're here!" Toadsmeth gasped. "So, how was the trip?"

"Awful."

"It stunk."

"Never again."

"I think I got seasick..."

"You should've given us a fancier boat."

"Status: Negative."

"What boat are ya talkin' about?"

"Oh... So it was bad..." Toadsmeth trailed.

"Yeah, it was," Chopper nodded. "But, that's over with, so let's not discuss that ever again."

"OK, then... Well, good news, Chopper! I invented a new teleporter that can take you to a place called Flower Plains. This is a place that can't be reached around Toad Town or any other place in the Mushroom Kingdom! I was happy enough to make this teleporter so people can go there!"

"I heard some Lakitu king there tries to rule that flower world, but there's this city called the City of Flowersville, and they seem to be protected by three small super powered Dayzee girls. They must be so adorable!" the Gardner squealed.

"Hmmm… We don't know where the next Star Spirit is, but maybe it could be there." Chopper wondered. "That Lakitu king might have the sixth Star Spirit."

"I'm sure those three cute Dayzeeflower Girls will handle everything there. I mean, they've got some super powers, you know."

"Dude, forget them! We don't need superpowers to kick butt! I mean, Koopla uses her shell, Bruce blows things up, Parakarry can attack with his shell in the air, Bow can smack enemies with her fan, C-2 Choppor can obliterate anything with his gun, and Yosho can throw eggs. We can handle this!" Chopper turned to Professor Toadsmeth. "Professor, you're a professor. Get that thing working right now, and we'll go to Flower Plains!"

"Professor? My word, you're right! Allow me to do the job!" Toadsmeth declared. "Stand on the panel. All of you guys."

With that, everyone stood on the teleporter.

"I wonder if this is going to be enjoyable," Bruce wondered. "Those Dayzeeflower Girls sound like something from a TV show."

"Whatever, let's just go already," Chopper groaned. "We can't let that Lakitu king hold onto that Star Spirit forever!"

"Teleporting you to Flower Plains NOW!" Toadsmeth pressed the button, and all seven of them were teleported out of Toad Town.

"You know, I would actually love to see one of those Dayzeeflower Girls…" the Gardner sighed. "I'd go through here, but I have to stay here to watch over my garden. It's a shame, though"

"Meh, it may not be exactly safe out there," Toadsmeth mentioned. "The enemies in there aren't exactly easy… But, let's hope they come back alive."

* * *

**I was actually a little worried about Chapter 6. Why? Because back then, I was only up to Chapter 5, and I wanted to finish the game before getting the eight chapters for this story done. But, I already beat the game, so I don't need to worry.**

**Yeah, Chapter 6 is up next! It'll have some action in it, something I wish Yoshi's Island could've had, since it would be pretty cool and all that. But, the action will be here. Plus, I get to make a parody of a show that, despite seeming girly, was actually filled with a lot of violence!  
**

**This should be fun... ;D**


	31. Flowers Everywhere!

**CHAPTER 6**

**-Dangers in Flower Plains-**

Further away from Toad Town, possibly near Flower Fields, a peaceful and beautiful world with green grass, a blue sky, and the sun was shining down on Flower Plains. It looked like it was the most beautiful place in the world - besides Flower Fields, of course. They're both similar, but this place seemed a lot bigger than Flower Fields, since it supposedly had a city and a palace.

By a tree, there was a teleporter pad built nearby. Some energy appeared to be emitting from it, and out came Chopper and his friends. Luckily, they all managed to get out before falling over each other.

Chopper walked around a little, seeing the path they needed to go, which was covered in flowers of many colors. The flowers reminded him of his parents for some reason.

"Chopper, you look a little upset. What's wrong?" Bow asked.

"Well… I remember seeing flowers like this on my birth planet." Chopper recalled. "Yeah, I know my mother used to have flowers like these. Those were the days... But, unfortunately, that evil demon Maquano had to go and take my dad's life away and actually ENJOY it."

"Holy… Yer father his life taken by a demon knight?!" Yosho gaped. "Whoa, that's bad. What happened to your mother?"

"I don't know. I only heard that my father got killed. My mother told someone else to take me to his ship and get out. And at that moment, the planet blew up. Yep, I've been taking care of myself ever since I was four. It's not easy, trust me..."

"Oh... I'm so sorry to hear that..." Parakarry trailed. "That must've been something hectic, wasn't it?"

"Yeah… It was something. But, I had to get over it, and I did. We should probably get moving now. I don't want to have to stay here all day."

They didn't walk in the flowers, because they really didn't want to step on them. But, they simply followed the path to the next area. There weren't enemies in this area, luckily.

But, the next area seemed to have some Crazee Dayzees. These things have 8 HP, and attack of 4, and no Defense. They seemed to be singing a little song and giggling cutely.

"Should we fight those things?" Chopper questioned. "I mean, they could be the evil ones."

"They don't look evil to me," Bruce said surprisingly. "They look so cute and innocent!"

"That's the problem! You think they're cute and innocent, but they're actually evil! That's what I think sometimes... I could imagine someone like that in the future - or many years later. If you want, we _can_ ignore them."

The Crazee Dayzees ran toward Chopper and the others, but they simply ran from them. Everyone else but Chopper seemed to be afraid of them.

"Why are you guys so scared?" Chopper asked.

"You know, they can put you to sleep with their song, you know that?" Koopla asked.

"No..."

"THEN START RUNNING!"

Chopper immediately walked to a tree in the area and whacked it with his hammer while trying to get away from the Crazee Dayzee. A Flower Berry came out, which could recover 5 HP and 5 FP.

"Better hold onto this," Chopper put it away, and he began to Speed Dash through the area. They could see some Crazee Dayzees singing, and there also appeared to be some kind of clover enemies holding swords. Koopla noticed the path they kept moving on was blocked by some tall grass. Chopper tried burning it, but it didn't work.

"That's strange... I thought fire would burn this grass down." Yosho gawked. "Weird..."

"Well, we can't just stay here. Find out what we gotta do, Chopper!" demanded Koopla. "I mean, you always figure something out."

"Well, I think those Clover enemies have something I could use," Chopper eyed the Clover near him, and he inhaled its sword.

"Huh? My sword!" the Clover saw his sword got inhaled by Chopper. It caused it to run away in fear.

Chopper swallowed the sword, and he had a green floppy hat, but with a yellow pompom on the tip of the hat. He was also holding a sword, and he looked like he was a strong warrior. We'll call him Sword Chopper whenever he's got the sword. Oh, and if his HP is full, he can shoot beams out of his sword, doing a little extra damage as well.

"Awesome sword! I wish I had a sword like that!" Yosho commented. "…But we Yoshis don't use swords."

"I'll cut this grass so we can get through," Chopper swung at the grass, cutting it. However, he didn't cut the roots off simply because he didn't want to kill the grass. With that, they headed to the next area, and they saw a lot of tall grass around too. It was complete madness around here, but they ended up hearing a voice.

"Huh? I hear the grass moving a little…" the voice trailed. It sounds like people are here! Hey! Who's there? Can you speak?"

"Who just said that? I could have sworn that someone was just speaking to us." Bow said suspiciously.

"Scanning for life forms," C-2 Choppor began to scan the area, and he noticed a yellow plant-like creature called a Bulb-ulb. "My scanners show that there's something here. Chopper, cut the grass, and perhaps we can find out what it has to say."

"I'm not a thing! I'm a Bulb-ulb!" the Bulb-ulb snapped.

"My scanners show that you are indeed a thing. My scanners never lie. If you don't think that, too bad."

"Don't bother with whatever the thing is, Choppor. I don't want you arguing with it, because it'll make things worse." Chopper suggested as he cut the grass around him.

After cutting all the grass down the area, the Bulb-ulb was able to see them just fine. "Oh, thank the Stars! You saved me from the tall grass! I screamed help and thought the Dayzeeflower Girls would show up! …Maybe that's because they hear about these things from the Mayor of Flowersville. Tell me your name, little boy."

"My name's Chopper. We heard that there's a Lakitu King here who has something, right? We're looking for a Star Spirit."

"Chopper, huh? Well, yes. There's a Lakitu King, and he tries to rule this world. But no worries, the Dayzeeflower Girls can handle that king no problem. And I think I did hear about some star he's holding onto."

Chopper shook his head. "No, WE need to get to the Lakitu King. He's probably causing a bunch of trouble here. Forget those Dayzee girls or whatever taking care of it. It's not their problem."

"I'll admit, that's a little harsh to say, especially for you," Koopla noted.

"Kinda rude, if you ask me," Parakarry agreed.

"Well, I don't want any help from three flowers," Chopper sulked. "I'm just fine!"

"You know we're here," C-2 Choppor informed. "We're here to help you. Do you not want our help?"

"Well, I do... But not any flowers..."

"What? Why would you say such a thing?" the Bulb-ulb gasped. "They're angels! Plus, you all don't look like you are tough, really…"

At this point, everyone was glaring at the Bulb-ulb.

"You don't think we can handle it, huh?" Bow asked, giving him an irritated look as she pulled her fan."

"OK! I think you are tough enough! But, that Lakitu King isn't the only problem the city had. In fact, whatever the thing was causing the problem reminds me of you and that robot. Mostly you, though. You both have antennas, and you're green. Well, I can take you all to the City of Flowersville if you want. But, I'm gonna keep an eye on you."

"I'm not a big problem. I just came here." Chopper stated. "But, you can take us to the city, all right?"

"Good! Now follow me!" they followed the Bulb-ulb out of the area, and to another area with more flowers around, some trees, and the grassy path. Chopper decided to swing his sword at one of the Crazee Dayzees, forcing them to run away.

"Well, these flowers are trying to kill us, so we have the right to fight back!"

The Bulb-ulb headed towards the next area, with Chopper speeding past him. He ended up braking by the entrance of a city, which looked HUGE. He could see the tall buildings across the gate

"Oh my goodness… Look at this place!" Chopper looked shocked at this. He even dropped his sword.

"What is it Chopper?" Bow asked. When she floated to Chopper, she saw the city and instantly gaped.

"Oh my… I've never seen a place like THIS before." Once the others caught up, Koopla, Parakarry, and Yosho's mouth drop.

"Holy crap… That place is huge." Koopla gasped.

"Tell me about it!" agreed Parakarry. "There were never places like this back at the Mushroom Kingdom. These flower guys must have some pretty good technology here."

"My enemy's bases have better technology than this," Chopper gloated. "There are A LOT of cities in Hell, and he even has a bunch of Hellspawn Starships for his soldiers to travel through dimensions. Yeah, it's really something interesting he's got. But, that makes it good for me, since I can just run through there!"

"So yer tellin' me that ya saw better places than this? Man, I've been missin' out BIG TIME!" Yosho gaped. "I bet I could find some ladies here. Yep, that'll be good fer me! After all, I _am_ a ladies man. Isn't the right, green ghost?"

It only took a simple smack from Bow's fan to shut him up.

"Oh, did I do that? Sorry, but that was an accident." Bow lied as she let out a small cackle.

"All right, I'll go into the City of Flowersville and get you guys in as well," the Bulb-ulb announced as it headed through the entrance, and when Chopper was about to head through, a gate came down.

"Huh? Hey, Bulb-ulb! The gate came down!" Chopper gawked. "What's the big deal on this?"

"You REALLY think I'm going to get you in here? HA! I think not!" This time, the Bulb-ulb's voice sounded sinister. "I'm a servant of King Lakilar! Yeah, he's got the Star Spirit you're looking for, but I'm not letting you get it! Here, let these guys take care of things!"

Three Clovers jumped down from the gate, and they prepared to attack. They only had 7 HP, an attack of 5, and 0 Defense.

Chopper picked his sword up, and he swung it at the first Clover. Due to having his HP full, a small sword beam shot at the other ones. That one only did 3 damage.

Koopla finished the Clover off with her Shell Toss, and it was gone. The two Clovers remaining attacked Chopper with their swords, but Chopper guarded it using his sword. Chopper swung at the Clover at the front, and he jabbed at it a couple of times, defeating it. To finish off the last one, Bruce used his Body Slam, and Parakarry used a Sky Dive. Bow finished up the fight with her Smack, dealing a large 6 damage.

Chopper waggled his finger after the battle, receiving his 6 Star Points. Now that they finished that, they needed to get into the city.

"So… Any suggestions on what we should do?" Bruce asked. "I mean, we can't get into the City of Flowersville because that Bul-ulb blocked our way."

"Hmmm… My scanners show that there's an entrance to the south." C-2 Choppor stated. "It's like a cave, but it's by some kind of cliff. Apparently, it's a secret way to get into the City of Flowersville. However, it's kind of dangerous."

"Who cares if it's dangerous? We're going in that cave." Chopper declared. "We really need to get in there so we can get to that Star Spirit!"

They found a path going to the south, and they found some more flowers around. Some Crazee Dayzees went after them, but they defeated them quickly before they could put them to sleep. After following the trail around, they took a path going to the east, and they found the entrance to some cave down a ladder. It didn't look too dark, to their relief.

"Hmm… This should be it." Chopper confirmed, looking down at the cave. "Man, it feels like Blooper Cave all over again. Sigh…"

"I doubt there are any Bloopers in there," Bow assured. "I'm pretty sure there are only bats. Bats don't scare me anyway."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's just head into the cave so we can get into the City of Flowersville…and also hopefully find that Bulb-ulb so I can beat the livin' snot out of it!" Koopla declared.

"We all want to beat the crap out of that Bulb-ulb," assured Yosho. "I mean, Chopper probably wants to jab that thing, you want to beat it up, Bruce might want to blow it up, Parakarry might use his shell, Bow might smack it, C-2 Choppor will probably blast it, and I'll probably Ground Pound it! Yeah, we all want a peace of that guy."

"Yeah, well, we're not going to do it if we're standing around here. Let's just head on in." Chopper suggested.

They all headed into the cave. But, they didn't notice an explosion coming from Flower Pains. It showed a mysterious figure with bright blue eyes coming from the explosion. It seemed to have a shape similar to Chopper.

"So… Chopper IS here. I should've known after these days that he would finally arrive here." the figure said coldly. "Now I don't have to leave this place. And to get his attention, I'll start by destroying that city! …And NO ONE will stand in my way! Not even Maquano after what he's done to me!"

The figure took off for the city, hoping to find his biggest target.

* * *

**Cave-**

The whole party got into the cave, and they noticed that it didn't look too bad. In fact, it looked kind of sparkly. The ground was actually a dark blue color, and the walls were a light purple color. There was even a Save Block in here, and also a…hot spring? After Chopper hit the Save Block, he looked at the hot spring.

"Hmm… I guess I could just get in here to recover HP and FP..." Chopper trailed. "But, what's a hot spring doing in a place like this anyway? It feels so...out of place..."

"What about us? I mean, don't we need to heal or anything?" Bruce questioned.

"You just get injured when you get hit. I'M the one who's taking all the hits! I need to recover from those fights back there!"

Chopper put his sword by the hot spring, and he put his hat by it. Once he stepped in the hot spring, he began to recover all his stats. He got out of the hot spring, put his hat back on, and picked up his sword. He felt a lot better now.

"So, do you feel better now?" Bow asked.

"Yeah, I do feel better, now that you asked. I can get back to fighting the bad guys now."

"That's good, especially for someone like you. I mean, you're really too cute to get hurt." Bow giggled as she pinched Chopper's cheeks, causing him to get annoyed as his cheeks turned bright red.

"Does she do that to you all the time?" Yosho asked.

"Yeah…" Chopper groaned.

"You lucky dog… Why can't she do that to mine? I mean, I'm the lady's man here! Hey, Bow, me next!"

"That's not going to work, you know," Parakarry said. "I think Bow likes Chopper, Yosho. I mean, he did technically help her out. Then again, we were part of that too."

Chopper didn't see much around here. So, he decided to see what would be up ahead. There appeared to be some Cave Dayzees lurking around. They're similar to Crazee Dayzees, except their attack is 5 instead of 4, and their petals are grayer.

"Whoa, look at these enemies around here," Chopper gawked. "This is a rather small area, but it has a slope going down somewhere else. But, I don't see much here."

Two Cave Dayzees ran toward the whole party. Chopper immediately threw Bruce so he could land a First Strike on the one to the front, which allowed him to take away 6 HP from the Cave Dayzee. With that, Chopper ran toward the Cave Dayze at the front and did a lunge attack instead of a jab. It took out the Cave Dayzee no problem.

Parakarry flew toward the other Cave Dayzee, and he used his Sky Dive to hit the cute Cave Dayzee. It skipped toward Chopper, and it began to sing some kind of lullaby. Since their attacks are too hard to guard, Chopper got hit and fell asleep.

"_Zzzzzzzzzzz…_"

"Oh, great…" Bow decided to finish this off by using her Smack on the Cave Dayzee, defeating it once and for all. Chopper got his 4 Star Points, even if he was asleep, and he gained a level. He chose HP this time right now. Now he has 35 HP, 25 FP, and 18 FP.

"Can any of you wake him up? Because he can't just sleep there forever." Koopla noted.

"I'll take care of it," Bow lightly slapped Chopper's face, and it caused him to wake up, while jumping up a little.

"Huh? Oh, phew… I'm awake now." Chopper sighed. "All right, now that we took care of that, let's just keep going."

They continued to move on through the area of the cave and went down a small slope, where they saw a path to the upper right and mid right. They decided to see what was mid right. Apparently, there was some grass around some dirt, so Chopper cut it down. It revealed a switch, but it looked like one of those puzzles that required you to hit the switch while you were standing somewhere.

"It looks like I will need to do this part. Stay by where that hole appeared from the ground." C-2 Choppor suggested.

Chopper walked to where the flowers were, and C-2 Choppor fired a blast at the red switch. It made Chopper fall down the hole. The others followed him as well. There appeared to be some kind of bridge up ahead where they fell through the hole, and there was also a waterfall. Across the bridge was an Upgrade Block.

"Whoa, this place looks amazing. Maybe this is why this cave's a secret." Koopla gaped. "I mean, I don't think anybody from that city even saw this place."

"Yeah, I know. This is pretty interesting," Chopper agreed. "But, we're going to find that Bulb-ulb once we get back up here. But first…"

He crossed the bridge and hit the Upgrade Block. He began to think who he was going to upgrade.

"Ooh! Ooh! Upgrade me! I'll be pretty good with it!" Bruce begged.

"I'll upgrade C-2 Choppor. Yeah, him. Why? Because he's pretty much the best party member on our team!"

C-2 Choppor walked across the bridge, and he began to get his new upgrade for an Ultra Rank. He learned the move Missile Fire, which lets him fire missiles at every single enemy. The C Unit looked at his upgrade, and he knew this would help. Plus, now he can do 6 damage to enemies while still ignoring defense.

"Let's just get back to where we were before," Chopper suggested. They all agreed, and they made their way back to the area they were previously in. They headed to the entrance they didn't take before. This new area had a gap near them, so Parakarry took them over. Once that was over, they found a bigger gap. Unfortunately, they couldn't cross it.

But, Chopper saw some kind of corkscrew path, so, using his Speed Dash, he went through it. He saw a Cave Dayzee, so he simply made it trip, and it fell off down the cliff. Sadly, since there's no such thing as killing in the Mario universe, it didn't die.

Chopper swung his sword at a blue ! switch, and a bridge appeared. It allowed everyone to cross. When they crossed the bridge, Chopper turned around and saw another Dayzee. But, this one was different than the others. This one was a gold color, and it was even sparkling.

"Oh my god! It's an Amazy Dayzee!" Koopla cried. "Quick! We gotta attack that thing!"

"All right…" Chopper swung at the Amazy Dayzee, and he landed a First Strike. It had a point of defense, though, so his sword did 2 damage (He does half damage when landing a First Strike). Chopper noticed the HP it had, and it's Attack. Oh, man… This enemy had 20 HP…and also 20 Attack.

"Koopla! You're making us fight against something with **20 **Attack? I mean, what the heck?!"

"20 Attack is pretty deadly," Bruce admitted. "But, it's not like it'll do anything to hurt us...right? We're capable of kicking butt!"

"Fine, let's fight this thing and HOPE that I don't get myself killed here," Chopper attacked with a swing and some jabs. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at the Amayzee Dayzee, and it just left it with 7 HP left. But, the Amazy Dayzee didn't attack. It turned around and fled.

"Umm… It ran away?" Chopper gawked,

"They tend to run away most of the time," Parakarry noted. "It's very rare that they would actually make an attack. But, yeah, their attacks are devastating."

"Oh, I see… Let's just move on ahead." Chopper simply headed on through the next area, and the others followed him.

The next area of the cave seemed to be pretty small, but the next path up ahead is blocked by some statue of a Dayzee with a sword. It didn't move at all.

"Hmm… That statue is just standing there. Maybe we can move it out of the way?"

"You go on ahead. If that's what you're thinkin' of doing, then do it already." Koopla shrugged.

"Well, you're not being so nice. Oh who cares…" Chopper walked to the Dayzee statue, and he pushed it to the north.

Once he moved the statue, they found a secret entrance that appeared to be blocked by it. "Here we go! We can go in here, and we may be close to getting out of this cave!"

But, before they could do anything, the Dayzee Statue actually moved on its own, and it came toward Chopper.

"What the… It MOVES? Holy…" Bruce gawked.

"We don't have time to talk right now. All we can do right now is fight it! Either that, or we get our butts handed down to this statue."

**Tattle: **_That's a Dayzee Statue. These statues are quite rare around Flower Plains. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 1. It uses a sword to attack you, so how about fighting back with a sword, huh? Well, there's nothing really interesting about this thing. It's just… Meh. So, if you know what you're doing, this shouldn't be much of a problem for you. Of course, you don't usually have a problem with things, Chopper._

Chopper swung at the Dayzee Statue so it could be away from him. Sadly, that ended up wasting a turn for him.

"This enemy has a point of defense," C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at the Dayzee Statue. "Not a problem for me."

C-2 Choppor fired a yellow blast at the Dayzee Statue, and since he's Ultra Rank, his attack did 6 damage. The Dayzee Statue rushed toward Chopper and it swung its sword at him. Chopper guarded the attack with his sword, and it took away 4 from him rather than 5.

Chopper simply swung at the Dayzee Statue, and he jabbed it a couple of times to deal 5. C-2 Choppor fired another blast at the Dayzee Statue, and then the Dayzee Statue attacked Chopper, which he failed to guard against.

"This statue isn't really bad at all. I think a couple more hits, and it's done for." Chopper informed, getting back up from the attack, holding his sword.

Chopper ran towards the Dayzee Statue, and he lunged toward it like he was doing a stab attack. It didn't necessarily stab it, but it did some good damage. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at the Dayzee Statue, and he fired at it. The Dayzee Statue only had 7 HP left.

The Dayzee Statue charged at Chopper, lunging toward him. This could hit his partner as well. But, Chopper was able to guard the attack with his sword, preventing the Dayzee Statue from hitting his partners.

"OK, let's finish this up!" Chopper declared as he jabbed at the Dayzee Statue, and to make sure it would be gone, Bruce blew it up using his Bomb ability. Chopper had his thumbs up after the battle, receiving 18 Star Points. With that Dayzee Statue gone, they all moved on.

This area was like the others, but there appeared to be two switches in the area and some Cave Dayzees around too.

"It seems I need to do this part. Don't worry, I'll take care of it." C-2 Choppor scanned both switches, and he fired at both, which made a chest land on the ground.

"A chest? Hmm…" Chopper walked to the chest, and he opened it. He found a Jammin' Jelly in it, which can recover 50 FP.

"Whoa, a Jammin' Jelly!" Yosho gasped. "THAT is somethin' ya might wanna hold onto, buddy!"

"It'll pretty much recover all the FP you have," Bow informed. "But, you should use it wisely, because it's waste to use it now. Only if it's an emergency."

"Of course. Now let's get going." Chopper suggested.

They didn't see any paths to take, but all they found was a crack on the wall, so Chopper threw Bruce by the wall and blew it up, revealing a secret passage.

"Good, now let's get going!" Koopla suggested.

They headed into the next area, which only had a yellow ? block and a ladder that could possibly lead up to the surface. Chopper hit the block, and he only got a coin. But, he walked to the ladder, and he heard something coming from up there. It sounded like a beam was being fired...

"I think the City of Flowersville is above us, guys. This ladder should take us back to the surface. And it seems like something's not right up there…"

"You're telling me. I think there's a lot of crime going on up there." Bow pondered. "No wonder there are three super-powered Dayzee girls there. But, I don't get why those villains don't ever give up."

"Yeah, it's weird. But we should see what's going on right now. I mean, we can do something to stop it, you know."

"Yer right, Chopper. We should go up there an' do somethin' to stop those bad guys." Yosho suggested. "I know there are three little girls beatin' the crap out of villains, but we still got a Bulb-ulb to beat the crap out of."

"Oh, thanks for reminding me about THAT guy…" Koopla growled, grinding her teeth. "I really want to punch that plant…"

Another beam could be heard above, interrupting Koopla.

"How about we just go up there? There might be some mail up there that I need to deliver." Parakarry noted. "It's my job, anyway."

"Yeah, good idea," Chopper nodded. "Let's go up there and hopefully find out what's going on. And yes, we want to take down that Bulb-ulb."

With that, they climbed up the ladder and hoped they wouldn't get into any trouble from above.

* * *

**BAM! Flower stuff RIGHT HERE! Sorry, I couldn't resist it. But, you want action? Well, go look at the next chapter. There's action for you there.**


	32. The City of Flowersville is Under Attack

The City of Flowersvile… Wait, what am I saying? Oh yeah, that's what they ALWAYS say in the beginning of the PPG. Excuse me for that brief interruption...

Anyway, there were a lot of tall buildings that were mostly yellow, there were some flowers decorated on some of the skyscrapers as well. The gate that was locked by the Bulb-ulb was still locked, since no one even bothered to go unlock it. But, the City of Flowersville actually looked pretty nice. Especially since there are a lot of nice things to do around here.

By the gate of the city, a rock got moved out of the way, and a hole appeared. Chopper busted out of the hole, no longer having his Sword ability on him now. Bow came out of the hole next, and she floated beside Chopper. They saw the city, and looked kind of amazed.

"Wow… This place actually looks pretty cool now that we're here." Chopper gaped.

"I agree with you. Maybe there's a good place for us to be together, don't you think there is, cutie?" Bow asked, pinching Chopper's cheeks.

"Ow! Come on! That can really hurt!" Chopper heard the others coming out. C-2 Choppor got out next, and then Koopla and Yosho came out. Parakarry had a harder time, since he was carrying Bruce up.

"Man, you're kind of heavy, Bruce. What are you made of? Metal?" Parakarry dropped to the grassy ground as he put Bruce down. "I'm so exhausted because of that!"

"I'm a Bob-omb, so we're made of…" Bruce's eyes widened, realizing something. "Wait, I don't know what I'm made of! Oh man… This isn't good."

"Quit your yappin' already. We're already here, so you don't have to complain right now." Koopla groaned. "If you keep complaining, I'll shut your mouth with my fist."

"Koopla, isn't that a little harsh? I'm just tired. I mean, I never really get a break from anything. I'm trying to find some mail and deliver them. It's my job." Parakarry noticed a letter behind a bush nearby.

"Huh? A letter? Oh, good! I must've dropped some mail in the city, and one of the letters came here. I'm sure if we look thoroughly, we'll find more letters!"

"Yeah, and now that we're in a city full of people…and not to mention chicks, it's time for me to score with some ladies here! Ohhhh yeah…" Yosho chuckled until receiving looks from everyone. "Err, I mean, we gotta look for that Star Spirit. What did I just say there?"

"I didn't really understand what you said there, Yosho. Is it something…that I shouldn't be hearing?" Chopper asked.

"Uh… He didn't say anything Chopper. Nope, nothing at all." Koopla assured.

"Anyways, let's just check around the city. I mean, we GOTTA do something rather than staying here."

"Hmm… It says this letter is for Professor Plutonium…" Parakarry noted.

They all got off the grass and were on the street. They walked by a couple of skyscrapers and even saw some Dayzees and Bulb-ulbs walking around. Some of them took the time to take a glance at them.

"Those are some weird-looking people from this city…"

"That pale green boy looks so adorable! But, where is he from?"

"That ghost girl looks pretty cool…"

Yosho looked pretty disappointed that no one was really paying attention to him, since he considers himself the coolest. So, he decided to step up.

"Aw come on! No words toward me? C'mon, people!" Yosho shouted.

Only crickets could be heard.

"What? Aw, c'mon!"

"Yosho, quit messing with the people here," Chopper suggested. "We're here to find a way to Flower Palace. Not to argue with people. Now, let's just keep going so we ca-"

Suddenly, a green beam fired down by them, which caused them to jumped up a little. They saw a Koopa with a gray helmet and blue cape with a red ray gun cackling and firing at many things. Many people refer to him as Kojo Pete.

"Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!" Kojo Pete cackled as he kept firing at some buildings, melting them.

"So THIS is where the firing was coming from! No worries, we'll take care of this Koopa no problem!" Chopper smirked.

But, a little further away, three Dayzee girls were flying in the sky. The one in the middle's petals were orange, like a redhead, and her arms and legs were a light red. This one's name is Blayzee Dayzee, and she's the smart one, but her smartness gets to her and sometimes makes her a bit of a bossy girl.

The one to the left has light yellow petals, and her arms and legs were a light blue. She also had rosy cheeks too. This one is Kayzee Dayzee. She's considered to be the cute one and tends to be very sweet, but she has a thing for dolls. However, she can have a bad temper at times when someone does something bad to her. Also, Kayzee actually looks close to an Amazy Dayzee, with her yellow color for her face.

The third one had black petals, and light green arms and legs. She's known as Tayzee Dayzee. Since she looks the toughest and all, she's the tough one. She's more of a tomboy though, and she's usually not really nice much, since she kind of acts harsh to others.

Chopper began to charge a fireball, and C-2 Choppor aimed at Kojo Pete, who didn't pay attention to them, due to laughing and cackling. But, once the Dayzeeflower Girls flew in to attack, Chopper and C-2 Choppor stopped, and Kojo Pete saw them flying at him, so he tried to fire at the three girls.

"Gah! The Dayzeeflower Girls!" Kojo Pete fired his laser at the three of them, but they dodged it with their flying. Blayzee used her heat vision to melt away the laser gun Kojo had, and all three of them beat the crap out of him.

"Curse you Dayzeeflower Girls!" Kojo yelled as he got knocked to the ground, and when he looked up, he saw the three of them right by him, victorious.

"Give it up already, Kojo! That's the third time this week!" Tayzee scoffed.

"You will never defeat us, so there!" Kayzee scoffed as she stuck her tongue at Kojo Pete.

"The Dayzeeflower Girls never lose!" Blayzee boasted.

"What in the…" Chopper saw the three of them pummeled down the Koopa AND had those powers that could literally beat anyone down. They were probably tougher than the entire group!

"They easily defeated that Koopa…" Bow trailed. "I can't say I'm impressed, though."

"Another job done! Good work, girls!" Blayzee congratulated. "But, that mysterious figure that's been going around here… He's a tough one to get. We'll make sure we can take care of him, though!"

"Mysterious figure?" Chopper gawked. The Dayzeeflower girls heard his voice, and they saw Chopper and his partners. But, something looked familiar about Chopper, in their eyes.

"Hey… Isn't that…" Kayzee stammered.

"That might be him!" Tayzee shouted. "We should go give him a beating of a lifetime for what he's been doing to our city!"

"What are you talking about? I just came here!" Chopper protested.

"We all came here five minutes ago," Koopla informed. "You can't expect to accuse us right now…"

"Maybe they're right. I mean, the mysterious figure that appeared was alone." Kayzee agreed, defending Chopper. "He may look like him, but he's not alone."

"Kayzee, you know that's not the truth," Blayzee scolded. "Every time you predicted something that we didn't think of, we were always right."

"You really got this all wrong. We're trying to get to the Flower Palace and get the Star Spirit. We wouldn't destroy anything here!" Bow pleaded. "Honestly! You would believe, us, right?"

"Sorry, ghost lady. But, we gotta put an end to this."

"You gotta be kidding me…" Chopper sighed, shaking his head. "Now I'm being accused of destroying part of the city. Just great… Look, I didn't do it!"

"It's too late for that!" Tayzee charged at Chopper, and Blayzee did as well. Kayzee followed, but didn't seem like she wanted to hurt him, considering that she believe him. A small explosion emitted from the crash, but it seemed that Chopper jumped out of it and landed on the ground.

"Guys, we better keep moving, because if they're trying to really beat us, then we gotta keep away," Chopper suggested. "But we're NOT going to fight them. It's better to just defend ourselves without harming them.

They saw that the Dayzeeflower Girls bumped into each other. However, they quickly recovered. Tayzee recovered the quickest and glared at Chopper, fuming with anger.

"You're not getting away so easily!" she shouted. This made Chopper use his speed to flee. Their flight might be fast, but when it comes to speed, Chopper was able to outrun them just fine.

"Geez... They have powers, yet they can't outrun me? Well that's a relief..."

While Chopper was running, the Mayor, who was a small flower guy with a small top hat, a monocle, and a brown mustache, was walking on the sidewalk with some pickles in his leafy hands.

"Oh, boy! I can't wait to eat these pickles back at my office!" the Mayor squealed. "In fact, I'll eat one right now!"

The Mayor was about to eat a pickle…until someone ran past him. He saw that his pickle was gone.

"My pickle!" Tayzee flew passed him, and he spun around like crazy. However, Tayzee flew back to the mayor, apologizing for any injuries she may have caused when flying past him.

"Oh it's all right, Tayzee… I guess I'm going to have to go buy some more pickles… Sigh…" the Mayor began to slowly walk off with his head hung low. But, while he was walking away, he saw Blayzee and Kayzee fly by. By now, Blayzee was actually reconsidering beating Chopper and helped Kayzee go after Tayzee. Chopper's partners were also following.

"Tayzee! Wait! I don't think we should just beat it out of him to find out if that's really him!" Blayzee cried.

"I don't think we should even bother with him!" Kayze shouted. "He doesn't look like he would hurt somebody here!"

"Yeah, listen to the cute one!" Parakarry agreed. "Chopper's not deadly or anything! It might be someone else causing this trouble!"

"Mode change," C-2 Choppor began to use the wheels on the bottom of his feet to travel faster in order to catch up to Chopper.

The Mayor kept walking slowly, but he didn't notice a mysterious figure floating behind him. The figured grabbed him, and he had a fist by the mayor's face.

"Awwaaaaaahhhh! What's going on here? ! Who are you! ?" the Mayor looked so scared to see this mysterious figure. He could see the glowing blue eyes from him, and they looked pretty evil.

"You're the mayor of this city, correct?" The mysterious figure asked. The Mayor began to sweat, and he felt like he wanted to scream for the Dayzeeflower Girls. But, if he did, he'd probably end up dead.

"Y-Y-Yes… I am… I just wanted to go get some pickles!" the Mayor cried. "I mean, someone stole my pickles, and I LIVE for pickles! …And also I like bananas too. But, please don't hurt me!"

The mysterious figure, which happened to be a robot, punched the Mayor in the face, leaving the left part of his face bruised.

"I'm not here to discuss about pickles and bananas, meatbag! No… Meatbag doesn't fit well. Just tell me where Chopper is!"

"Ch-Chopper? I have no idea what you're talking about! Any idea on what he looks like?"

"He's round, pale green, has two antennas, white gloves, and green shoes. Oh, and he can run pretty fast."

"Well all I know is that someone ran past me and took my pickles. Man, I'm not happy about that. I think Tayzee is going after him."

The robot dropped the mayor onto the ground. "That's all I needed. But, don't think you're off the hook. Try anything funny, and I'll annihilate you!"

The robot began to fly off, ready to go after Chopper. There was no way he would let Tayzee do the job of getting rid of Chopper. That was his job, according to him. While he was flying after Chopper, Chopper continued to run from Tayzee. He had the pickles that he accidentally took from the mayor, and he ate them.

"Well, that hit the spot," he saw Tayzee left off a green light behind her as she flew after him. But, once Chopper turned around, he saw a building coming near him.

"Gyaaaah!" Chopper ended up running up the wall and jumped off and landed on the ground.

"Hold on, why am I running from a five year old girl? I gotta defend myself! Though I can't really fight, all I can do is block the attacks."

"Oh, now this is going to be easy…" Tayzee rammed into Chopper, but he used his Ultra Hammer to block some of her attacks. Some of the punches were too strong for him to hold back, forcing him to skid back as Tayzee punched. But, at least the hammer didn't break.

"Tayzee! Stop right now! This isn't right!" Blayzee called out as she flew to Tayzee and tried to pull her away from Chopper.

"Blayzee! Let go of me! Can't you see I'm trying to take care of this? !"

"No, Tayzee. Just don't bother with him. We need actual proof to know if that's really him and not the one who's been causing trouble here."

"Yeah, listen to her! I have an enemy of my own too! His name's Maquano!" pleaded Chopper. "In fact, I'm trying to save Princess Peach, defeat Bowser and Maquano, AND also stop Staris from destroying the Mushroom Kingdom! I'm telling the truth!"

"It's going to take a lot to convince me," growled Tayzee. "I'm not so easy to convince, so don't expect to be winning so easily! I'll finish this!"

But, before should could attack, she got hit by a blast, making her hit the building. Everyone let out a gasp.

"What the… What the heck was that?" Bruce gaped.

"I finally found you, Chopper! I've been looking for you for quite a while!" the mysterious robot grinned as he floated down to Chopper. Sadly, Chopper couldn't get a good look of who he was.

Tayzee got up, and she saw the mysterious robot. "No way… So, that other kid WASN'T the one… Wow, Kayzee was actually right this time."

"See? You should listen to me sometimes!" Kayzee scoffed, sticking her tongue at her sister. "I may not be the smart one of the group, but I still have some intelligence in me!"

"I should've known finding you here in a world full of flowers would be a good idea," the robot growled. "Now that I found you, we can finally settle this!"

"Who exactly are you?" Bow asked.

"My identity is none of your concern. I only came here to rid of Chopper! There's no way I'm going to let you down so easily. In fact, I've got a weapon of my own to guarantee victory!"

The robot took out a yellow star and held it up. "You won't stand a chance against me once I use this thing's power! You'll be spending the rest of your life in Hell when I'm through with you!"

"Girls, we can't let this robot fiend destroy more of Flowersville! We gotta act fast!" Blayzee ordered. "Let's get him!"

Blayzee, Kayzee, and Tayzee flew toward the robot, but he began to absorb the power from the star. Whatever was about to happen seemed like it was about to be BAD. The girls readied their punches, but the robot grabbed Blayzee by the feet, and he began to swing her at the other two Dayzeeflower Girls.

The robot released Blayzee, and she came crashing into one of the buildings. Kayzee used her Sing attack to make the robot fall asleep. But, it didn't make him fall asleep, to her surprise, so he aimed his laser gun at her and prepared to fire.

That is, until he got hit by a fireball from behind.

"Huh?" he turned around and saw Chopper shot the fireball. "Very clever, you ungrateful little kid… I just wanted to get these girls out of my way so I can take care of you…"

"Yeah, well I play rough against robots! Especially someone like you!" Chopper ran toward the robot and brought out his hammer. The robot's right hand changed to a blue laser sword, and he rushed toward him. They kept blocking each others attacks, but Chopper ended up getting knocked down.

Before the robot could make another attack, C-2 Choppor fired some shots at the robot, knocking him toward one of the buildings. Tayzee flew behind him and kicked him in the back, sending him toward Blayzee.

"Oh no you don't!" the robot stopped and flew up. He fired a couple of missiles at the girls afterwards. However, Yosho laid some eggs, and he blew up the missiles by throwing them at them. He used his long tongue to get one of them and spit it at the robot. The robot got hit by the missile, but he didn't seem to be injured at all.

"Whoa… I was pretty sure that missile would get him good. How on earth is he still there?" Chopper gaped.

Bow appeared by the robot, and she smacked him down with her fan. However, he managed to grab her fan and prepare an attack on her. Chopper looked shocked and ran up a building to get to the robot. He immediately jumped to the robot and kicked him to the ground.

"Thank you Chopper. I never knew you would actually come up here to save me." Bow smiled.

They landed on the ground, and the robot got himself up. Unfortunately, he still wasn't harmed. Chopper, his friends, and the Dayzeeflower Girls were panting.

"This robot has guts. He sure knows how to fight." Tayzee panted.

"This fight is a waste of my time," the robot scoffed. "I should just destroy the whole city! You'll be finished then, Chopper!"

"But… Who ARE you? You never told us your name! You better tell us now!" demanded Chopper.

"I don't need to tell you my name! I'll gladly tell you when you're dead!" the robot cackled as it flew up and began to create a huge amount of blue energy. His blue glowing eyes looked down at the city.

"Hmph… Didn't expect you to be here." another voice muttered. The robot then saw Maquano on his dragon.

"Maquano? Look, stay out of this. I'm trying to destroy a city, and you're not helping me! I told you I could go on without you!"

"Tsk tsk tsk… You were always a foolish robot." Maquano scolded. "You even had the looks of Chopper, and the speed and abilities of him. But, you never wanted to listen to me, and you thought betraying me would work. Heh heh… I've already got a Star God with me, so I don't need you. I'll destroy this city and rebuild it as a Hellspawn city!"

"No way! Not if I finish you off first!" the robot fired the blue energy sphere at Maquano, but he used his dark magic to simply relinquish it.

"That's not going to work against me. You want to see TRUE power? I'll show you true power!" Maquano fired a dark sphere of energy at the robot, and it ended up sending him far from the city as he cursed.

The whole party noticed that the robot got sent far from the city, relieving them. But, they didn't see Maquano, sadly. They began to relax a little bit.

"Well, that was TOO close," Koopla sighed. "I almost thought we were gonna get killed there."

"Tayzee… Don't you owe someone an apology?" Blayzee asked, eyeing Tayzee, who groaned.

"Fine, you don't have to nag. I'm sorry…" Tayzee sulked as she looked away from Chopper.

"I'm sorry, what?" Chopper smirked. "I... I didn't get that!"

"I said I'm sorry!"

"That's what I thought you said… Good. I guess I accept it a little…" Chopper smiled as he turned to the other two. "So… You're the Dayzeeflower Girls, am I correct? Because I think that's what you are. But, don't you have names?"

"Of course we do! My name's Blayzee." Blayzee greeted.

"I'm Kayzee!" giggled Kayzee.

"Yeah yeah, I'm Tayzee…" grumbled Tayzee. "We should go back to the professor right now."

When Parakarry heard the word professor, he remembered something. "The professor? Does he happen to be Professor Plutonium? Because I have a letter for him."

"Yeah, that's him. He created us with Cake Mix, Fire Flowers, and things that are nice. We can take you to him if you want."

"All right. We could probably get help from him. After all, we gotta go to the Flower Palace to get the Star Spirit from the Lakitu king."

"Cake Mix, Fire Flowers, and nice things?" Bow pondered. "How could one be created from that?"

"We had Chemi-CAL added in, giving us these super powers!" Kayzee blurted.

"Kayzee!" both Blayzee and Tayzee shouted.

"What?"

"You're not supposed to tell anyone that!" Blayzee scolded.

"They would go after that ingredient to become as powerful as us!"

"But... They're not bad people..."

"Statuses tell me we should get going," suggested C-2 Choppor.

"Yeah, let's go see that professor guy!" Chopper suggested. _"Huh... They're not as bad as I thought they'd be."_

* * *

**Professor Plutonium's house-**

After taking a stroll through the suburban area of the City of Flowersville, they noticed a light blue house with three windows. Blayzee explained that it was their house as the girls flew to the front door.

"Professor! Professor! Open the door!" Kayzee called out.

"All right, Kayzee. But, I don't get why you didn't fly into the window…" the door opened, and they saw a sunflower with a lab coat and a pipe.

"You're Professor Plutonium, correct?" Parakarry asked. "The name's Parakarry. I deliver letters. I believe I have one for you. Hang on a moment."

Parakarry took out the letter from his mailbag and gave it to the professor. "Another letter, dully delivered. A postman's work is never done."

"Hmmm… I see." the professor read the letter and put it away afterward. "Now, who are these people here? Are they friends?"

"My name's Chopper," Chopper introduced.

"I'm Koopla."

"You can call me Bruce!"

"I think I told you my name's Parakarry..."

"I'm Bow."

"Name: C-2. Codename: Choppor."

"I'm Yosho, the sexiest Yoshi in the world!"

"Ummm... Yes..." Plutonium trailed, a little confused with Yosho's response. "Good to meet you all! Come on inside! I already made some food before the girls would arrive. I have enough for everyone!"

They followed the professor into the kitchen, and to the table. They all sat down in a chair. Chopper was next to Bow and Kayzee.

"So what have you been doing before you came here?" Kayzee asked, getting curious.

"Well… I had to do A LOT of stuff. It's a really long story, and I don't think you'd want to listen to the whole thing." Chopper sighed. "But, we've gotten five Star Spirits so far, took down some bad guys, and we had to take a secret cave in order to get here."

"Interesting… So, you're saying you're heading to the Flower Palace?" Blayzee questioned. "I don't think that's an easy place to go to. I think you'll need us to the palace."

"Blayzee, what about the City of Flowersville?" Tayzee noted. "We just can't abandon it to help this round little ball and his friends! We gotta stop crime here!"

"Hmm… Yeah, you're right, Tayzee. That's true. I think ONE of us will have to go with them. Yeah, it may not sound good to be separated, but it's a good idea."

"Uhhhh... It's all right. You don't need to come with us." Chopper assured. "We've taken on many obstacles before, and I can assure you that we'll be fine getting to the palace."

"Nonsense! You should take one of the girls with you!" suggested Plutonium. "Two girls can handle the city just fine. Maybe you might need one of their help anyway! Now... Who would like to go?"

"I'll go!" Kayzee blurted loudly, making some people cover their ears.

"Not too loud!" Koopla cringed.

"I mean, I think I can probably help the most! I always wanted to travel with new people! And besides, they all look cute like me! Especially the green one!"

"Well! This chick's callin' me cute!" Yoshi smirked. "Heh heh heh..."

"Yosho... She's FIVE..." Bow trailed.

"Wh-What?! Whoa! Too big of a gap there!"

"Then who is she referring to?" Bruce asked.

"Either me or Chopper," Bow said with a smug look. "I was always cute to begin with."

"Well, both of you, actually! ...Oh, yeah! I have someone you should meet also!" Kayzee took out a Blooper doll with a small black hat and giggled. "This is Bloopi! He's my cute doll!"

"Uh… Hello Bloopi." Chopper greeted as he slowly waved to the doll.

"Oh! I almost forgot!" the professor remembered, getting up from his chair. "If you want to get to Flower Palace, you'll need something. Let me go fetch them for you!" the professor went down to the basement, and he came back with a pair of green shoes, similar to Chopper's Super Shoes.

"I had these shoes down there for a while, and they allow you to do some sort of jump. Since they look like they can fit you, you should take them!"

The professor gave Chopper the shoes, and he held them up proudly.

**You got the Ultra Shoes! The attack power of Chopper's Jump increases! His speed and Speed Dash also increases! On top of that, you can now do a Tornado Jump by pressing (A) again while in the air!**

Chopper had them magically equipped on now. Now that he's got them, he'll be able to get through the city just fine.

"All right, so you're saying you want to go with them, Kayzee? OK, but make sure you keep an eye on them if they don't do something good, like destroying something." Blayzee noted.

"And if they try that, give them a beating!" Tayzee suggested, punching the air.

"I know they won't be like that. I feel that they're nice people." Kayzee turned to Chopper. "OK, Chopper! I'm coming with you! Tee hee hee!"

**Kayzee Dayzee joined your party! Press (v) to have her fly Chopper over spikes, lava, or anything that's dangerous! She can even break many things around if she sings as well! In battle, she can charge at an enemy by flying at them or she can use her Sing to attack all enemies and possibly make them fall asleep.**

"Be careful out there, Kayzee!" Professor Plutonium warned. "There are many dangerous people outside of the city..."

"I will, professor! I may have gotten into some problems before, but there are a lot of people in Chopper's party! So I should be fine!"

"We'll take care of her. Don't you worry!" Chopper assured, giving the professor and the other two girls thumbs up.

Suddenly, the flower phone went off, alarming everyone.

"What's that?" Koopla asked. "That sounds friggin' annoying..."

"Hold on! I think the Mayor's calling!" Blayzee flew up to the phone and picked it up. "What's the problem, Mayor?"

_"Dayzeeflower Girls! Thank goodness! There's some evil demon knight in our city, and he won't leave!"_ the Mayor cried.

"There's a problem in Flowersville! Girls, let's go!" Blayzee flew out of the house, and so did Tayzee.

"I'll follow you guys, all right?" Kayzee smiled as she floated near the group.

"Sounds good to me," Bruce nodded.

When they went outside, there was a Save Block and an Upgrade Block. Chopper hit the Upgrade Block and upgraded Kayzee to Super Rank. She can use Heat Vision now.

"All right, let's go see what's the problem in Flowersville!" Kayzee suggested.

They left the house, and they saw Maquano using his dark magic to destroy some building out in the city. Blayzee and Tayzee flew toward him, ready to make an attack.

"Not so fast! Your days of harming Flowersville are OVER!" Blayzee shouted.

"Oh, please…" Maquano fired dark magic at the two of them, sending them crashing into a skyscraper. "Obviously you've never met a demon from another dimension!"

"What the… Since when is Flowersville having so many tough villains around here?" Tayzee gawked.

Once Chopper saw Maquano on his dragon, he clenched his fist in anger. "Maquano! What are you doing here?!"

"Ah, Chopper… It's so nice to see you again." Maquano grinned. "Oh, and don't think I'll be the one taking care of you. I think an old friend should handle this. You should see how he looks now! Come, Staris!"

A yellow puddle appeared from the ground, and Staris rose from it. He looked a lot bigger than before compared to his previous size when they encountered him last time. Everyone was shocked, especially Yosho and Kayzee, who never witnessed this monster before.

"Staris transformed? Oh, no! This isn't good…" Chopper gulped.

"Staris? Is he the Star God that lives up in the sky? He looks so angry for some reason…" Kayzee trailed.

"Holy guacamole! A God is tryin' to kill us?!" Yosho gaped.

"You're damn right he is! Now that Bowser's got the Star Rod, Staris is going to cause havoc!" Maquano cackled. "Now, Staris... Destroy Chopper and his friends! …And then you can finish those Dayzeeflower Girls as well!"

Chopper clenched his fists, and he eyed Staris. Maquano flew to a safe distance to see the fight with Chopper and Staris. Kayzee stood beside him, ready to fight against the Star God. They knew this was going to be a tough fight. A lot tougher than Staris's first form.


	33. Flowers and Illusions

"Well if Staris wants a fight, then a fight he'll get!" Chopper declared, getting in a fighting stance. "Come on!"**  
**

Staris too got in a fighting stance and started to approach Chopper and his friends.

**Tattle: **_Staris is back? Hmm… Well, he's no longer Staris in his first transformation. It appears he's now in his second transformation! Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 1. He seems to block some of your attacks with a shield, and he might transform into some kind of ball. It seems like Staris is really serious now. Look how big he is! Man, if I were in your shoes, I'd be running from him. But, you're not a coward, so you should do this. Be careful with his flood attack. It can deal 7 on you!_

"He has 50 HP like before? That's nothing special..." Koopla trailed.

Chopper wanted to test out his new shoes, so, to start the battle off, he jumped on Staris twice while spinning around as he jumped on him the first time. But, due to his defense, he did 4 damage.

"Let me make an attack!" Kayzee shouted, jumping up and down. "This is my first time fighting beside you, so I should get my chance!"

Kayzee flew toward Staris and punched him. Her attack did 4 damage, but it would've done 5 if Staris didn't have defense. But with that, Staris transformed into a giant ball, and he began to bounce toward Chopper. He engulfed Chopper, who struggled to break free. Once he got out, he took 3 damage, which, for some reason, felt weak.

"All right, time to make things a little interesting!" Chopper began to use his Power Bounce, and he stomped on Staris seven times. Kayzee punched the Star God again, making him explode. However, he ended up rising from the puddle again, showing that he's not going down so easily.

Staris summoned a waterfall, and it hit Chopper. But, since he was able to guard the attack, he only took 6 damage. Afterward, Staris protected himself with a shield made of stardust. It looked pretty tough, but it looked like it could be destroyed with something that could pierce through defense.

"I can break that shield. Don't worry, I'll take care of this." C-2 Choppor assured as he aimed his gun at Staris and fired. It broke the shield and hit Staris. Chopper brought his hammer out, and he whacked the Star God, making Staris form back up again after exploding.

"That creepy monster doesn't seem to give up!" Kayzee cried.

Staris stretched his arm out and whacked Chopper, knocking him down. Thankfully, he was able to get back up quickly, but with an irritated look.

"So that's how you wanna play, huh? Well, I'll play rough too!" Chopper used a Power Bounce on Staris, and he stomped on him eight times. Kayzee flew toward Staris and kicked him in the head. She immediately flew back to Chopper afterward.

Staris turned into a water ball again, and he began to bounce up and down. But, once he landed on the ground, he exploded and drops of yellow water hit Chopper. Luckily, he guarded the attack.

"Ya know, since he's made of water an' the fact that he's yellow... Doesn't that make him..."

"Yosho... Don't say it." Chopper grumbled.

"Oh, all right... I was just jokin'! Geez..."

It was time he finished this battle. So he walked over to Staris and used a Power Jump, making him explode like before. But this time, he was defeated. Chopper waggled his finger after the battle and Kayzee cheered. The fight rewarded them with 27 Star Points.

"Gah… Even when Staris was transformed, he didn't defeat Chopper." Maquano growled, trying his best not to get too angry. "But, no worries. Staris only needs five more Star Spirits in order to have full power!"

Maquano saw the Mayor walking by with some pickles. Staris was able to rise up from the puddle and saw the mayor.

"Man, I'm so glad I got those pickles! And without any problems!" the Mayor said happily.

Staris looked at the pickles, and he stretched his arm out to whack the mayor and knock him to the ground.

"Ow! No! My pickles!" he saw Staris take a pickle and pull it back to him. The Star God looked at the pickle, and he put it in his uh…mouth? Hold on... This guy doesn't even have a mouth!

The pickle went inside of Staris and turned him to a green color. Everyone suddenly gawked, including Maquano.

"Hmmm? I never knew about this…" Maquano said, raising an eyebrow.

Staris didn't seem to like it, so he threw the pickle out of his body and sent it back to the Mayor.

"All right, fine. You beat Staris. But that's not going to make a difference." the demon knight barked. "I was just testing his power out. Let's see how you'll do next time, though! Let's leave now, Staris!"

Maquano flew away, and Staris disappeared in a puddle. Kayzee took Bloopi out and squeezed him.

"It's over, now!" cheered Kayzee. "So, let's leave the city and get to that palace you're heading to, Chopper!"

Blayzee and Tayzee immediately flew over to Kayzee after recovering.

"Don't worry, Kayzee. We'll do fine even if you're not with us." assured Blayzee. "You still need to give them a hand, though!"

Kayzee nodded, the rest of the party headed to the exit over by the right, where they found the gate to be locked. Thankfully, there was a blue ! block that was too high for Chopper to reach. Why did I say thankfully? Well, with Chopper's new move, he could surely get to it...

"I guess this is where my Tornado Jump comes to use!" Chopper went under the block, and he jumped and spun around. His jump was a little higher than usual and hit the block, making the gate open.

"No key? Well that's interesting..." Koopla trailed.

They headed on through, and they saw the yellow palace up ahead with a Save Block and Heart Block by the entrance. But, there appeared to be a lot of spikes around, so Kayzee let Chopper get on her, and she flew over the spikes.

Kayzee helped the others across. Well, Bruce needed help the most, and Parakarry helped Koopla across with ease. The others got over there no problem. I mean, Yosho can flutter in the air. Afterward, they all saw a staircase leading up to the Flower Palace. Many flowers could be seen around there. It looked pretty nice.

Kayzee took out Bloopi again and smiled. "See, Bloopi? I told you we'd get a chance to go into this palace? Not only that, but we might even get to beat up that Lakitu king!"

"Is she…talking to her doll?" Koopla gawked, cocking her head to the side.

"That's probably natural for her age," Bruce spoke. "She IS five, after all..."

Chopper simply hit the Heart Block to recover all his stats and hit the Save Block, saving his game. With that, they headed into the palace.

* * *

**Flower Palace-**

The inside of the palace had a staircase up ahead that led up to the upper floor. There were a couple of rooms on the upper floor. But there were two Lakitus sitting on their clouds, minding their own business until they spotted Chopper and his friends.

"Hey! Isn't that Chopper?" the first Lakitu asked.

"Yeah, that's him all right!" the second Lakitu confirmed. "King Bowser even sent a picture to King Lakilar on what he looked like! Yep, it's him all right!"

"We'd better warn King Lakilar right away! He'll know what to do!" Both Lakitus headed on into the flower door to the small staircase that were next to the larger two staircase going up. They went into the door, and they locked it just to be safe.

_"Make sure the key is hidden! Because if you left it in one of those rooms, I'm going to kill you!"_

_"Relax! It's hidden underneath the ground in the room to the left on the second floor! There's no possible way he could get it!"_

_"He better not hear that. 'Cause if he did, those Frenzyweed Boys will have to handle them. Wait, where are they anyway?"_

Chopper heard that they hid the key on the upper floor as he smirked. But, he heard something about Frenzyweed Boys, which made him a little curious.

"I heard where the key is, but I also heard about something called the Frenzyweed Boys," Chopper pondered. "What the heck is that supposed to be?"

"The Frenzyweed Boys? They're these bad boys that are similar to us, but they have weeds on them." Kayzee explained. " Yeah, weeds are bad, and so are they! But, my sisters and I found a secret to beating them. Yeah, we kissed them, and they blew up!"

Chopper felt like he was going to laugh. "You're… You're kidding, right?"

"No, it's true! I mean, they're tough, but we managed to destroy them! But, they came back somehow. We don't remember how, but someone managed to do it..."

"Man, that's gotta be hilarious if three weeds blow up from being kissed. Don't you guys agree?"

"Well, that sure sounds funny. But, I definitely wouldn't want to be one of them…" Bruce trailed.

"Chopper, don't we still have to go get that key? It's upstairs, isn't it?" Bow reminded.

"Oh, right! Yeah, we gotta go up the stairs." Chopper used his speed to get up the stairs. The only one who managed to move faster than the others was Kayzee.

"Man that Dayzee girl can fly pretty quickly!" Parakarry gaped. "Although, I don't think she's moving as fast as Chopper..."

When they all arrived at the door, Chopper opened it, and they found spikes around. In the middle of the room was the ground without spikes, which could be where the key is. Kayzee flew Chopper over them, and he used his Tornado Jump to make the floor flip. A Flower Key appeared from underneath the floor, so Chopper took it with ease.

"About those Frenzyweed Boys…" Kayzee trailed. "Yeah, we had to do that, but I actually seemed to get the hang of kissing to tell you the truth! Say, how old are you? _Tee hee hee…_"

"Uhhhhh... Eight?" Chopper replied with a confused look.

"OK, that's really all I needed to know. I was just curious, that's all, hee hee!" Chopper looked at the computer monitor and shrugged, as if why she even asked him a question like that.

Kayzee helped Chopper over back to the door, and they all made it back to the other door. Bow didn't seem happy when Kayzee was talking to Chopper. From her giggling, she was suddenly suspicious with her.

They got to the locked door, and Chopper took out the key. He put it in the lock on the flower door and it opened. It began to show a field of flowers up ahead of many differed colored flowers. Everyone gasped as they gazed at the wonderful field.

"My, look at this place… It sure is nice." Bow gawked.

"Look at these flowers, Bloopi! They all look so nice! Maybe we should take some back home?" Kayzee suggested as she smiled. "But, I'm already a flower, so we don't need to get any!"

"Scanners indicate there are Lakitus up ahead. And some…weeds?" C-2 Choppor gawked. "This presents a weedy problem in a place full of problems."

"Weedy problem? ...Oh, I get it! But seriously, we're in a weedy situation?" Chopper pondered.

"I take it that's a pun, isn't it?" Koopla grumbled as she face palmed.

"I...guess?"

"Well, quit with the weed jokes."

"Weeds? I hate weeds." Yosho spat. "I hate seein' 'em on Yoshi's Island. If we find any weeds, I'm gonna pull 'em out by its roots!"

"All right, who's ready to pick some flowers? I sure am ready for that!" Chopper said sarcastically.

"I'm ready to pick flowers! Especially with my new friends! Tee hee!" Kayzee giggled.

"...That was a joke."

"Really? But I love flowers!"

Chopper opened the door, and he and his friends entered the next room, which didn't seem to have a ceiling. No wonder why there were flowers around here. The flowers need the sun, and keeping them in an outside room works just fine. Did I forget to mention there's an Amazy Dayzee in this area? Because there is one, and it'll give Chopper a lot of Star Points. There are also Lakitus around the room, and they'll throw Spinies if they ever spot them.

"Hmmm… Not much around here, but we can fight these Lakitus for the experience." Chopper pondered. "And… Hey, an Amazy Dayzee! Let's hope this time we get it."

"There's an Amazy Dayzee in here?!" Koopla gaped. "You BETTER beat it, 'cause those things could probably kill you easily! Not to mention it could even deal a lot of damage to ya..."

"And they're rare, too," Bruce added.

"Amazy Dayzees? Oh, yeah… They're definitely rare, but they're dangerous." warned Kayzee. "Be careful fighting them!"

Chopper walked through some of the flowers, and he used a Tornado Jump on the Amazy Dayzee. He dealt 5 damage to it when he landed a First Strike.

"All right, let's see how many times I can stomp on this Amazy Dayzee…" Chopper trailed as he began to use his Power Bounce. He managed to stomp on the Amazy Dayzee eight times, so that left it with 6 HP left.

"Hmm… I shall finish the Amazy Dayzee." C-2 Choppor walked to the Dayzee, and he fired a blast at it, which defeated it. Chopper looked at how many Star Points the Amazy Dayzee had, and he looked surprised and happy at the same time. The fight gave him 43 Star Points, and that also leveled him up! So, he decided to go with FP, giving him 30 FP now.

Once the Amazy Dayzee was gone, Chopper walked by a tree, and when he hit it, an Upgrade Block fell out.

"Hmm? This is odd… I never knew there would be an Upgrade Block in here. Well, I might as well upgrade Kayzee."

Chopper hit the block, and the blue orb inside of it went into Kayzee. She can now use the move Adoration, which allows her to confuse her foes, or even keep them from attacking with her cuteness.

"Adoration? What kind of move is that?" Yosho asked.

"Just watch!" Kayzee gave the whole group an adorable look. Chopper screamed and covered his face, trying to avoid seeing any more cuteness, while everyone else gawked.

"OK... That's actually helpful..."

Afterward, Chopper uncovered his face when Kayzee stopped.

"Hmm… Might as well go with my Sword ability." he became Sword Chopper and began to cut the grass around him. After beating the Lakitus, they all headed on through the next door, which brought them back into an interior room. There were stairs going up, and stairs going down. When Chopper went up the stairs, he saw a lock on the door.

"Great… It's locked. We'll have to go down then." he went down the stairs, and the flower door appeared to be unlocked.

The room up ahead was small, but it had a bunch of grass around. Chopper cut some of the grass around, and by the door was a Save Block. Chopper hit it to save his game.

"A Save Block already?" Bow gawked. "Well, it kind of feels like we're about to find something up ahead. So that's not much."

"Ya know, maybe we can find a nice flower bed to be in," Yosho grinned, looking at Bow. "Whaddya say, Bow? You an' me. That sound good?"

"Sorry, but I'm not interested in you. I'm already having my own problems…" Bow glared at Kayzee, who was floating behind Chopper. _"If she thinks she's going to get to him first, she better think again!"_

Chopper saw the door needed to be opened by hitting three red ! blocks in a specific order. Since the grass was cut, it showed numbers on the ground.

"So… That's how it's supposed to be." Chopper used a Tornado Jump to hit the middle, left, and then the right one. The door opened, allowing all eight of them to head on through. This room had some flowers on the wall and flowers on the ground. It was a field of flowers, and it looked prettier than the outside room.

"This is a pretty long field…" Chopper began to walk through the field silently. He could see the windows around as well.

"It's so pretty!" Kayzee squealed.

"Yeah, it's cool," Koopla agreed.

"Path of flowers? Pretty cool!" Yosho grinned.

"I like this, to be honest," Bruce commented.

"It's a pretty field, but it's pretty long..." Bow trailed as they continued their way through. Chopper, on the other hand, continued to stay silent, as if there was something bothering him about this area.

"Chopper… You haven't said a word right now." Parakarry said in a worried tone. "Is there something bothering you? We're all here for you if something's wrong. Maybe you can help us a little, Choppor."

"I cannot identify Chopper's feelings," C-2 Choppor stated as he caught up to Chopper. "I'm not a robot who can read minds…"

"You may speak to us whenever you feel like you can." C-2 Choppor told Chopper. Chopper's face remained the same.

"All right, c'mon! Tell us what's wrong already! We're not going to just wait for you to just spill it out. Just tell us now!" Koopla said.

Chopper was still silent, but suddenly, he thought he saw someone. It looked like the spirit of someone. It looked like a female. She had pale green skin like Chopper's a ponytail, blue eyes, a light blue headband that wrapped around the upper part of her head, light blue armor, a large, lime green collar that reached her shoulders, and leather gloves and shoes. What was also interesting about her was that she had no legs, like Chopper, but actually had an oval-shaped body. Her quiver was empty, and she didn't hold any weapons.

_"Could it possibly be…?" _Chopper thought while gaping. He saw her walking on the field of flowers, looking around. She didn't seem to pay attention to Chopper. Kayzee saw Chopper's expression changed to a surprised one. He saw that this person turned around to him…and then she disappeared.

"Chopper? What's wrong?" Kayzee asked. "It seems like something just came up on you…and you appeared to change.

Chopper blinked for a minute, and he spoke. "It felt like I just saw someone I knew ever since I was born…"

"Who exactly did you see?" Bruce asked.

"…My mother."

"Your mother?" Bow gawked. "Didn't you say something about... Wait, never mind."

"Yeah, we should go now," Parakarry suggested.

They all agreed and hurried on ahead. Chopper, on the other hand, stopped to pick up a flower before following the group. As much as he didn't want to grab one, he felt that it was necessary, and because he wanted to at least make someone feel good.

Once they reached the door, they all opened it together to find a familiar face in a small room. It was…the Bulb-ulb from before…

"**_You!_**" Chopper clenched his sword and glared angrily at the Bulb-ulb, who shrieked as it noticed them walk in.

"Huh…? How did you guys make it here? This isn't right!" the Bulb-ulb gaped.

"You're going to get it now for what you've done…" Bow growled as she readied her fan.

"Why would you attack him?" Kayzee cried. "He's just an innocent Bulb-ulb! You can't hurt him…"

"Trust me. He tried to keep us from gettin' to that city of yers." Yosho explained. "He said he'd be helpful, but he just betrayed us and ran from us like a raccoon. Yeah, there's no way he's getting' away this time."

"I'm gonna go first!" Chopper ran toward the Bulb-ulb. Kayzee covered her eyes as she flew to the back of the group. She even began to cringe when she heard the sound of a sword clinging.

Wait, clinging?

"What in the…?"

"How did he do that?"

"I thought that the stem on his head was somethin' else…"

Chopper looked shocked to see the Bulb-ulb had a sword on his flower bud. Kayzee opened her eyes and noticed the evil grin on the Bulb-ulb's face.

"Wait, so he IS evil?" Kayzee gasped.

"Of course I am!" it bellowed. "I tried to help King Lakilar get you guys to turn back, but you refused! You want to see me fight? Well, you're about to see now! I, Bulby, will take you down!"

Bulby began to swing at Chopper, but he kept blocking his attacks with his sword. However, Bulby managed to knock Chopper down. Bruce jumped toward Bulby with his Body Slam. It knocked Bulby back a little, but it managed to hit Bruce with its nose. Bulby then got hit by Koopla's shell, which knocked him to the floor. However, he got himself up and kicked Koopla toward Chopper.

Chopper immediately stopped Koopla with his foot before getting hurt and helped Koopla get back up. Parakarry got in his shell, and he used his Shell Shot attack to hit Bulby.

"Not bad… You're pretty tough, you know that?" Bulby growled as Yosho threw an egg at Bulby, followed by Bow smacking him numerous times with her fan.

"That's what happens when you try to mess with us," Bow spat. "Mostly Chopper and I!"

"It's always about you and Chopper..." Koopla groaned. "There's more to life than just a single person."

Bow gave her a snooty look as she turned away from her. Koopla face palmed and tried to get back into action and fight Bulby, who was looking at Kayzee and charging for her. This made her fly up and give Bulby a couple of punches as she flew around him. A light blue emitted from behind her as she flew, which everyone seemed to remember.

When Bulby got knocked away, C-2 Choppor walked toward him and aimed his gun at him. It seems he has a flamethrower ready to burn him.

"Surrender now and we will let you off easy, Bulby," C-2 Choppor suggested before realizing something. "No... I can't use the flamethrower. It feels wrong to burn someone, especially an enemy..."

"It's all right, Choppor," Chopper assured. "We've already won the battle..."

"Heh heh… Sure, you won. But, I still can call the Frenzyweed Boys! Ha ha ha!" Bulby cackled as he ran for the room up ahead. Everyone followed him into a dirty yellow room, where they noticed Bulby had a disappointed look as he found no one around but a little note.

"Where are the Frenzyweed Boys?!" Bubly gaped as he looked around in the room. "I swear, they should be around here! All I see is a note!"

Out of curiosity, he picked it up and began to read it.

_Dear King Lakilar,_

_Forget this place! We're not getting much from here, and it's not helping us with those stupid Dayzeeflower Girls! I mean, I'm the leader, and my two brothers mess things up! I know there's some stupid kid coming here, we don't care! He can get you if he wants! We'll beat him ourselves if we ever find him. Smell ya later!_

_The Frenzyweed Boys, a.k.a. the Super Awesome Weed Boys That Can Kick Your Butt with a Fork._

"What? Oh, crud… They even left the key here! All right, you win!" Bulby began to flee by jumping out the window. Chopper picked up the Flower Key and he put it away.

"So they left? That's nice!" Kayzee smiled. "I sure hope we don't find them around one day. That wouldn't be so good."

Kayzee found some crayons and paper and took them. "I'm holding onto this for now! I love to color anyway! Tee hee hee!"

Chopper saw some weed-like stuff from the ground, so he bent down to take a look. Koopla took a whiff from it from a distance and was left gawking.

"What a weird smell," Koopla noticed.

"That's a horrible smell!" Bow gagged, trying to cover her nose (which she doesn't have). "Please, Chopper! Can we go now!"

"Yeah! This _is_ gross!" Kayzee agreed.

"Man... Girls and horrible smells..." Bruce trailed. "Sometimes I never understand them."

"I understand 'em when I'm flirtin' with 'em," Yosho smirked.

"Not the best time to be talking, Yosho..." Parakarry trailed. "Chopper, let's just go already."

"OK!" Chopper nodded.

* * *

**Flower Path-**

After strolling through the flower path, Chopper saw the spirit of his mother again. However, it didn't seem like she was paying attention to him, so he had no other choice but to walk past her.

But then he got to the end of the path...

_"Chopper..."_

Chopper turned around and saw the spirit was gone. He looked a little sad, but then he got his game face back on. He also decided to remove his Sword ability as well.

"I'll go handle that king. I don't have time for this right now…" Chopper trailed as he left the room and got back to the room with the two staircases, where everyone else was at.

Chopper unlocked the door, and they found some spikes up ahead. Luckily, Kayzee helped Chopper across and reach the door. When they were in front of the door, Bow noticed Kayzee coloring and giggling. She wanted to get a good look at the picture.

She saw a poorly drawn picture of Kayzee, and one of Chopper. It seemed like they were holding hands for some reason. Bow had steam coming from her head as her face turned red with anger.

"Whoa, way to be a hothead, Bow," Parakarry gawked.

Bow was about to pull her fan out to smack Kayzee, but stopped for a minute. "Wait a minute... Should I really be doing this?"

"Doing what?"

"None of your business, postman," she retorted as she tried to talk in her head instead. _"Hmmm… I really have to act fast, because if Chopper goes for Kayzee, then it's over. Maybe I can woo him back..."_

Chopper tried to push the door open, but it seemed to be stuck. "Dang it. It's stuck! Can anybody give me a hand? I'm not exactly the strong type… Wait a second…"

Kayzee was about to smash the door, but Chopper's fists began to emit a flaming glow. Once he punched the door, he burnt it down.

"Geez... A little too much firepower?" Bruce winced.

"OK, let's get going!" Chopper suggested. Kayzee immediately flew on through and the rest hurried through as well. Bow was about to speak to Chopper, but they didn't have time, so they kept going.

But, Chopper dropped a flower he picked up previously before. He ran back to get it and followed the group through the door.

* * *

**Yes, that spirit was indeed Chopper's mother. Could you say it's sad for him to see the spirit of his mother? Well, sure. Though, he looked more confused than sad, actually.**

**There are SOME sad parts, because this story has things such as action, a tiny bit of romance, some sadness, and mostly humor. Yeah, that's how this is. But, I mostly like humor for this, so expect mostly humor.**

**Boss chapter is up next, so stay tuned for that, folks!**


	34. King Lakilar: Ruler of Flower Plains

After walking out of the door, they saw another field of flowers on the ground like in the other room, and it led to a big door up ahead. There was also a Save Block and Heart Block over by the door as well. Kayzee was still coloring and giggling when looking at the picture and Bruce noticed the picture and looked a little confused.

"Uh… What's that supposed to be?" Bruce asked. "I mean, you're drawing looks like that of a five year old. ...Wait, you're already five, so it would make sense. Didn't mean to offend you or anything."

"I know it's not the best thing. I don't care if my coloring isn't so great. But, wait! Don't look at my picture yet! It's a secret!" Kayzee shouted as she covered the piece of paper.

"Eh, leave her be, Bruce. If she wants to color without you seeing what she's doing, then just don't look." Parakarry suggested.

"Yeah I know. I was only curious. Nothing else really."

Chopper walked through the flowers, and he could see how high up in the palace they were. The next building across the bridge could most likely be where King Lakilar could possiby be. Koopla noticed some kind of mist floating in the sky.

"Hmmm? I see some kind of mist in the sky. What could it possibly be?"

"Mist?" Chopper looked up, but he didn't see anything. "Sorry Koopla, but I don't see any mist. Maybe it's in your imagination."

"I swear I saw somethin'…"

Many things were getting confusing now. Koopla was seeing some kind of mist, and Kayzee didn't want people seeing her picture. Bow could definitely see it, and it didn't make her happy.

_"Maybe I can get my chance during that fight,"_ Bow thought._ "I can probably get Chopper to save me, and things may go a little easier. It might work!" _

Chopper could see the City of Flowersville in a far distance, but he didn't pay much attention to it. Once they walked up to the door, Chopper hit the Heart Block first, and then the Save Block.

"OK, whatever's in the door will most likely be the king and the Star Spirit," Chopper predicted. "Let's hope this battle won't be tough. Bloopink was a little tough, but this Lakitu king could be a big threat too."

"Well what are we waiting for? Let's give that big bad Lakitu a big whooping! …And maybe do some more coloring. Hee hee…" Kayzee giggled.

"All right, that's fine. But, I was hopin' that I'd find a nice lady." Yosho sighed. "Well, it kinda stinks that I didn't. But, maybe the last Star Spirit will have somethin' fer me."

"Scanning through the room," C-2 Choppor stated as he scanned the room through the door. "Hmm… Yes, the Star Spirit is right through here. We shouldn't be afraid to go right in."

"I'm ready whenever you guys are. So, let's head on in!" Chopper pushed the door open, and he and his friends headed on into the room before them.

* * *

**Throne room-**

They found flowers around the throne room. They were pretty much everywhere, but there's also a red rug that leads to a golden throne, which appears to have a cloud bigger than a regular Lakitu's cloud. It appeared to be asleep.

A bunch of sunflowers and roses were on the walls. Chopper carefully walked through the flowers, and Kayzee simply floated over the flowers to stay quiet. C-2 Choppor's jetpack was too loud though, and the cloud opened its eyes and saw the eight. It looked angry.

"Are you the boy named Chopper? Were you the one who came to the City of Flowersville? What convinced you to come here anyway?"

Chopper noticed the cloud wasn't speaking. "All right, whoever's speaking, you better show yourself!"

"If it wasn't for you showing up here, my chances of taking over Flower Plains would be a snap!" the voice growled. "You see, I was going to have my minions cut down every single stem of the flowers in that city so it could belong to me. But I can't expect a boy of your intellect to understand…"

Suddenly, the cloud looked at Kayzee, who looked ready to battle. "Is that one of the Dayzeeflower Girls? Hmph! I expected you to get help from one of them, Chopper! But, it'll give me some practice fighting the cute one of the girls. I was given this Star Spirit by King Bowser. I'll never give it to the likes of you, Chopper. You will both witness my wrath!"

A Lakitu came up from the cloud, and he looked a little bigger than a normal Lakitu. He had a gold crown on his head with a flower sticking out, and he had a robe with flower decorations.

"Here he comes, guys!" Chopper alerted.

**Tattle: **_That's the Lakitu king, King Lakilar. He wants to rule all of Flower Plains so his power can increase. Max HP: 60, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 1. He can throw some Spinies at you, and he could even transform them into hearts to recover HP. But these Spinies are vulnerable to falling asleep, so Kayzee's Sing could help. Lakilar will try everything he can to stop you, and might even throw a Super Spiny at you. Trust me on this. He doesn't play easy._

Chopper started off by using his Power Bounce. Each time he stomped on him, a Spiny dropped from the ground. They only had about 3 HP, so it didn't look too bad for them. After about eight stomps, Chopper went back to the others, being aware of the Spinies that dropped.

"I know my Sing can help here! Watch!" Kayzee flew to King Lakilar and the Spinies and began to use her super powered Sing.

"What is she doing…?" King Lakilar got hit by her singing voice, and so did the eight Spinies. Only two remained from the attack.

"Your Majesty! I wish to take Chopper down, too! Permission to attack?" one Spiny asked.

"Yes, take him!" King Lakilar nodded.

The two Spinies went to Chopper and tried to attack him. Chopper tried his best to get them off of him. Suddenly, the Spinies got knocked away by C-2 Choppor's blast. It sent them back to King Lakilar. Chopper only took 3 damage, luckily.

"Hmmm…" King Lakilar threw hearts at the two Spinies, and they transformed into hearts. They ended up sapping onto him, and he recovered 4 HP.

Chopper used another Power Bounce, and he stomped on King Lakilar eight times once again. After that, Kayzee used her Sing on King Lakilar and the Spinies, which took out some Spinies. The last two were asleep.

King Lakilar clenched his fists and grit his teeth. "Grrrrrr! My Spinies are asleep! Stupid Dayzeeflower Girl! If you weren't here, this would be a snap!"

King Lakilar threw a Spiny at Chopper, which managed to hit him. Chopper took 6 damage from the attack as he cringed in pain.

"Hmmm… Those Spinies seem to have an ability on them…" Chopper used his Inhale ability, and he inhaled one of them. Once he swallowed the Spiny, he had a pink cap on, and his skin turned to a yellow tint. His shoes also changed to an orange color. From what he could tell, he became Needle Chopper.

"Oh yeah! I can use my needles to help me in this fight now!"

Kayzee flew to King Lakilar and punched him instead of the cloud. The cloud did get hurt, but it was Lakilar who got hurt the most by it. The Spinies that came from Lakilar, which were five of them, went to Chopper and tried to attack. Luckily, Chopper got them off of him, but then Lakilar flew to him and his cloud began to suck him in to hurt him.

Chopper tried his best to get out of this one, but he just took 3 damage from the attack. To make things easier, Chopper used Chill Out on King Lakilar and his Spinies, lowering their Attack by 3. And to get rid of the Spinies, Kayzee used her Sing on them, and she took out all of them but two, which fell asleep.

King Lakilar decided to turn the Spinies into hearts, and he used them to recover 4 HP. This got Chopper annoyed.

"This power really isn't helping me," Chopper frowned as he removed his Needle ability. "But, I'll save it for some other time."

He walked toward Lakilar and used a Power Bounce on him. After eight stomps, he stopped. King Lakilar had 21 HP left.

"Man, it stinks that we can't really do anything about this fight," Koopla sulked. "I can only attack on the ground, and Kayzee really is the only one to do well on this battle."

_"I need to remember my plan,"_ Bow thought._ "I gotta let myself try to get hurt by King Lakilar and surely then, Chopper will come to help." _

"You asked for it… Now you'll witness one of my strongest attacks!" King Lakilar boasted.

The Spinies were asleep, so they couldn't do much. King Lakilar took out a larger Spiny to make things more difficult. Luckily, for Chopper, he took this time to recover his FP, so he took out that Yoshi Fruit, and he recovered 20 HP and 15 FP.

"That attack looks dangerous. Let me help you with this." Bow made Chopper invisible to avoid getting hurt by him.

King Lakilar threw the huge Spiny, but the attack missed, making him frown. "Great... My attack missed! This isn't going to go too well for me if I keep missing..."

Chopper used his Power Bounce again, and he stomped on King Lakilar eight more times, which had more Spinies fall to the ground.

Kayzee used her Sing to hurt them again and also make the two Spinies fall asleep. "This is too easy right now! These Spinies never made a move so far!"

King Lakilar tried to suck Chopper into his cloud. However, before Chopper could even get sucked it, Bow jumped in and pushed him out of the way.

"Bow? What are you doing?!" Chopper gaped as Bow got sucked in by the cloud.

"Chopper! Do something!" Bow cried as Chopper tried to do something. But, unfortunately, Bow got sucked into the cloud. This isn't what Bow had in mind, though.

"Hey, this wasn't according to plan! I got a ghost trapped in the cloud now! Bah! I'll just attack you instead!"

King Lakilar threw a Spiny at Chopper, but he managed to avoid the attack. Unfortunately, it hit Kayzee, and she got knocked to the wall.

Kayzee fell to the ground but got up afterward. "Owie… That really hurt. Don't you think so, Bloopi?" Kayzee took Bloopi out, but she noticed the top part of Bloopi…was ripped.

"Bl-Bloopi? N-No…" Kayzee's eyes began to water up, and she began to cry.

"Ha ha ha! Oh, look! Someone just had their doll ripped!" King Lakilester laughed. "And I always imagined you as the crybaby of the Dayzeeflower Girls! I guess I was right!"

"Enough with the chit-chat, Lakilar! Let's finish this! I'm not going to let you have Bow!" Chopper was about to go jump on him, but suddenly, Kayzee began to fume

"You're going to pay for hurting Bloopi! **_Yaaaaaaaaaah!_**" Kayzee ran toward King Lakilar and then flew up to beat the crap out of him.

"What the…! Youch! Gah!" Kayzee kept punching and kicking Lakilar, and she even used her Heat Vision to set him on fire. Once Kayzee whacked him one more time, it made King Lakilar fall down, along with his cloud. Chopper received 32 Star Points from the battle and leveled up. He chose BP this time, and he now had 21 BP.

"No! I…lost? I'm a disgrace to king Bowser!" Suddenly, King Lakilar exploded, and so did his cloud. Bow came out of the cloud, lying on the ground.

Kayzee seemed to pant, still looking at Bloopi. She pretty much destroyed that king, but her doll was still ruined.

"Why did my doll have to suffer from this?" Kayzee cried.

"There there, Kayzee…" Parakarry trailed, trying to comfort her. "We'll try to get your doll fixed."

Chopper walked to Bow, who slowly opened her eyes. "Are you all right, Bow? I mean, why did you do that?"

"That… Well, I think it would be best if I didn't tell you that." Bow replied. "We defeated King Lakilar, that's what we needed to do."

"OK…" Chopper then saw a glimmering light from the throne, and it exploded. It formed into a Bowser Card that had a star with a pink bow-tie, and some books it carried.

"That's the Star Spirit… Go ahead, Chopper. You can get it now." Kayzee suggested, still having some tears down her face because of Bloopi.

Chopper nodded, and he grabbed the card. He held it up, and it began to spin around. The Bowser Card began to fade away, and the sixth Star Spirit, Klevar, was free from his prison.

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_So it is that Chopper and party defeated the evil King Lakilar and set free the sixth Star Spirit. The evil plans of King Lakilar will not come to be, and Flower Plains can at long last be peaceful again. But, there is some villainy going around in the City of Flowersville. But the two Dayzeeflower Girls will handle it all. A single Star Spirit waits to be rescued, waits to take its place in the Star Sanctuary. Perhaps you will see Princess Peach soon… Perhaps… Just wait and see. Kammy Koopa and Camikon, who are watching impatiently from Bowser's Castle, are waiting, too...for you to try to save them…_

While Chopper held the sixth Star Spirit up, Koopla noticed a mist float up to her.

"Huh? This mist again? I never thought it would... Wait... Don't get in my face!" she shouted as the pink mist nearly left her blind.

* * *

**?-**

As her vision went back to normal, she noticed she was in a bran new area. None of her friends were around, and neither was the Star Spirit. All she could see was a staircase leading to a small shrine, which was surrounded by yellow star water.

"Huh…? What is this place? I don't think I've seen a place like this before..." Koopla trailed. "Wait, how long is this exactly?"

She noticed a bunch of Stars floating around. Near the shrine, with Star Kids playing in the water, three Stars were there.

"I wonder what's going on there…" Koopla wonder as she crossed the star bridge and got to the two Stars. One had a monocle and top hat, and the other had sunglasses. The third one looked like a female star, due to the bow on her head.

"So this is the place that the Star Kids hang out at, huh? It looks pretty nice for them…" the Star with the sunglasses noted.

"It sure is! Aren't they just adorable playing around? I'm so glad that the Star God is here to watch over them!" the female Star cheered.

"Star God? Oh, you mean the one around up there?" the Star with the top hat gawked. "That star water seems to be it."

"_Star God? Are they possibly talking about…Staris?"_ Koopla thought._ "I never knew Staris would be THIS old… It's odd." _

"It's a good thing nothing bad has gone wrong. Because if something went wrong, that Star God might possibly become evil and destroy everything…"

"Oh, that's terrible! I'm sure the Star Spirits will handle things, though. They know what they're doing most of the time."

Koopla blinked three times, and suddenly, her vision began to get blurry. "Not again! Aw, come on!"

With that, the vision of this strange area began to fade away.

* * *

**Yeah, C-2 Choppor isn't the only one to get that vision! This one was a little different. Not every one of Chopper's partners will get this though. Don't expect this in ever single boss chapter!**


	35. Chapter 6 Interlude

In Peach's room, Peach saw the window open, and Camikon came flying out. He had his wand away right now, since he wasn't using it for magic. From what the princess could tell, he didn't look happy, which made her feel a little worried.

"Gah… I can't believe Chopper's beaten King Lakilar!" Camikon grumbled. "He's only got one Star Spirit left to find! But… Chopper's REAL challenge is about to begin! You hear me, Princess?"

"Chopper only has one Star Spirit left to find?" Peach gasped. "Then… He's almost done!"

"That's a bad thing. But I happen to know who's guarding the final Star Spirit. The **Crystal King **is someone that you don't want to have for an enemy." Camikon took his wand out, and an icy aura appeared inside the wand. "Isn't that right, Crystal King?"

_"Oh, yes… This Chopper does seem to be a good challenge."_ a chilly voice hissed._ "If he wants to make it to **Crystal**** Palace **in **Shiver**** Mountain**, it's going to take a lot. The entrance to Shiver Mountain has been sealed off. But, if he makes it, I will gladly take care of him." _

"Nyeah heh heh heh… Excellent. Bowser and Lord Maquano will be proud! There's no way Chopper can get to the Star Spirit now!"

_"I also noticed that some ghost demon guy came falling down here. I heard him saying that he was angry about being thrown out. I think he said something about becoming a boss."_

"Bob? Oh, forget him. He's Maquano's idiot brother. Just…leave him to freeze. He's annoying."

The magic from Camikon's wand faded away afterward. "Everything's in perfect order. I shall go higher up in the castle for now. Princess Peach, don't leave this room like last time!"

Camikon left Peach's room. With him out, Twink flew back. Peach thought that now was the perfect opportunity to leave.

"Hey… Twink. You know that Sneaky Parasol I got from behind that table?" Peach recalled. "I can change into someone else when I use it, right? So maybe it would be a good idea to use it right now."

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea! You should try it out. You remember how to use it, right?" Twink asked.

"Of course I do! I just go behind someone and I press (B) to transform into them. C'mon, let's go test it out!"

Peach left the room by using the secret passage, and when they were in the hallway, they saw the Koopatrols not using their flashlights. They were apparently talking to each other.

Peach sneaked behind a Koopatrol, and she transformed into one. Now with that, she could roam around without having the Koopatrols take her back to her room.

_"This is just excellent! No one notices that I'm not really a Koopatrol!" _Peach thought.

Peach walked to one of the Koopatrols and talked to him. "Hey. How goes it? Phew… They've been working me like a dog lately…"

"That's a shame..." Peach trailed.

"Yeah, it kind of... Wait, what's with your voice? Do you have a cold or something?"

"Ummmm... Yes! I have a cold!"

"Whoa! Then stay away from me! I don't want to get your cold!"

Peach sighed in relief as she and Twink simply went up the stairs ahead and spoke to the Koopatrol there, who let them through, thinking she was on patrol. After walking up to a smaller hallway with a couple of windows, she reached a Koopatrol that was standing in front of the door, giving her an irritated look as she walked to him.

"Where's my relief already? My shift has been over for ages now!" the Koopatrol complained. "Listen… A Hellspawn was supposed to come here to guard, and he hasn't shown up! Could you go find him and get him up here? Please! I'm exhausted! I'm sure he's outside of the castle. Take this key to get to him, all right?"

The Koopatrol gave Peach a Castle Key. "You'll need this key to unlock the door to the entrance of Peach's Castle."

Peach and Twink headed back to the hallway where the doors with the kitchen were. The door to the bottom was locked, so Peach used the key to unlock it. Outside of the castle, they could see a Hellspawn asleep. He slowly opened his eyes and noticed Peach as a Koopatrol standing in front of him.

"Huh? Oh, listen, Koopatrol… I'm a little tired." the Hellspawn yawned. "Don't tell anyone or even Lord Maquano and Camikon. I'm just so tired…"

"If he won't go, maybe you can disguise yourself as him," Twink suggested.

Peach changed back, but the Hellspawn noticed her, making her gasp.

"Huh? Peach? No… I must be dreaming…"

"Phew…" Peach felt relieved that she wasn't caught. So, she used her Sneaky Parasol on him, and she changed into the Hellspawn.

Now that she's the Hellspawn, she headed up to the Koopatrol to talk to him. The Koopatrol felt relieved to see her.

"Ah! Finally! About time, you fiery lizard dragon thing! I've been waiting here for a long time for you to show up, and now you decide to come! So, you take your shift now."

The Koopatrol began to walk away, but he turned around, shouting, "And don't even think about goofing off, either!" before leaving.

Peach walked through another small hallway where she saw a couple of windows. One was apparently fixed up and brand new compared to the others.

"I'm so glad the window's fixed. I hated it when Bowser broke through it. But, that was before." Peach sighed.

After climbing a staircase in the next room, she got onto the roof, where she saw two Koopatrols and a door to the left, leading to a small little tower. The door opened, and Kammy Koopa came out. Peach immediately lined up with the other Koopatrols.

"OK, OK. Everything's finally ready. Even if Chopper shows up with all of the Star Spirits, we'll still be all right! It pays to expect the worst." Kammy grinned.

"Absolutely! Affirmative! You're right, Kammy Koopa!" the troops nodded as Kammy began to walk along before taking a look at Peach.

"Mmm! You there!" Peach jumped up in fear as the hag looked at her. "You're doing a fine job. Keep up the good work!"

"Hold on a second, Kammy!" Camikon flew down to Kammy on his broomstick. "I was checking to see where that Hellspawn was, and I saw him sleeping outside the castle! And that Hellspawn happens to look like him!"

"Hmm… You may be onto something, Camikon!" Kammy noticed as she took a sniff from Peach. "You! You smell…too nice…"

"All Hellspawns don't have a good smell, you know. They smell like fire!" Camikon snarled.

"Yahhhh!" Kammy raised her wand as purple lightning zapped down on Peach, changing her back to herself.

"Uh-oh!" Peach gulped.

"You… Why you little… Princess Peach! Unbelievable! You're out again! Guards! All of you! Catch this little runaway and take her back to her room!"

The two Koopatrols picked up Peach while crying, "Noooo!" They carried her all the way back to her room. Twink was behind the roof, and he followed her. Kammy and Camikon watched the Koopatrols take Peach all the way back to her roof.

"This is the last time we're going to let that brat leave her room!" Kammy growled.

"What do you plan on doing?" Camikon asked.

"Oh, you'll see... And I'm sure it'll work!"

* * *

**City of Flowersville-**

Chopper and his friends were back at the Dayzeeflower Girls' house, and Kayzee was at the front door with a worried look. Blayzee and Tayzee were floating by her, telling her not to worry at all.

"You should really stop playing with that stupid doll anyway," Tayzee suggested.

"Tayzee! Don't be rude!" Blayzee snapped.

"I'm sorry, Miss Goody-Two-Shoes!"

Before Blayzee and Tayzee could get into an argument, Professor Plutonium came out of the house, and Kayzee immediately flew to him.

"Is he going to be all right, Professor?" Kayzee asked.

"Bloopi's just fine. He's good as new!" Plutonium held the fixed Bloopi in front of Kayzee, and she grabbed it and hugged it.

"Bloopi! You're all nice and squishy!" Kayzee squealed, while hugging Bloopi.

"It didn't take too much for me to fix it. Now he's just the way you liked him."

"Thank you, Professor!" Kayzee squealed as she hugged him.

"I still think that doll is stupid," Tayzee grumbled.

Meanwhile, Chopper and his group of friends were talking to the Star Spirit the freed, Klevar.

"What a pleasure meeting you. My name is Klevar. Thank you for saving me." Klevar thanked. "King Lakilar is gone, so any problems going on with him are no longer a problem to Flower Plains. I feel if you hadn't come, Flower Plains would have been under Lakilar's rule. Now there is only one of us Star Spirits trapped. Just one more, Chopper!"

"Yeah, there's only one more left!" Chopper smiled. "The Mushroom Kingdom should be saved in no time!"

"Here… Please use my Power as you continue your fight." Klevar raised his arms as he gave Chopper his power, making sparkles rain down on the boy.

**Chopper's Star Energy goes up to 6! Chopper can now use Time Out, a new Star Spirit Power! With Time Out, you can stop time—and stop all enemies in their tracks!**

"Now you are able to use the Powers of six Star Spirits. If you use mine well, it should prove to be extremely helpful in battle. Don't become overconfident, though. You must be careful. Bowser has power, as well. Remember that even stronger enemies await you… I hope our Powers will help you so that you may help us… We're all depending on you!

"Don't worry, it will help. The Star Spirits' powers usually come in handy."

"Good! Now… I'll go back to Star Haven now. I can't wait to get there! I've been terribly worried about everyone…"

Klevar flew back up to Star Haven. After waving goodbye to the sixth Star Spirit, they heard the Dayzeeflower Girls talking.

"I wonder what they're talking about…" Bruce pondered.

"Guys…" Koopla spoke up. "It kind of feels like I had some kind of vision of…some kind of different area that I've never seen. It looked like a home world for Stars.

"What? Are you sure about this?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah, I'm sure. It's like some pink mist came to me, and it suddenly showed me a brand new area."

"Really? That doesn't make much sense..."

"Well I did, whether you believe me or not."

"Hmm… I thought I've seen something like that…" C-2 Choppor recalled. "But, now's not the time to be talking about something like that."

"At least I'm not the only one…"

Chopper turned to Bow, giving her a shy look. "Bow… I was able to find something while walking around in some flowers. I thought it would be nice for you."

He took out a rose and gave it to her. "You really thought I'd like this? Of course I like it! Roses are my favorite kinds of flowers!"

"I only found one, so I thought you'd want it. So, I gave it to you." Unfortunately, for Chopper, he got squeezed by the Boo princess.

"Thank you, Chopper…" Bow thanked. _"__So this whole time he did care…even when that Dayzee was with us. I guess I didn't have to do that_."

Blayzee, Kayzee, and Tayzee flew over to the group, with Kayzee looking the most excited.

"I want to come with you all," Kayzee declared. "Yeah, I know it's something you probably expected, but I want to see what's out there."

"Sure, you can come," Chopper nodded. "I mean, you really handled that Lakitu king well…even if it was pretty violent."

"Tee hee hee! OK! I'll join you all!" she giggled cutely as she flew over to her new friends.

"Now, Kayzee… You must be careful out there." Plutonium advised. "If you ever need us, you can always come back here."

"Make sure you don't lose your doll!" Blayzee suggested. "And another thing you should know about... You-"

"You don't have to keep talking," Kayzee groaned. "Ugh, you're such a bore-snore!"

"Make sure you give those bad guys you see a beating of a lifetime!" Tayzee suggested. "And maybe some day you'll get rid of that dumb doll too!"

"No way! I love Bloopi! You can't do a thing about it!"

"I think we should get going right now," Parakarry suggested.

"See ya guys-er, I mean two girls and guy," Chopper said as he took off, no longer being squeezed by Bow. Koopla followed Chopper next, and so did the others. Kayzee waved goodbye, and she flew off with the group.

"Good-bye, Chopper," Blayzee sighed as she turned away. _"__It's a shame I didn't get to talk to him much. Kayzee actually seemed to like him, and most of the time I don't get to hang out with many people. Maybe someday I'll go on an adventure too..."_

"Good luck out there, Chopper," Tayzee said. "_You're going to need it you green freak…_"

"Tayzee, what have I told you about name-calling?!" Plutonium scolded.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

While they were back at Toad Town, Chopper thought maybe it would be a good idea to go back to the Dojo, so he headed there first before doing anything else. His partners followed him too.

Chopper spoke to The Master, who looked up and was surprised to see him again. "_Cough…hack… _Ah, Chopper, you've returned. For what purpose did you come here today?"

"I want to fight again," Chopper replied.

"Very well. This time, Lee will fight you. Now, Lee… Let me see how you handle Chopper."

"Certainly, sir! I will defeat him, Master!" Lee nodded before turning his attention to Chopper. "Hey, Chopper! I bet you've never seen a move like this!"

Lee used his shape-shifting powers to turn into Bow. Everyone gaped, especially Bow.

**Tattle: **_This is Lee, of the Dojo. He's training under The Master and is happy to fight us. Max HP: 20, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 0. He has mastered the art of disguise, so don't let it faze you when he suddenly mirrors us. Remember, he can't stay disguised forever. Don't let his strange tactics throw you off guard, no matter how many times he_ _transforms._

_This is Lee disguised as Bow. Lee has disguised himself as Bow perfectly, so his attack power is the same as Bow's usual power. That Smack attack is brutal! Oh, how cruel!_

"With my Ultra Shoes, this shouldn't be much of a problem!" Chopper stomped on Lee, or rather, the transformed Bow. For some reason, Chopper didn't feel as good attacking.

"Who does he think he is, shape-shifting into me?" Bow fumed. "I'll give him the smack of a lifetime! In fact, I'll use my fan on him!"

Bow floated toward her copy and took her fan out. She smacked her copy five times, and each attack dealt 2 damage. So, all together, that's 10! The Bow copy floated over to Chopper, and she began to use her Smack. Luckily, Chopper guarded the six Smacks, which did nothing to him.

"And now to finish this easy fight up!" With two stomps, Chopper became victorious. Lee changed back to his normal self as well with a dazed expression..

"Enough! Chopper is the winner." The Master announced. "Lee, you must train harder."

"I think that's enough for now. I'll see you some other time, Master!" Chopper and the others left the Dojo, while Chan walked over to Lee.

"So... It looks like he managed to best both of us..." Chan trailed.

"Yes... Just like we predicted." Lee moaned as he got up. "But... Does he have what it takes to beat...The Master?"

* * *

**Eastern Toad Town-**

"Chopper!" a Toad shouted as the eight walked into the eastern area of Toad Town. "Great timing. Somebody was looking for you. He's over at Merlon's house."

"Really? Someone wants to see me at Merlon's house?" Chopper gasped.

"Yeah! And you know, if you're being led into Merlon's house, then that means he might know where another Star Spirit is!"

"Another Star Spirit!" Kayzee squealed. "What are we waiting for?! We need to go now!"

With that, everyone hurried to Merlon's house. They saw someone else in the house as well. It was a black Ninji waiting for them.

"Oh, it's you!" Merlon gasped. "You came at such a good time. There's a guest waiting for you."

"Nice to meet you," greeted the Ninji. "I come from **Starborn**** Valley**. Starborn Valley is in the Shiver region, a chill place far to the north, at the very end of the earth. Merle, who hails from there, said that he had something important to tell you, Chopper."

"Merle of Starborn Valley is my son, Chopper. It seems he's calling for you. If he is searching for you, you can be sure something important is afoot. You must go to Starborn Valley! Do not delay!"

"Yes, please hurry! I will run ahead and take tidings of you to Merle." the Ninji said as he left Merlon's house.

"I think somewhere deep below Toad Town is a pipe connected to **Shiver**** City**. Starborn Valley is located quite near Shiver City. Chopper…hurry to meet my son. He waits in Starborn Valley."

"All right, we'll do that! I think I saw some pipe south of here…" Chopper pondered. "We should go check it out!"

Everyone agreed and went to the southeastern area of Toad Town to find a mysterious pipe. When they went down it, it led them into the sewers, which had a couple of pipes, and a gray floor.

"This place is kind of icky…" Kayzee gagged.

"Aren't sewers meant to be all smelly an' all that jazz? Hey, there's a hole over there!" Yosho looked down the hole, and it appeared to lead deeper into the sewers. They headed down the hole, and they found water up ahead. Since the water's sewage, Chopper refused to go in there.

"I'll take care of this!" Kayzee flew Chopper to the other side, and she soon helped the others get over afterward.

"I remember there used to be a big Blooper around here," Parakarry recalled. "But it doesn't look like it's here now."

They found spikes in the next area, but there was also another path they could go with a couple of Goth Troopas lurking around. Since Chopper thought it would be better to check the spiked path, Kayzee flew him over to the pipe across the pipe and went down it.

There appeared to be a path over sewage around after coming out of the pipe, so Chopper avoided the Spinies around him and smashed the Stone Block to the left after making his way through the path. The next area had blocks on the ground that appeared to be covered in water. Chopper didn't have a clue what they were.

"Those are some weird looking blocks…" Parakarry trailed.

"Yeah, they are. Let's just keep going." Chopper headed on through the doorway ahead, smashing the Metal Block in his way. Up ahead, a big chest appeared in front of Chopper. He opened the chest, and some gloves popped out. They appeared to have an icy glow around them.

"Hmmm?" Chopper held them up, but he couldn't hold onto them any longer because of the cold feeling in them.

**You got the Ultra Gloves! The attack power on Chopper's Hand ability increases! Not only can you use fire, but now you can use ice to freeze enemies! You can even freeze water with ice!**

Chopper felt the gloves on him after putting them on, and they felt cold. Eventually he got a little used to them. The good thing, however, was that his Fire Hand was not gone.

"Brrrrr!" Chopper shivered as he hurled an ice ball to the wall, making a chunk of ice appear and eventually shatter.

"Hmmm… You can use ice now. Maybe that will freeze those water blocks." C-2 Choppor stated.

"Let's check, then!" Chopper headed back to the previous area and shot an ice ball at the water block. It became frozen. Chopper smashed the block with his hammer afterward, and a Life Shroom popped out, which he immediately took, knowing that Life Shrooms are VERY helpful.

Returning to the pipe, they jumped down to the area that they didn't go to, and they saw a light blue door in the next area…across more sewage.

"Hmmmmm... Did this part of the sewers get flooded?" Bow gawked. "If I could recall, it wasn't anything like this..."

"I guess this is why I need to use my Ice Hand," Chopper shot an ice ball at the water and it froze it in a matter of seconds. "All right, let's go quickly! The ice will break pretty soon!" Chopper quickly headed over to the door, and the others skated across the ice to follow him.

Chopper opened the door, and they all headed in. They found a pipe in the next room, so they jumped in there. But, once they came out, they noticed the sewers…were kind of frozen. There was no sign of sewage.

"Brrrrr! It's so cold! Don't you think it's cold, Bloopi?" Kayzee shivered as she looked at Bloopi and cuddled it so it would make him and herself warm.

"Yeah, it's pretty cold here!" Koopla shivered. "I wish I came a little prepared..."

"Hey, an Upgrade Block!" Chopper walked to the Upgrade Block and gave it a good whack. He decided to go with Parakarry for this one.

"Really? Oh, that's just weak right there…" Bruce whimpered.

With that, Parakarry became Ultra Ranked. That left only Koopla and Bruce to be upgraded.

"Thank you, Chopper! Now I'm Ultra Ranked!" Parakarry cheered.

"Good thing I got this jacket on, or else I'd be freezin'!" Yosho sneezed. He noticed that his snot turned into icicles. "Holy… Did icicles just come out of my nose?"

"No, that was snotcicles," Chopper shrugged, receiving strange looks from everyone else. "Umm… Yeah, I made that up."

"It's getting cold here! Let's just go up that pipe ahead!" Kayzee flew over to the pipe up the the small staircase.

"My scanners indicate we'll be in Shiver City," C-2 Choppor stated. "But… I don't know if it's REALLY a city. But, I guess they call it that."

"What are we doing sitting here? Let's go through that pipe and get the last Star Spirit!" Koopla exclaimed.

Chopper jumped up the stairs and entered the pipe along with his friends. They knew that since this was the last Star Spirit for them to find, it would be considered the toughest as well.


	36. A Murder Case in Shiver City

**CHAPTER 7**

**-A Star Spirit on Ice-**

Chopper came out of the pipe, relieved that he was out of the sewers. He was also relieved about being cold in there. But, the cold doesn't end here for them. Chopper saw snow coming down from the sky, and snow on the ground. The houses around were brown and made of brick, and the roofs were covered in snow. There were even some snowmen between the houses. He noticed some penguin people called Bumpties gawking at Chopper. Maybe it's because he's a lot different than anyone else in the Mushroom Kingdom.

After Chopper jumped off the pipe, he began to shiver. His friends came out of the pipe as well, but were shivering from the cold as well.

"This place… I hope it doesn't make me freeze." C-2 Choppor said worriedly.

When Parakarry put his hand on the top of C-2 Choppor's head, he immediately brought his hand back as he screeched.

"Whoa! That kinda stings right there!" Parakarry said, rubbing his hand after touching C-2 Choppor.

"Am I too hot, Parakarry? Because that's usually when someone reacts like that. But, it's not hot out here…"

"No, it's not that. You're too cold! Yeah, the snow must be affecting you here... So, guys, don't touch Choppor. If you do, get ready for something REALLY cold…"

"At least this weather doesn't affect me so much," Bow chuckled as she fanned herself. "Since I'm already a ghost, I shouldn't be shivering. But, I can always help you if you're cold, Chopper."

"Nah, I'm good. I can just use my fireball to keep me warm." Chopper smiled as he made a fireball appear from his hand and kept it a safe distance. He was starting to feel warm from it as well.

"Ah, yes… That's the spot. Now I don't feel so cold. Perhaps fire will be helpful in a place like this."

"No kidding. I wish I could use fire." Koopla groaned. "I only have my Dizzy Shell attack, but I was hoping I could do something with fire!"

"You might get your chance to use fire," Bruce noted. "All I want to do is blow up some enemies! But, I can't keep thinking about Bombette going here…"

Kayzee cuddled Bloopi as much as she could, trying to prevent him from freezing. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like it was working too well when she noticed it was starting to feel cold.

"Oh no… Bloopi is feeling cold!" Kayzee cried. "Chopper, can you warm him up?"

Chopper shrugged, and he brought the fireball he made near Bloopi, which began to heat the doll up and prevent it from getting cold.

"OK, there you go. Now… I wonder where we should go." Chopper walked around the area of Shiver City, and he talked to one of the Bumpities.

"Yah, hello! This is the northernmost burg, Shiver City." the Bumpty explained before Chopper said he wasn't from here. "What? You come from a faraway planet? Very, very far away, yah? Welcome to Shiver City."

"Which way is your uh…leader?" Chopper asked.

"Yah, he is to the left. It's the big house at the end. You can't miss it."

"Thank you. I think it would be a good idea to go there." Chopper headed on to the left, and his friends followed him. Once they made it to a bigger house than the others, they walked in through the front door. They could see a lavender Bumpty with an apron in the room, which had a light green carpet, a small table, and a book shelf. Since it was likely a mayor was in this city, this was most likely his wife.

"Oh, we have some guests! Welcome!" the Mayor's wife greeted as she noticed the group was cold. "You poor little boy, you must be freezing! If you'd like to see my husband, he's in the other room. Please, go right in."

"Well, thanks! Let's go see the mayor!" Chopper opened the door, and he and his friends went into the next room. There was a chimney, and some pictures on the wall. A Mayor wearing a brown, warm hat noticed their arrival.

"Oh! Hello there! You must be new to this place, am I right?" the Mayor asked.

"Yeah, we are," Koopla nodded.

"It's great to see some guests around here, especially from outsiders!"

"We were wondering if you knew something about a Star Spirit," Chopper wondered.

"Let me just take a quick sip of my hot coca, and I'll be with you in a second," the Mayor got his mug took a sip. "Now, then… What can I…"

However, before the Mayor could continue, his eyes widened, and he fell over on the floor without moving an inch.

"Mayor…?" Chopper looked down at the mayor. No reply. Mayor Penguin's body didn't budge an inch. Wait, the mug looked brand new, and it had the word "Jerry" on it.

"Is he...dead?" Yosho gawked.

"But... How can someone die from a sip of hot cocoa?" Parakarry questioned. "That makes no sense!"

"The mug has the word 'Jerry' on it too," Chopper noticed. "What just happened?"

"Darling, would you like a cup of tea?" Everyone froze when the Mayor's wife came in the room and noticed her husband lying on the ground. "…Hmm? Oh… Dear, you know you'll catch a cold if you sleep there!"

She walked over to the Mayor and looked down at him. Her eyes widened as she noticed he didn't bulge.

"Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" she cried as she ran out of the room and ran outside. "Help! Somebody! Anybody! My husband is dead! He's been murdered! It's a penguin murder mystery!"

C-2 Choppor scanned the mug with the hot cocoa spilled on the floor and noticed something. "Hmm… My scanners indicate that…there was _**poison**_ in it! And that mug is new! Jerry is the once who made that mug."

"You really think? Wait… Did she say that her husband was…_murdered_?" Chopper gaped.

"Murdered? But… He wasn't murdered!" Kayzee objected.

"What's going on here, madam?" another voice called. This voice sounded like a different person. "Just calm down, now. You need to speak slowly so I can get to the bottom of this."

The Mayor's wife and a green Bumpty with a snow cap came back into the room. The Mayor's wife pointed to the mayor's dead body.

"My husband is dead! Look at him lying there! Oh, my darling husband! Somebody clipped his flippers!"

"Clipped his flippers?" Chopper gawked, looking at the Mayor's body. "They don't look clipped..."

The Bumpty, known as Penguin Patrol, walked over to the Mayor and took a look at his body. He looked quite shocked.

"By puffin, you're right! The Mayor's been murdered!" Penguin Patrol gaped. "This is like a mystery novel! Except that this is real! How tragic! But madam, if I may ask… Who on earth would have reason to put this penguin on ice?"

The Mayor's wife pointed to Chopper, which caused him to jump up a little. "Him! Right there! That little pale green boy with the suspicious antennas! I told him not to come in the house, but he barged right in! My husband was alive right up until this boy showed up! He must be the murderer!"

"Hey, you… Antennas! Are you listening? This good woman's accusing you. What do you say for yourself?"

"What? I didn't kill him!" Chopper objected. "Why on earth would I do that? In fact, I know what happened. I saw it with my own eyes!"

"Yeah, because you were the one to put him down!" the Mayor's wife retorted. "Murderers see the death of the person that they are _killing_!"

"This good woman's right! Don't try to play ignorant with me, buddy." Penguin Patrol suggested. "I'm a professional. We've got a witness here. Isn't that right, madam?"

"Yes! That's right! He did it in cold blood! I, uh…saw it with my own eyes! Besides, he's the only one who came into this room! It all adds up!"

"Hey, what now? That's not true!" Yosho objected. "You weren't even in the room! We know what happened in here!"

"Yosho's right! My friends here even know what happened as well!" Chopper agreed.

"So you're sticking to your story, claiming you're not the culprit," Penguin Patrol questioned, crossing his arms.

"That's right," Chopper nodded.

"Chopper didn't hurt this poor mayor!" Kayzee defended. "You guys are being meanies, treating him like he's a bad guy, even though you don't even have evidence!"

"I was in the room with him this whole time!" Bow stepped in. "I know for a fact that Chopper didn't touch the Mayor. We all saw him drink hot coca, and he fell right on the ground."

"Man, I can't believe you all refuse to believe Chopper. I mean, really! You honestly THINK a child would kill someone?" Bruce gawked.

"Well… It could happen…" Penguin Patrol pondered. "Hmm… If you're all telling the truth, then we're dealing with a backroom murder case. Oh, I never trained for this… A backroom murder case… A high-ranking penguin slain… How could a horrible plot twist hit our peaceful day? You! Mr. Antennas! You swear you didn't do this?"

"Yeah, I swear. I saw the mayor drink hot coca, and he fell to the ground." Chopper said, nodding to the penguin.

"Hmm… Well, there does seem to be some hot coca spilled on the carpet, and the Mayor seemed to be holding it. OK… I think I believe you. But this means we have to find the true murderer…" Penguin Patrol pondered. "Ah! Perfect! I'll give you a chance. Since you claim that you're not the guilty party, then you must bring me the murderer yourself! If you do that, I'll believe you. It's the only way… All right, off with you. You haven't proved that you're innocent yet, so I must forbid you to leave the city."

"All right… Come on, guys. Let's go find out who killed him…" Chopper suggested.

"Being accused of killing someone... Yeah, that's a first." Koopla frowned. "We better go see this Jerry and see if he's the one responsible for this."

"Good idea. Let's go get some clues and solve this uh…mystery." Chopper left the house with the others following him. They knew that this would indeed be some big mystery, due to being blamed for a crime, but it didn't seem like Herringway would do it. That's the Mayor's best friend. Could it be this Jerry person?

Chopper and his friends came out of the Mayor's house, all of them sighing because of what they need to do. They were forced to go find out who killed the Mayor…when he actually died of the hot coca. Koopla didn't really want to find out about this mystery, but when C-2 Choppor told Chopper that poison was in the drink, he thought there was something fishy going on. Yeah, _very_ fishy…

"You know guys… That mug had the name 'Jerry' on it. Do you think there's a Jerry around Shiver City?" Chopper asked.

"I'd rather not do this. I would rather get arrested." Koopla stated. "Yeah, I know it's weird for me to say that, but I hate doin' mysteries. Also, I hate it when it's cold."

"You sure don't like a lot of thing, Koopla," Bruce noticed. "Is there anything you actually LIKE? I'm not saying you hate everything…"

"Well, I like to beat up some bad guys, I like to use my shell to break things, and I like to use my shell on Fuzzies, because they're annoying. Yeah, I think those are things I like."

"I can't believe those penguins HAD to accuse us of bein' murderers!" Yosho cried. "It ain't right to be callin' us murderers! Yer right, Chopper. We gotta find out who killed the Mayor, an' fast! We gotta get the last Star Spirit!"

"Yes, I would have to agree with Yosho and Chopper," Parakarry nodded. "That mug with the name on it looked pretty suspicious. Yep, _really _suspicious…"

"There's no way we can be locked up! They're thinking we're the bad guys, when we're really the good ones!" Kayzee's eyes began to water up. "That's really really mean!"

"Uh oh… Kayzee, you're beginning to cry. That's not good…at all." Bruce's eyes widened as he noticed the tears.

"Oh, it seems to be something in my eye…" Kayzee lied, despite everyone knowing she was going to cry.

"Anyway, how are we supposed to know where this Jerry lives? Maybe that mug could be named after one of his sons or something." Bow pondered.

"Choppor, maybe you can help us if there is a penguin named Jerry. You can search through data of people, right?" Chopper asked.

"Affirmative. Searching for name: Jerry. Species: Bumpty." C-2 Choppor began to search. "One result found! Jerry lives in the eastern part of Shiver City. My scanner indicates that he is there right now, making a mug."

Kayzee stopped crying. "So… The robot that looks like Chopper knows where who this Jerry lives?"

"It looks like it. We should head there now." Parakarry suggested.

Chopper nodded, and he noticed four Bumpties talking, s he walked over there and he listened to what they were saying.

"Mayor Penguin was murdered! In his back room! And no one has the slightest idea who did it!" one cried.

"Oh! It can't be! It's like we're in one of Herringway's mystery novels!" another gasped. "How could such a terrible thing happen in such a small, peaceful city? Who could do such a thing?"

"The Mayor's wife said the pale green boy with the two antennas did it," the third mentioned. "And he seemed to be such a nice person, too. Still, I guess you shouldn't trust anyone who carries such a huge Hammer and elemental-powered Gloves."

"Brrr! How terrifying!" the fourth shuddered. "It just goes to show you that you should never trust your first impression of people."

Chopper ignored what they said, and he and his partners moved east. After going through the middle area of town, they went to the next area, which had a rather tall house when they first got there. A Bumpty was standing there, so they walked over to him.

"This is Herringway's house. He's a novelist. He actually moved his things downstairs after a man with a mustache discovered his secret room. His brother, Jerry, is at the upper floor. But, he hasn't been out in days…"

"Hmmm…" Chopper looked through the window, and he could see Herringway, who had weird white eyebrows, writing some new stories for his next novel. He also saw that the pond that used to have ice on there was still broken after Mario hit it. But, there was a red ? block floating above the water.

"I better freeze this pond…" he shot an ice ball at the pond, and it began to freeze up. Chopper used his Tornado Jump to hit the block, and a shield Badge with Chopper on it with an ice glow around it appeared. He picked it up, and he saw that it was the Ice Shield Badge, which prevents him from becoming frozen.

After that, they headed into the warehouse, which had a small room on the first floor with a brown floor and some stairs going up. They simply went up the stairs and found a spring.

"If we use this spring, we will most likely get a chance to make it to the room Jerry is in," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "Let's hope if he's the one behind all of this…"

"Well the mug had the name 'Jerry' on it, so it could make sense," Chopper pointed out. "I have a feeling he put poison in the hot coca too!"

"Let's go find him then! We can't waste our time right now!" Bow suggested. Chopper jumped on the spring, and it took him all the way up to the chimney. He found himself in the room now.

"Hmmm…" Once Chopper took a step, he began to slide off the roof and landed on another roof. The roof of Herringway's house.

"Hey… I think we could get in from here…" Chopper said as he saw Koopla, Bruce, and Yosho slide over to him, while they others flew over to him. Once Chopper jumped on the chimney, he ended up falling in. Bow disappeared to get to him, while they others went down the chimney to follow him.

* * *

**Inside-**

Chopper was covered in soot when he landed, and a green penguin with crazy eyebrows noticed him fall in. Bow appeared in the room and helped Chopper up while he got the soot off himself.

"What in the…? Why are you in my fireplace?" the Bumpty named Jerry asked. "You found my secret room…through the chimney…ingenious…"

Chopper stepped out of the way as the rest of his friends piled up in the fireplace as well, covered in soot.

"Ooh… This ain't good for me… I'm covered in soot!" Yosho frowned.

"Oh, no! I'm covered in soot!" Kayzee cried.

"Well, this stinks," Koopla groaned.

"There are others too?" Jerry gaped. "Gah… This isn't really becoming a secret now."

"OK, you're Jerry, right?" Chopper asked.

"Yes, I am Jerry. I make mugs. My brother's best friend is the Mayor. In fact, I was running against him to be mayor of this city. Unfortunately, I lost to him…by a lot. Apparently not many people wanted me to become mayor. Oh, yeah, I was angry all right..."

"Well, I found out that the Mayor's been murdered…though he drank hot coca and he collapsed. That mug had your name on it, didn't it?"

"The Mayor's been murdered? Oh, boy… This isn't good. ...Wait a minute! Are you accusing me of killing him?"

"My scanners told me there was poison in his drink," informed C-2 Choppor. "And that poison was probably from the powder. You _do _give that brown powder, right?"

"Yes, it comes with it. But that doesn't mean I did it! Let's go to his house and see what it is, then!"

Jerry went to the wall, and he pressed a button. Stairs appeared, and he went down them. So, Chopper and his friends followed the Bumpty back to the Mayor's house to put an end to this mystery once and for all.

* * *

**Mayor's house-**

"Oh, you again," Penguin Patrol noticed Chopper, his friends, and Jerry come in. "Have you come up with anything? Hmm…! Say, isn't that the penguin behind you the mug maker named Jerry?"

"The Mayor's mug had Jerry's name on it," Chopper explained. "He even said that powder stuff comes with the hot coca. It's most likely it's him."

"What-what! You're saying that Jerry was the one to murder Mayor Penguin? Hmm… Well, he did lose to him when running for mayor... But, he's not one to kill someone."

"Why would I try to kill him?" Jerry questioned. "Sure, I lost against him when running for mayor, and I wasn't quite happy with it, but I didn't do it!"

"Mmm… Yes… That's quite true… Ah ha! But that was just a cover so that no one would suspect you of this heinous crime! That's it, isn't it? I've solved this crafty mystery!"

"I'd just like to say that I still think the pale green boy with the antennas is the murderer," the Mayor's wife informed.

Jerry gave a small chuckle. "OK, fine… You got me. I REALLY did do it! You see, I've been angry these many years after losing against him, and I WANTED to become mayor. I decided to make a mug and give the Mayor it with the powder. However, I added poison into it, so when he would die, _I _could become mayor! Yes, you were right the whole time, little boy."

"Wh-What? B-But…why?" Penguin Patrol stammered. "Why would you do this?"

"I told you why! Now I suggest you back off now, or else you'll be next!"

"Uuhhh…"

Everyone stopped when they noticed the Mayor's body twitching. He opened his eyes and slowly got up, making everyone gape in surprise.

"Oh, my aching… Man, I can't believe a marshmallow was stuck in my throat." the Mayor moaned, coughing the marshmallow out.

"What? He didn't die?" Jerry gawked. "I thought that hot coca would've done it! Wait… Did I get the wrong powder?"

"Eeeeeeek! My husband's returned! He's a ghost! Eeeeek!" the Mayor's wife screamed.

"Oh, good gracious! Hello, everyone. What's going on here?" the Mayor asked.

"What-what? Mayor! We thought you were actually dead!" Penguin Patrol gaped. "Sure, we found out someone tried to kill you, but I don't think it worked out. It's like a plot twist or something!"

"Huh…? What are you talking about? All I remember was taking a sip of hot coca, and I ended up choking on a marshmallow, which made me unconscious."

"We should arrest Jerry for what he tried to do! He was trying to kill you, Mayor! He should be in prison for all we care!"

"Well… That may be, but I don't wanna cause some more ruckus. You know what happened before, didn't you? Last time I made a mistake you were all in an uproar!"

"Hmm… True. But, you know, he did attempt murder. He should be in jail for all we care!"

"...OK, you're right. You can arrest him if you want."

"Wait, what?!" Jerry felt handcuffs going on his arms as he got dragged out of the house by Penguin Patrol. "Don't think this'll ever be the last of me, Mayor Penguin! When I'm back, I'm going to make you pay! I'll run for mayor again, and then I'll have the last laugh! And don't think I forgot about you too, little boy!"

Once the door closed, the Mayor sighed.

"Ummm… I have the best intentions, but for some reason, I always end up causing a ruckus. Is it just me, or do I stink as a mayor?" he pondered as he turned to Chopper. "Hello. Sorry about all that. I must apologize… I must welcome you to Shiver City, jewel of the north!"

"I need to go over to Starborn Valley right now," Chopper demanded.

"…What's the matter? Oh, you want to hike over to Starborn Valley, do you? I see… Of course. I'll tell the gatekeeper to allow you out of the city. You'd better bundle up!"

"Thanks! Let's go, guys!" Chopper and his friends left the house, and they headed to the eastern part of Shiver City where the gate is. But, Chopper went to the inn first before that.

Afterward, they reached the gate and spoke to the Bumpty there. "Oh, OK… The Mayor said it's OK for you to go on through."

"Good. Let's head to Starborn Valley, then!" Chopper declared.

They all headed through the path called Snow Road, hoping they would eventually reach Starborn Valley, which was their destination as of now.


	37. Through the Snowy Lands

Chopper and his seven friends found themselves on Snow Road. From what they could see, the trees looked absolutely beautiful with the snow on them. They looked up and watched as all of the snowflakes came down from the sky. Kayzee even stuck her tongue out to eat a couple of snowflakes, which melted on her tongue.

"It's still cold out here! I wish I brought some kind of blanket!" Kayzee shivered. "If I had Tayzee's blanket, things wouldn't have been as bad here."

"Yeah, it's cold here. But at least I have this shell on." Parakarry sighed in relief. "But, I feel mostly bad for Chopper. He's only got gloves and shoes to protect him from the cold. Chopper, aren't you feeling cold?"

"Not really… Well, I guess I'm feeling cold. Not so much." Chopper shrugged.

"I'll help you with the cold," Bow wrapped her arms around Chopper and cuddled with him.

"Body heat won't exactly work… I mean, you're a ghost, and ghosts don't really have an exact temperature."

"Yes, that's true," Bow realized, letting go of Chopper as she blinked. "_But I needed to do that. Not my fault he's so cute…_"

"Don't try to touch me," C-2 Choppor warned. "My robotic body is probably freezing. While I'm not feeling cold, my body can take in cold air faster than you all."

"Oh, yeah. That's true. But, how many degree is it here, Choppor?" Koopla asked. "I'm just curious. That's all."

"The temperature…" C-2 Choppor began to check the temperature. "…is approximately seven degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, it is quite cold here."

"Seven degrees Fahrenheit?!" Yosho gaped. "We'd be frozen by now! Aw, man! We need somethin' warm so we don't freeze to death!"

"Relax, you don't die if you freeze. You could actually go into the future without even aging." Bruce assured. "Well, I THINK you don't die if you become frozen."

"Never mind about this stuff. Let's go through Snow Road." Chopper suggested. "If we get cold, I'll just use my Fire Hand to warm us up. No biggie."

Chopper began to move on, speed walking, as he usually does when moving around. Suddenly, while he was moving along the path, he heard a voice that sounded familiar to EVERYONE…except Kayzee.

"Hey hey hey hey hey!" Jr. Troopa jumped in front of Chopper, shivering a little, but ready to fight.

"Aw! It's a baby! How cute!" Kayzee squealed.

"Brrrrrr! I'm not a baby!" Jr. Troopa growled. "I'm the greatest fighter in the Mushroom Kingdom, Jr. Troopa!"

"How many times have you fought this guy?" Yosho asked.

"Four times so far... This might be the fifth." Chopper groaned.

"Brrrraaah ha ha ha! Brrr! I've been waiting for you, Choppeeeeeeeeer! I've been here forever! I was getting desperate! I thought I was gonna freeze! This place is freezing, and cold, and nasty and icy! I hate it! I can't take it anymore! I gotta get out of here! I'm going to beat you up in record time and head back to some place warm. You ready, ice-boy? Let's do it!"

"Oh, brother… I'm getting sick of you already!"

"Oh, I've been busy, Chopper! I learned some cooool techniques! Check this out! _**Aah hahhhhhhh!**_" Jr. Troopa took out a wooden magic wand. "Look at this piece of work! I've been taking a little magic course seven months ago! And now I'm gonna use this on you! You'll be my REAL final exam! Yeah! I've gotta win this time!."

**Tattle: **_This is Jr. Troopa once again. Boy, he sure must be cold after waiting for you for such a long time! Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 8, Defense Power: 1. He appears to have learned some magic, so that may be kind of threatening. You'll REALLY want to be careful with his attacks, because they can hurt. But, he's still the same as before, so don't get too frustrated with this fight._

"All right, 50 HP…and 8 Attack? Wow… That is pretty threatening. Guys, we better take him out fast." Chopper said as he started off with a Power Bounce and managed to stomp on him eight times, making this a good star for the fight.

Since C-2 Choppor's attacks weren't affected by defense, he aimed at Jr. Troopa and fired a blast at him. So, they basically took away 15 HP from Jr. Troopa so far.

"Grrr! It's time to show you what magic I can do!" Jr. Troopa fired a magic blast at Chopper, taking 8 out of him.

"Man, that's painful! All right, time for another attack." Chopper used his Power Bounce attack on Jr. Troopa again, and he stomped on him seven times.

"Maybe I can make it go to sleep with a lullaby! I know how to make babies fall asleep." Kayzee giggled.

"For the last time! I'm not a baby!" Jr. Troopa whined.

Kayzee flew over to Jr. Troopa and began to use her Sing on him. It hurt him, but it didn't make him fall asleep. Jr. Troopa fired more magic at Chopper, but he guarded it this time. When Chopper attacked with a Power Bounce, he stomped on him eight times unlike last time.

"He'll be beaten soon," C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Jr. Troopa, leaving him with a measly 4 HP.

Jr. Troopa fired more magic at Chopper, but he still guarded it. "Man, he pretty much took out 22 of my HP! But, I can wrap this up in no time. Hey, Jr. Troopa! If you hate the cold, then take this!"

Chopper shot an ice ball at Jr. Troopa, making him shiver in fear as he defeated him.

"Brrrr! S-S-So c-c-cold!" Jr. Troopa left 24 Star Points for Chopper.

Oh, and do you know what also happened because of Chopper's ice attack? It was so cold for Jr. Troopa, that he became frozen! Chopper's eyes widened as he looked at the frozen Jr. Troopa, feeling a little bad for him.

"Well, at least he won't be bothering us for a while," Koopla sighed.

"He always felt like a nuisance," Bruce added.

"Let's keep going now that that's over with," Bow suggested.

After going back to the inn to recover his HP, Chopper headed to the next area, with no path around. There used to be snowmen around, but they were apparently gone now. The entrance to Shiver Mountain was sadly collapsed, so there was no way of going there now.

"Oh boy… Look at that." Parakarry frowned. "We can't even go to Shiver Mountain now. What a shame. I'm sure that's where the Star Spirit is."

"Let's just go to Starborn Valley first," Chopper headed to the next area, and he saw the sky change. He could see the northern lights up there and also the sky's a darker blue. There were Frost Piranhas around, which were weak to fire, and some weird black things with tongues called Gulpits near a pile of rocks.

Chopper fought the enemies around, and they all headed up a small mountain to find another pathway.

"Do you think Starborn Valley is just up ahead of here?" Koopla asked.

"Most likely," Bow shrugged.

"Boooooaaaaahhhh!"

"Did anyone go like that?" Chopper asked.

"No, I didn't hear anyone being scary..." Kayzee trailed.

A blue phantom then appeared in front of them. It looked like its body was made entirely out of space.

"Tuuuuurn back. Coooome no farther. Tuuuurn away, or I'll eat you!" it boomed. "Whaaaaat do you think? Scaaaary monster, aren't I? Youuu know you want to run…"

"Pffffft! You're not scary! I'll take you on!" Chopper scoffed.

"You're not really scary. I can be a lot scarier than you." Bow agreed.

"Whaaat! Youuuu will regret this!" the phantom, known as Monstar growled.

**Tattle: **_That thing's a Monstar. I guess…it's some kind of ghost made of stars. It only has 20 HP…but this thing looks like it's very strong! Chopper, you need to take it out fast!_

"I guess I can use some ice on it…" Chopper shot an ice ball at Monstar, and then Bow used her Fan Smack to smack the heck out of it.

Monstar then prepared to use a devastating attack with stars. But, when Chopper guarded the attack, it did nothing.

"That…was it? Wow, I thought its attacks would be devastating! All right, I'll finish this up."

Chopper shot a fireball at Monstar, and it was beaten, leaving Chopper with 14 Star Points. It even leveled Chopper up! He decided to go with FP this time. Meanwhile, Monstar was screamed in horror at Chopper.

"Noooo! Ruuuuun away!" Monstar faded away, and a bunch of Star Kids were revealed and flew away from the group.

C-2 Choppor watched them fly away. It reminded him of when he freed his robot friends. "I guess Starborn Valley is up ahead…"

"Yes, we're near. Let's head on over there now." Chopper suggested. He began to run over to the place with his speed, the others following him.

* * *

**Starborn Valley-**

Starborn Valley looked like a small village, with some ledges leading to an inn, and two other houses. There were some Star Kids around as well. However, there was someone who looked familiar to them.

"Hey, it's Merlon!" Chopper smiled as he walked over to the hooded man that resembled Merlon.

"Merlon? You mean my father? No, my name is Merle. My father lives in… Hold on…" Merle took a good look at Chopper. "Ah. You're Chopper, yes? Merlon told you to come here. I thank you for coming. How do you do? As I said before, I am Merle. I care for the Star Kids born in Starborn Valley. There are many things I must tell you…but not here. Come, let's go to my house. I cannot concentrate out here in the cold."

Merle took a little stroll and turned to Chopper. "This way. Please follow me." Merle jumped up onto another ledge, and Chopper jump onto one too. Merle began to speak while they were going to his house.

"I must apologize for the rude reception of the Star Kids. None of us expected that you'd come here so quickly. But, you are fast…so it's possible you'd make it here earlier. The Star Kids frighten strangers to try to keep this valley safe from Bowser's followers. Please…you must forgive them."

"We forgive them. We understand they thought we were intruders coming to take over this place." Chopper shrugged.

"Thank you. Now, let's head on into my house." Merle opened the door and stepped out of the way, saying, "Come in, please," as he walked in.

"That strange hooded person looks like the one we saw at Toad Town. But, the hooded guy in Toad Town said his son would be here." Kayzee took out some paper, now that they're going into someplace warm. "Tee hee hee! Time to color again!"

When they all made it into Merle's house, they could see a green carpet, brick walls, a chimney, a shelf for bottles, and a drawer.

"Now. Chopper. You must heed well what I'm about to tell you." Merle began. "This frozen area is called Starborn Valley. It is named this because it is here that Stars are born and raised before rising to the sky. But now… Ever since Bowser stole the Star Rod from Star Haven and made Staris evil… The power of that place has weakened and Star Kids have found themselves unable to rise up into the sky."

"Starborn Valley is becoming weaker? That's a really bad thing. And I mean REALLY bad." Bruce gasped

"I sent a Ninji to my father, Merlon, hoping I could coax you to come here… Because I happen to know where the last Star Spirit is. I was able to find this in a dream; the last Star Spirit was begging me for help. My vision told me that the last Star Spirit is being help atop Shiver Mountain, which lies to the north. Up top sits the Crystal Palace. The Star Spirit waits there. The Crystal Palace was originally built to honor the Stars… But as time passed, it slowly faded from the memories of local people…and after Mario made it there, the place can no longer be reached."

"Wait, so there's no chance to getting to Shiver Mountain?" Chopper asked.

"Sadly, there really isn't. If you saw something collapsed while walking here, you'd know what I'm talking about. However, there MIGHT be a way to get to Shiver Mountain, but it's not that easy. After the entrance collapsed, a new path was discovered right by Starborn Valley. It leads to **Shiver Road**. You were on Snow Road. Shiver Road leads all the way to this floating iceberg. It is said that some kind of snow beast lives there."

"Wait, a snow beast? But aren't they dangerous?" Koopla asked.

"Actually, they are quite harmless. They have great strength, but they don't harm anyone…unless they're trying to defend themselves. You must find **Shivi**, the snow beast living on that iceberg. You'll have to cross **Shiver**** Lake **to get to him, though, so you'll have to be careful."

"All right, take the path to Shiver Road, cross Shiver Lake, and meet Shivi. Got it." Chopper nodded.

"If things remain as they are, Star Kids will never again be able to rise to Star Haven. Such a fate would be awful. Please! Help them! And expel Bowser and Maquano from the sky! Don't let Staris get all the Stars and Star Spirits! I wish you luck…"

"Thank you very much. We'll be going now." Chopper opened the door, and they began to head down to the right of Starborn Valley.

"Oh yes… Chopper! I'd almost forgotten!" Merle said as he came out of his house and walked to the group. "There is supposed to be a small shrine somewhere along the path to the Crystal Palace. A legend has been handed down in this valley regarding the shrine's secret: 'Truth lies not only in the eyes. Sometimes, even the walls may lie.' Confusing, yes, but you must find this shrine and solve its mystery to reach the Crystal Palace. Please don't forget it!"

And with that, Merle headed back into his house.

Chopper rested back at the inn, and they went down to see a path going to the right which was now revealed unlike seven months ago, where there wasn't a pathway.

"So, we have to take Shiver Road to get to the iceberg floating in Shiver Lake?" Bow pondered. "Well, he said it's new, so I wouldn't know what this is like."

"Maybe we should take a good look at the place!" Yosho suggested. "But, I'm not swimmin' in any ice cold water! I'll freeze!"

"I'm going to make sure we don't become frozen in that lake," assured Chopper. "But, let's hope there's something fun to Shiver Road. I guess we'll have to see. So let's go!"

Chopper began to head to the path to the right, and his partners began to follow him. The snow began to get a little heavier up ahead.

As they ventured into Shiver Road, they noticed there were a couple of new enemies lurking around this place now. There were light blue Shy Guys called Frost Guys, and there were white Lava Bubbles called Chillers lurking around as well. There wasn't too much around except for the path they need to take to get through this place.

Yosho was shivering from the cold. Not even his black jacket was helping him stay warm.

"Man… It feels colder here than at Starborn Valley!" he shivered. "This is officially the worst part of the adventure ever! I hate it here!"

"If you were a ghost like me or a robot like that one over there that looks like Chopper, you wouldn't be feeling cold at all," Bow stated. "I actually feel lucky I'm not cold. But, this weather does make my beauty greater… You agree with me, right Chopper?"

"Sure, I guess...?" Chopper gawked. "Honestly, I don't think this place is bad at all. Sure, it's cold, but it has some pretty nice stuff around. See the trees around here? And the northern lights? Yeah, that makes the place look cool."

"Your beauty looks even better in this area," Bruce commented as his eyes turned into hearts. "Your hotness can probably melt this entire area."

"Bruce, you don't have to act like that again, you know. It's not going to work for you." Koopla groaned. "Bow probably likes Chopper. At least that's what I can tell."

"I bet she's the reason for global warming..."

Unfortunately, that resulted in him getting smacked.

"Hey! That was somethin' I was goin' to say!" Yosho pouted. "Ya stole my line!"

"Does the Bob-omb with the hat sometimes act like that towards the green ghost? And even the Yoshi?" Kayzee asked.

"Well, they do sometimes. I even felt attracted to Bow before. But, I wanted to concentrate on the adventure more." Parakarry explained as he twiddled his thumbs. "I sometimes feel like Chopper does get annoyed when Bow pinches his cheeks."

C-2 Choppor, after seeing Starborn Valley, began to think back to seeing those Star Kids from that vision. Especially Twink.

"Those Star Kids… They were being protected by the Star God…" he seemed to remember that vision he had when he was going back to the castle with the stone. Eldstar told him something about the Star Kids and the Star God.

"Scanning Shiver Road…" C-2 Choppor scanned the whole place. "Danger level: High. Difficulty Level: Hard. Chances of not making it: 67%."

Everyone jumped up a little from the information C-2 Choppor gave. Bruce looked the most shocked out of everyone else, actually.

"There's a 67% chance we'll DIE out here?!" Bruce gasped. "Oh my gosh… That's BAD! I guess it's because the enemies here are pretty tough."

"Relax, Bruce. Chopper's flames can warm us up if we have any freezing problems. Though this may not be exactly easy, we can probably make it through. I mean, 33% isn't THAT bad…" Bow assured.

"Bow's right," Chopper assured. "Let's not worry about dying or freezing. Yes, my fire can help us, but I've gone through worse than this. Being up in the sky? I think that's worse than this, since you're up high and you're not as high here."

Kayzee was still hugging Bloopi. "Are you sure we have a chance of making it through here and finding that big furry monster?"

"We may have a chance. The enemies here will freeze you, of course. But fire will work against them. So use as much fire as you can. Just don't talk too loud. The information I have also stated that avalanches can occur here." C-2 Choppor informed.

"All right, we'll have to not talk as loud. So, no screaming, shouting, or yelling. Oh, and Kayzee… Don't try to cry. That could make an avalanche."

"OK, Chopper!" Kayzee nodded.

"What are we waiting for? Let's just get moving!" Koopla suggested, becoming impatient.

"I agree with her. Let's get a move on already." Yosho suggested. "I don't want my feet to be stayin' like this! They might freeze to the ground!"

"Yeah, you're right. OK, everyone! Let's go!" Chopper began move on through the area. The Frost Piranhas have 10 HP, an Attack of 5 and 0 Defense.

"Since they're things that like ice, I think fire will do a lot more damage to them," he tested it out by shooting a fireball at the Frost Piranha. It took it out in one hit, luckily.

"Fire sure does pack a punch here," Parakarry grinned. "I wonder if there's an ability you can get from these enemies."

"Hmm…" After Chopper used his Speed Dash to pass through this area, they all got to the next one. They can see some Ice Guys and some Chillers lurking around. But, once they got in a battle against a Chiller and an Ice Guy, Chopper noticed that the Chiller had an ability.

"Ooh! Time to get a new ability!" Chopper walked over to the Chiller and began to inhale it. He succeeded in inhaling it, and when he swallowed it, something happened. Chopper had a crown of ice crystals surrounded by a circlet with a blue gem in the center. He also had light-blue tinted skin, with his shoes and gloves being an indigo color. He does look look, considering he's Ice Chopper.

"Now you're cold…like C-2 Choppor. ...Yeah, that kind of sucks." Yosho grunted.

"I don't feel cold. In fact, I think I'm being protected by the cold. Yep, I think having this ice ability on will be good. Even if it doesn't really hurt ice enemies as much, it can still freeze them."

Yosho can feel a cold breath coming from Chopper whenever he spoke. It made him feel even colder than before and made him shiver.

"A cold voice… Hmm hmm… How interesting…" Bow trailed. "Your voice has icy breath. Too bad this place isn't hot."

"Hold on, we still have that Ice Guy to fight. It's not over yet." Koopla reminded as she attacked the Ice Guy with her shell. It didn't do much, but it left the Ice Guy with 7 HP left.

The Ice Guy charged at Chopper with ice energy, but it only did 2 damage to him, since his Ice ability prevents him from taking a lot of damage from ice attacks.

"All right, let's finish this up," Chopper spun his fists around, using another spin attack. He was performing an Ice Spin on the Ice Guy, which froze it and also resulted in it being defeated. Chopper only got 3 Star Points, so they just moved on. Whenever Chopper used his Speed Dash, he was ice skating. Kayzee smiled as she tried to ice skate, but failed. Thankfully, everyone was able to help her up.

There wasn't much around in this area, but when they got to the next area, they found an ice rink. They noticed there was something down there.

"Hey, I think I can see something in the ice, Chopper!" Bruce informed. "Do you think you can melt it or something?"

"Let me see…" Chopper shot a fireball at the ice, but it didn't do much. "The ice is too thick. I need to break it somehow. Wait, I can use my Tornado Jump!"

"Are you sure you know what you're doing?" Kayzee asked.

"Don't worry," Chopper performed his Tornado Jump, and he broke the ice. The water was pretty cold, but with Chopper's ability on, it didn't harm him. He found a snowboard under the water, so he grabbed it and swam up to the surface. Since the path to the next area has some steps going up a little, Chopper blew an icy breath from his mouth, and he froze the water.

"Hey, that's similar to something my sister can do! She's able to freeze ice!" Kayzee recalled. She was able to fly over to the path to the next area.

"What was a snowboard doing in the water? I mean, that's incredibly weird… But, oh well!" Chopper ice skated over to the next pathway, the others following him. However, they ended up stopping when they saw a long hill going down. It seemed to lead over to Shiver Lake. But, it was kind of foggy here, and the wind was pretty loud too

"Holy… Look at this! It's…so huge!" Yosho gaped. "That lake…and this way down. Man, I don't think that it will be easy gettin' down there!"

"Careful… Merle said an avalanche could occur here." Bow warned. "So, don't try to scream or anything!"

"**_WHAAAAAT?!_**"

Everyone looked over at the shouting Kayzee, who looked as if she couldn't hear anything. At that point, the whole place began to tremble and an avalanche appeared right behind them.

"Good one, Kayzee..."

"Oh… This is not good…" Chopper gulped. He looked at his snowboard. Chopper removed his power and got on the snowboard.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" Koopla exclaimed, seeing Chopper go down.

"Later! I'm not going to deal with this avalanche!" Chopper declared as he went down. Koopla sighed, and she began to head down by going into her shell to roll down.

"Oh, great… How on earth am I supposed to get down there?" Bruce groaned.

"Fine… I'll take care of this." Yosho used his long tongue to get Bruce into his mouth.

"_Hey! What do you think you're doing?!_" Bruce exclaimed. Yosho ignored him and began to slide down - even though it would be cold for his butt.

The others simply headed down by flying. Kayzee seemed to be getting ahead of Chopper, but once he noticed her getting ahead, he had that look on his face that meant it's show time.

"Oh no you don't…" Chopper began to snowboard down faster than before. Bow was able to get to Chopper as well.

C-2 Choppor was getting through with his jetpack. He even fired at the avalanche in order to stop it. But it really didn't work.

"Negative. It doesn't work…" C-2 Choppor stated.

Chopper saw a ramp up ahead, so once he went off that, he did a few tricks. It made him speed pass Kayzee.

"Hey!" she shouted. "That's not fair!"

"Oh, yeah!" Chopper spun his snowboard around, and he landed on the snowy hill. There appeared to be ice around, so he shot fireballs at them, or whacked them with his hammer.

Chopper saw the avalanche was beginning to stop, and the steep hill was becoming flat again. He was able to brake right by the edge of the lake, luckily. The others made it down in no time. Yosho's butt felt kind of hot from sliding and he spat Bruce out as he panted.

"Never…slide down…snow…again!" Yosho moaned.

Koopla was coming by, and she almost fell in the lake. There were some broken parts of ice that lead up to the ice berg up ahead, to their luck.

"Almost fell there for a second… Phew. I thought I was going to freeze." Koopla panted.

"We still have to cross this lake," Chopper stated. We should use the ice around here to get over there. There sure is a lot around, though."

"It shouldn't be bad. If there are any problems, I'll be there. I can rescue you guys if you fall in the lake." Parakarry assured.

"Good, now let's go!" Chopper began to jump to each piece of ice on the lake, and Koopla, Bruce, and Yosho jumped to each. Parakarry, Bow, C-2 Choppor, and Kayzee simply flew.

* * *

However, somewhere over the lake, a douche bag was watching them. He was using a pair of binoculars as he gave a smirk.

"Ah, yeah! He's here!" he grinned. "I can't believe after Maquano threw me out of the castle, I ended up landing here! Now that Chopper's here, I'll defeat him as the great boss I am! Maquano was never able to beat him, and once I beat him, I'll have myself, and my friends laugh at him! Yeah, it'll be the best!"

Bob stood up, and he waited for the right time to jump them. When Chopper and his friends jumped onto the next piece of ice, he jumped down to get them.

"**_Hyaaaaaaah!_**" Bob let out a battle cry as he dove at Chopper. However, his plan backfired when they jumped off that piece of ice and onto the next, leading him to fall on the ice and slip off, falling into the freezing water.

"Did you guys hear something?" Koopla asked.

"Negative," C-2 Choppor stated.

"Nope, I heard nothin'," Yosho replied.

"Uh… No?" Kayzee gawked.

"I don't think there was anything," Chopper shrugged. "Let's just ignore whatever it was and head to the big iceberg. We're getting close to it anyway."

They managed to jump all the way to the iceberg, where there was a door right in front of them. When they opened the door to go in, someone from Shiver Lake began to rise. It appeared to be Bob, who was now frozen.

The frozen Bob began to drift away from Shiver Lake and began to go down a waterfall. What chances were there of him coming back?


	38. Climbing Shiver Mountain

Once Chopper opened the door, he saw that the inside of the iceberg looked like some kind of base. Yeah, it's definitely weird for something like this to be here. The ground was icy and clear, and there were icicles hanging from the ceiling. To them, it looked pretty nice.

"Whoa… This place is pretty cool!" Chopper gaped. "I never knew that Shivi would live in a place like this! It doesn't really make much sense, though."

"Did somebody call Shivi? And there are people here?" they all heard the voice and saw a yeti that looked like, well, an ape. Yetis look kind of like apes anyway. He's a white color, with light blue skin.

"Are you Shivi?" Bruce asked as he noticed the yeti tower over him.

"Yes, this is Shivi. You don't look so evil. Well, the ghost looks like she could be threatening…and the same with the robot. But, the little boy doesn't seem to be evil."

"Hmph... That's no way to comment a fine girl such as myself." Bow huffed.

"Don't worry, they're not evil," Chopper assured. "They're actually on our side. Don't worry about them at all. But, we've come for your help."

"You need Shivi's help?" Shivi gawked. "What for? No one has come here to ask Shivi anything. Though, the pathway to here from Starborn Valley just opened up a few months ago. But, at least you're the first ones. So, tell Shivi what you need."

"All right… You see, my name's Chopper. I was sent here by Merle in order to get to the Crystal Palace. Unfortunately, getting to Shiver Mountain… Well, it's blocked. Nobody in this whole Shiver area has the strength to take care of it. We need to go to the Crystal Palace to get the last Star Spirit to stop Bowser, Maquano, and Staris…and the only way to get into Shiver Mountain and the Crystal Palace…is with your help."

"So… You're trying to get the last Star Spirit and defeat Bowser and those other two Shivi doesn't know much about? It sounds like Shivi really needs to help you get there. In fact, Shivi will help you! You're a kind boy, and Shivi likes to be with kind people! We'll go to the entrance of Shiver Mountain now! Follow Shivi!"

"All right, we'll follow you. Let's hope we'll make it there though." Bow hoped.

Chopper and his friends began to follow Shivi through the iceberg. They got to a spring, and when Shivi used it, it launched him high up.

"Whoa… That's something interesting. Let's use it!" Chopper suggested as he jumped on the spring, which launched him up high.

The others did the same thing, and they could see the stars around and northern lights up in the sky. It was such a pleasant sight to see.

* * *

**Snow Road-**

They ended up landing RIGHT in front of the collapsed entrance of Shiver Mountain. Shivi was waiting for them already.

"See? This helps Shivi make it to Snow Road. But, Shivi only goes out at night. Shivi doesn't like to scare the people around here, but since this is an emergency, Shivi will be out during the day."

He walked over to the collapsed entrance and began to tear off all the rubble around. It became a mound of snow afterward.

"All right… Shivi can't really get rid of the snow, but flames can. You need A LOT of flames to melt this. If you have flames, use them."

"I have flames!" Chopper announced as he became Fire Chopper and spewed out a large amount of fire at the snow, melting it. He removed his power before the entrance to Shiver Mountain has returned.

"Yes! Now we can go to Shiver Mountain!" Parakarry cheered.

"Thanks Shivi. You did a good job." C-2 Choppor complimented.

"Now I must leave," Shivi announced. "Good luck on your adventure though. I hope you get the last Star Spirit before anything bad happens."

Shivi began to run off, but he did it quietly. He could go through Starborn Valley, luckily. But, since the entrance to Shiver Mountain was back, there shouldn't be any problems now.

"OK, this is it! That last Star Spirit must be waiting for us, and we gotta go over there to save him or her! Let's do this!" Chopper declared.

When they made it to the next area, they found themselves on a mountain, where they saw some steps going up. Chopper hit the Save Block, and he saved his game.

"Man, this place looks pretty cool," Chopper smiled. "No wonder this place is hidden. It's a cool place. Get it? I said cool, as in…"

"Seriously... My eyes are probably going to melt if you make one more bad pun," Koopla grumbled.

"Let's just keep going. We can't sit here all day in the cold. And yes, I do admit. This place does look cool." Parakarry agreed.

After climbing up some stairs in the area, Chopper saw a big gap with a bunch of water flooding it. He was going to jump in, but Bow stopped him and pulled him back.

"The water's too cold to swim in. We'll have to freeze it." Bow suggested.

"All right, I'll get to it…" Chopper sighed as he shot an ice ball at the water and made the water frozen. This allowed them to cross the water and go down the stairs which led to a Gulpit, waiting patiently for someone to come.

"Oh, boy… We better get ready for a fight…" Chopper warned, seeing the Gulpit go after them. So, they all got ready for battle. Unfortunately, a Frost Piranha and another Gulpit came to join that one. So, Chopper decided to bring his Sword ability out.

"Well this is great," Bruce groaned. "Three annoying enemies to fight. But, let's hope we wrap all this up quickly."

* * *

**Fifteen Minutes later-**

Chopper's ability was no longer on him, and he still had some HP on him. The rest of his party was tired after the battle. Bruce looked a little dizzy, actually.

"I reconsider that…" he groaned, getting back up and quickly shaking his head.

"That battle took fifteen minutes! How on earth did it take us that long to beat those enemies?" Koopla rambled. "I mean, a jump, hammer, or hand attack from Chopper, and a smack attack from Bow, a gun from C-2 Choppor, a Ground Pound from Yosho, and an attack from Kayzee could've finished up one enemy EASILY!"

"Oh, don't even bother with it!" Chopper groaned. "We don't need any rambling. We should just keep going so we can get to that Crystal Palace. I mean, my arms are getting a little cold now!"

They found some more steps, and after going up those, they found even more. An Ice Guy was waiting for them at the top of the stairs. So, after defeating it with Chopper's Fire Hand attacks, they kept going, collecting their Star Points.

After climbing up more stairs, C-2 Choppor could see a hidden block over a brick block.

"Chopper, hit the brick block, and use your Tornado Jump."

"Umm… OK." Chopper jumped under the brick block, and then he used his Tornado Jump on the hidden block. A green Mushroom called an Ultra Shroom popped out and landed in Chopper's hands.

They found the next path up ahead, and when they went through there, they could see the sky. Chopper could see the mountains in the background and the light blue sky. Across a gap was a blue ! switch.

"Koopla, looks like you're going to be useful again. It's time to hit that blue switch." Chopper said, pointing to the switch.

"It's about time!" Koopla went near the gap and went in her shell. Chopper kicked her, and she hit the switch. It made some ice rise up to act like a bridge.

But… Something wasn't right. When Koopla came back to them, there appeared to be…two Kooplas?

When the Koopla closer to Chopper turned around, she saw the other Koopla there. She jumped up a little, and looked pissed off.

"Wh-What the heck is this?! Why are there two me?!" Koopla gaped. "Can somebody explain to me what's going on before I end up hurting you all?"

Chopper was now between the two Kooplas, with a confused look. "OK, can anybody tell me what IS going on?"

"All right, tell me who you are imposter!" the Koopla to the right exclaimed.

"Who, me? I'm Koopla… Yeah, that's it. The question is who are you?"

"Idiot… I'm the only Koopla around here! There's no possibility that you're me!"

"You're talking crazy-talk now. You're making no sense! I'm the genuine Koopla! Really! C'mon, Chopper! You know me. This girl's a big liar."

"Chopper, if you think that me is the real one, I'm gonna take your face and rub it all over the ground! You should already know what I'm like anyway! So, pick me, or else I'll kick your pale green butt!"

"Shut your mouth, tough Koopa! Violence isn't going to work to make him choose." the Koopla to the left noted. "Listen, Moron…er, Chopper, you have to decide who's lying. Pick the one you think is lying and whack her really hard with the Hammer."

"Fine! Yeah, fine with me! If you think you'll get away with a trick like that, fine! So, pick me, or I'll really hurt you, Chopper!"

Chopper turned to the left Koopla, and he whacked her with his hammer. "Koopla would obviously say something like that to me. So, there's no way it's you!"

The fake Koopla turned into some kind of enemy with a dark white sheet, and some weird red hair. It was…a Duplighost?

"Yeeeow! What made you think I was the one lying, huh?" the Duplighost gaped. "It must've been luck. No one has instincts that good."

"Ehh… Shut up, crybaby! You lost!" Koopla scoffed. "What the heck were you thinking about tricking Chopper like that? He knew it was me."

"What? Shut up? I'll shut YOU up… Come on out, buddy!" Another Duplighost came out, and they began to attack.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper shot an ice ball at the one in the front, which resulted in freezing it. Bow floated over to the other Duplighost, and she began to smack it with her fan, leaving it with 5 HP left.

"That should take care of you…" Bow sighed.

"My buddy may be frozen, but I've still got something!" the Duplighost declared as it shape shifted into Koopla.

Chopper stomped on the frozen Duplighost first, and then C-2 Choppor finished both Duplighosts off with his Multi-Shot ability. Chopper only got 6 Star Points from the battle, but it made the two Duplighosts flee in fear.

"OK, let's keep going now," he suggested.

They went up some steps up ahead, and to the left, they could see more steps leading up. There was also a White Clubba, but they ignored it for now. After climbing the steps, they found an Upgrade Block. Chopper hit it, and he decided to upgrade Koopla.

"Oh, I get to be last again?" Bruce sobbed. "Man, I'm having horrible luck here… I just wanted to be tougher!"

After Koopla became Ultra-Ranked, she learned the move Fire Shell. "I can use fire now? Oh, wow! That's great!"

Progressing to the next area, they found some pedestals with a Shooting Star, Snowman Doll, and a Thunder Rage in an opening. But, if they take one, they'll have to put a different item in there, since they'll be trapped, so they simply ignored that.

They headed to the next area, ignoring those items, and they found more steps going up, and on the wall up the steps was an empty star space. Chopper noticed it when he went up.

"Hmmm… There's nothing in here. We better go find something that can be used." Chopper noticed a hole in the wall on the ground, and the entrance was blocked by some ice.

"Hey, Chopper! There's a bunch of ice there!" Kayzee noticed. "Maybe we can find something in there!"

"Let's check over there. Merle said there's some kind of shrine or something in Shiver Mountain." Parakarry recalled.

Chopper jumped down to the ground, and he shot a fireball at the ice in order to melt it. When they entered through the opening in the wall, it looked different. The ground's still covered in snow, but they could see some ice pillars around. It looked like a beautiful place to be in. But, there's not really anything around…

"Wow, this place looks a lot more beautiful than I thought. It's so gorgeous." Bow gasped, clasping her hands together.

"I remember something being by that wall up ahead," Parakarry recalled as he flew over there and began to check. C-2 Choppor began to notice something.

"My scanners tell me that we can go through the wall," C-2 Choppor informed. "No, not with Bow's ability. Just walk right through."

"OK…" Chopper put his hand by the wall, and he noticed his hand went through. He looked surprised. "Holy… My hand DOES go through! We better check what's through here!" Chopper went through the wall, with the others following him.

They found a clear diamond with a star in it. They began to take a nice look at it.

_"I welcome you… Chopper, isn't it? I've been expecting you." _

"Who's there?" Chopper asked.

"If it's a ghost, I'm going to faint right now." Bruce stated.

"But that voice sounds a little too soft

The diamond was sparkling, and a spirit that has a robe and hood, red shoes, and some long hair that curls up. Not exactly sure, though. There was also a Star Point on her necklace. Bruce was about to faint, but he realized it wasn't anything creepy.

_"At last…it is you, Chopper! I'm glad you found this place."_

"Holy Clarins… It's like Merlon is dead!" Chopper gaped. "…But this isn't Merlon, because Merlon isn't a female. But, really, holy Clarins…"

"What on earth is 'Clarins'?" Yosho asked.

"Money on my planet," Chopper answered as he looked at the spirit, rubbing his head. "OK… So you're that spirit Merle's been telling us about? And how do you know about me?"

_"Hm hm hm ho ho… Do you find it strange that I know you? My name is Madam Merlar."_ the spirit introduced._ "I am a messenger of the Stars. I am ancestors of Merlon and Merle. The Stars spoke to me of you through my dreams… They said you would come to the shrine on Shiver Mountain. It is here that I guard the way to the Crystal Palace."_

"Interesting… You're ancestors of both Merlon and Merle, and you happen to know where the Crystal Palace is?"

_"Correct. But, we have little time to waste, so listen carefully. You may not know this, but the followers of Bowser have invaded Crystal Palace, where stars are honored. Now, what I have to tell you is very important. Listen to every word I say! I can't tell you the whole tale. In the interest of time I'll be brief, so pay attention to the key points."_

"All right, sure. What's the worst that can happen?" Chopper shrugged.

"Let's hope it doesn't take forever. So don't take TOO long…" Bow suggested.

_"The story begins a long, long time ago… I was still a woman back then… A horrible thing happened on the mountain one day… I ran there immediately and…but it was actually…Oh! Such a sight! I…was…and…it was so…"_

Chopper silently yawned as he slowly began to fall asleep.

_"It was…none other…so…than…then I…"_

* * *

**One hour later-**

Not only was Chopper sleeping through the whole story, but his friends were asleep as well. Yosho even had a snot bubble coming from his nose as he loudly snored, which Merla didn't seem to notice.

_"_…_so that's why you must get Bowser's men out of the Crystal Palace. But…" _Merlar noticed Chopper sleeping. "_Hey! You! Were you even listening to my story?" _

This immediately woke everyone up, startling them a little.

"Ummm… Yeah! We were!" Chopper nodded.

_"Well… OK, then. As I was saying, you need the Star Stone to reach the palace. I'll give it to you." _the Star Stone in the transparent diamond came out. _"With this stone, you can open the way to the Crystal Palace. Go on. Make haste! …Hmmm. Do you think you understood my shortened version on the tale?"_

"We understood it PERFECTLY!" Yosho assured.

_"Well, it really doesn't do the story justice, you know. Perhaps one day I'll tell you the full story. Until then, good luck."_

Merlar disappeared, leaving Chopper to pick up the Star Stone she was floating over.

"OK, let's go put this in the empty star space we saw before," Chopper suggested. So, they all headed back to where the empty space was and Chopper put the Star Stone in there. The ice around the Star Stone began to push into the wall, and stairs made of ice were created, leading up to the top of the area. Unfortunately, the shrine was now blocked, and they could never go back in there ever again.

"Well, at least we don't have to go listen to the whole story, right?"

"...Yeah, I think so," Koopla agreed.

So, now that there were stairs to climb, all eight of them began to go up them. Chopper found a Mega Jump Badge on his way up. After hitting the Save Block at the top, they pressed on to the next area, but Chopper hit the Heart Block at the end of this area before going.

After going through the small cave, they saw up ahead was the Crystal Palace. They couldn't see much of it, but it was a white color with a gray door. Another thing they noticed was a mirror.

He-Hey! Who's that good lookin' Yoshi over there?" Yosho smirked as he looked at himself in the mirror. He tried to make a pose, but he ended up shivering. "Aw, crud… I wanted to make a pose, but it's too cold to do that! Hey, if any of you are gonna stay here, I'm just going in!"

Yosho headed into the Crystal Palace. Chopper looked at himself through the mirror.

"Y'know… It feels like that's not really our reflection…" Chopper trailed. He noticed his reflection jump up, and run into the palace.

"Talk about weird…" gawked Bow. "Your reflection went into the palace! Maybe we should go check inside there."

"That sounds good to me. Let's head on in!" Chopper walked up the small steps, and he opened the door. He held the door open for everyone else to get in, and after that, he made his way into the Crystal Palace, where the last Star Spirit awaited.


	39. Crystal Palace Crawl

**If any of you wanted to know, the name of this chapter is based on the official name of the song for the Crystal Palace. If you haven't listened to it yet, you should. I personally like it more than Shiver Mountain.**

**Anyway, let's get back to the Crystal Palace.**

* * *

When they stepped inside, they could see Yosho looking at the place in amazement. The ground was made of ice, and walking on it could make things slippery. The walls were a blue color with a couple of white stars plastered on. There were also some white pillars on the walls as well. The mirror from the entrance was also in this palace as well.

"Whoa, this place looks pretty cool," Chopper gaped as he walked over to a door to the wall south and opened it. He found a Save Block there. "Guys, over here! There's a Save Block! _Already? Wow… I bet this place is pretty long though, unlike the other places._"

Everyone came into the room, and after Chopper hit the Save Block, they saw a door up ahead and a red X on the ground. Chopper walked to the red X and tried to use his Tornado Jump on it. Sadly, it didn't do anything, which stunk.

"We can't really do anything with that. Let's just go through the door." Parakarry suggested.

The next room had gray bats called Swoopulas that could hang onto the ceiling, like most bats. They fought them and proceeded on to the next room. They found a chest up one step, and when Chopper opened it, it contained a Blue Key.

"A key? Well, we better hold onto this." Chopper suggested as he put it away. "I say we go back to where we were before."

Heading back to the first room, they decided to keep going. A red door that was locked lied up ahead, but there was also a red switch on the ground that could be pushed with a Tornado Jump. After using Chopper's Tornado Jump, a part of the palace began to move down. Instead of a red door, there was a blue one. Not only that, but the red switch changed to a blue color, with a lock on it like the red one.

"That key you got might fit well with this blue door," Kayzee noticed. "Why don't you give that key a try? I think it'll work."

"OK, I think I will," Chopper put the Blue Key into the lock, and it ended up unlocking the door, so they all began to proceed deeper into the Crystal Palace. They found a crack in the wall at the end of the next room, so, it was up to Bruce to blow that wall up.

"Finally! I get my chance to do something again!" Bruce cheered. "All right, Chopper! Throw me to the wall, and I'll let it rip!"

Chopper picked Bruce up, and he threw him to the wall. He made sure Bruce wouldn't actually HIT the wall. He only threw him near it. He blew up by the wall, and he landed back on the ground from the explosion. There was a hole in the wall now, and they could now move on.

"There we go! One blown up wall! Check!" Bruce walked over to the hole in the wall and began to move on to the next area, which had pillars right by the mirrors close to each other, but not touching. Between two pillars, it appeared to be clear, without a mirror there.

"Whoa, would ya look at that…" Yosho walked between the pillars, and he was at the other side. When the others walked over there, they were surprised.

"Holy… Whoa, this is really weird." Chopper gaped. "But, let's not go through this with the questions. We should blow up that wall and move on."

Instead of going to the right, they now had to go to the left. But, it was no real problem. Chopper threw Bruce over to the cracked wall, and he blew it up, allowing them to proceed. But, what made things weird was when they got to the next room. They could see another Chopper and Bruce, making the two jump up in shock.

"What the… Why are there two of me?" Chopper gaped.

"Yikes! Chopper's here!" the fake Chopper gasped.

"Whoa! We better beat him!" the fake Bruce suggested. Both of them changed back into Duplighosts and charged at them. Even if there were only two, the fight wasn't so hard. With Chopper's Power Bounce to defeat one Duplighost, and Bow's Fan Smack ability, it left the last Duplighost with 5 HP left.

As usual, the Duplighost changed into one of Chopper's partners. This one changed into Bruce. But, Chopper blew him up with a fireball. The fight only gave Chopper 6 Star Points. Afterward, both Duplighosts got back up from the beating they received from the group.

"Noo! The real Chopper's so strong!" Both Duplighosts fled from the eight. Chopper shrugged and moved through the rooms until they reached the first room.

"Chopper, the rooms here are a lot different than the ones through the mirror," C-2 Choppor informed. "I suggest we check the rooms through here thoroughly."

"Is that so? Well, I guess we should REALLY look around this place." Chopper suggested. "It's got a lot of stuff around, and wasting our time right now isn't going to do much. So, let's explore through this area!"

The room they went in was just like the others. It had an icy ground, the blue walls with the white stars, and also the green bean and the green leaf marking something on the walls…

Wait a minute… A green bean and a green leaf marking things on the walls? That can't be right…

"Uh oh… Don't tell me who those two are…" Chopper groaned as he heard them snicker.

"All right, Rookie! That should do it!" Popple grinned. "This will show the world that we discovered this palace first, see?"

"Of course, Boss! We're the first ones to find out about this place!" Rookie nodded. "Not even that pale green pipsqueak managed to find this place. We're number one in discovering this place!"

Popple put away his black marker, and when he saw Chopper, he looked shocked. He even gave Rookie a signal that they actually made it here.

"Criminy! We've been spotted! And who else other than the pale green drip! Look, we found this place before you, so whatever's here, it's ours, see?"

"Chopper? Who are these weird people?" Kayzee asked, tilting her head. "They look bad…"

"I am Popple, the greatest shadow thief in the entire world!" Popple introduced as he made a pose. "Sorry, little girl, but you're a bit too late!"

"A flower on the boy's side, huh? Ha! She tries to look so cute like that!" Rookie scoffed. "Sorry, girl, but we don't play like that."

"Look, we're not here to steal any treasure," Chopper sighed. "We're just here because the Star Spirit is being held in this palace. So, if you would… Would you kindly move out of our way so we can go?"

"We're also in a hurry. We were able to discover the secrets with the mirrors, and stop those Duplighosts from attacking us!" Popple informed as he crossed his arms and grinned. "Even if you're not after what we're going for, we can always steal what you're getting! All of the world's valuables will be mine, see?"

"Oh shut up! There's no way yer gettin' that Star Spirit!" Yosho growled. "Even if ya tried, I bet one of Bowser's minions are holdin' it! An' his minions guardin' that thing aren't easy to face off against. So, get out of the way!"

"They're definitely tougher than you guys, that's for sure," Bow noted.

"Ah, so you think we can't get your treasure? Well, I, Popple, bet that Rookie and I will stop that minion and beat you first!" declared Popple. "…But we'll settle this in a man-to-man way: A battle! **_Rookie! Get them!_**"

"With pleasure!" Rookie took out his two poison vine swords, and he swung at Chopper, who managed to jump out of the way.

"Oh, boy… This is gonna be something, isn't it?" Bow sighed.

"Yeah, it sure will be, Bow. I'm sure…" Chopper nodded.

**Tattle: **_So Popple's saying he discovered this place first? Ha! That's impossible! This place was discovered way before then! I think…there's some kind of invisible king who lives here now. Popple will attack like he usually does. Max HP: 40, Attack Power: 5, Defense Power: 0. It seems like he can use his sack to throw some things at you also. It could be anything really… I'd be careful with Popple this time, Chopper._

**Tattle: **_Popple's sidekick, Rookie, is back with him again. It doesn't seem like he's going to hold back like before. It seems like Rookie means it this time when he wants to take you down. Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 1. He's got defense now, so taking him down may be a little tougher than before. But, I guess training a little more does help improve his skills. I think he's got some new moves with his swords. Apparently, he can fire poison blasts at you without even going to you. Not only that, but if Popple takes out some kind of sun, he will make photosynthesis and recover 15 HP. So, you gotta take him out quick before something like that happens. _

Chopper started out with his "famous" Power Bounce, and he began to stomp on Rookie.

"I hope this will get his memory back, because his name's NOT Rookie!" he said as he jumped off of Rookie after his eighth stomp. Rookie looked a little dizzy, but he quickly shook his head, getting out of a trance.

"Nice try, but it'll take more than that to beat me!" Rookie scoffed. It will indeed take more than that. But, once C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him, they've taken away 15 of his HP so far.

Popple began to search through his sack, and he pulled something out at random. He threw it at Chopper, but it was actually a coin.

"Hey, thanks!" Chopper smiled.

"Grrrr! Go get him, Rookie!" Popple growled, clenching his fists in anger.

"Will do, Boss!" Rookie threw one of his poison swords like a boomerang. Chopper was able to guard the attack. Though it was only 5 damage he took, it was still pretty bad.

Chopper decided to be Ice Chopper, and he jumped between Popple and Rookie, and he used Ice Storm on both of them. It did 10 damage to Rookie, and 8 to Popple. Apparently, enemies that are grass have to be weak to ice…

"Gah!" Rookie became frozen from the ice attack, and it left Popple shocked. Once Kayzee flew to Rookie and used her powerful punch attack, it left Rookie with 20 HP left.

"Hmm… Let's see what else I got in this sack." Popple searched through his sack, and he pulled out a flamethrower, making Chopper's eyes widen.

"Ah, yes! I was wondering where I put it… And since you've got ice, you'll burn! Prepare to get burned, see?"

Popple began to walk toward Chopper, but he slipped and fell to the ground. The flames hit Rookie, and the ice melted off. Not only that, but he also got burnt by the flames. Yes, now Rookie had taken 7 damage.

"**_Boss! It buuuuurns!_**" Rookie cried. Popple quickly got a fire extinguisher from his sack and he used it on Rookie, getting rid of the flames.

"Heh. That was funny. OK, let's finish Rookie off." Koopla smirked.

Chopper used his Power Bounce on Rookie again, and after stomping on him seven times, Kayzee attacked both of them with her Sing. Rookie fell to the ground, fast asleep, and he was also defeated. Popple was the last one standing now.

"Rookie! Oh, now you're in for it!" Popple growled as he got his sack and whacked Chopper with it, not even letting him guard it. His Ice ability was even removed.

"OK, Popple's got no defense. So he shouldn't be so bad." Chopper smiled as he began his Power Bounce and stomped on him eight times, leaving Popple with 15 HP left.

"Since he's got no defense, I can finally make an attack!" Bow appeared by Popple, and she smacked him six times. Afterward, Popple reached into his sack again and pulled out a Mushroom. But, due to the ice, he slipped, and the Mushroom went into Chopper's mouth.

"What a stupid move," Bruce commented.

"Mmmm! That was good!" Chopper shot an ice ball at Popple, and then Koopla got in her shell and hit Popple. Since she's Ultra-Rank, she dealt 5 damage to him, defeating him and ending the fight. Chopper received 21 Star Points because of it.

"Guh… Beaten again…" Popple moaned as he got up. When he turned to the sleeping Rookie, he slapped his face to wake him up. And wake him up he did!

"Urgh… What happened, Boss?" Rookie asked.

"We lost, that's what," he groaned before turning to the group. "But, this isn't over, see? We'll let you go for now, but the Great Shadow Thief never gives up! Let's beat it, Rookie!"

Popple and Rookie began to flee from the Crystal Palace, leaving the group to question whether they'll return or not.

"OK… Now that we got through that, how about we move through this place already?" Chopper suggested.

They all agreed, and they moved on. But, Chopper stopped when he saw a wooden X on the ground. He used his Tornado Jump to smash down on it, and he went into a room under the ground, landing on a spring to land softly.

Everyone else jumped down as well. They found a door to the right, so they went in there. They found some Swoopulas on the ceiling, but thankfully, Chopper used his Speed Dash to get past them to the next door. There was a chest up a small ledge in the next room, and when Chopper opened it, it contained a P-Down, D-Up Badge. Since there was nothing left around the room, they went back up the spring in the other room.

"Man, there really is a lot of stuff in this place. I like it for some reason." Bruce noted.

The room by the wooden X Chopper destroyed had some Duplighosts roaming around. After fighting the Duplighost, Chopper leveled up. He chose BP this time, increasing his BP to 24. Afterward, they headed into the next room, where they found a Shooting Star on the ledge. So, since there's nothing else left, they went back to the other side of the mirror with some backtracking.

"So. Much. BACKTRACKING." Koopla moaned.

"Yeah, this is startin' to annoy me," Yosho groaned.

Chopper noticed in the room that had the red X, there was a hole. He jumped down and saw how similar the room was. He simply headed into the door with the others following him.

The next room had some spikes on the ground, so Kayzee needed to do this part. She flew Chopper over the spikes, and when they got to the crack in the wall, Chopper noticed there was more than one Kayzee. There were five Kayzees!

"What the heck?!" Chopper gaped. "Why are there five?!"

"What the… Who are all of you!?" the Kayzee second closest to Chopper cried. "Why are there more mes? Chopper… Don't tell me you can't tell which one's the real Kayzee. You know it's me, right?"

"Hey, I heard that! * Stop spreading lies, you flower! * I'm the real Kayzee! *" the Kayzee in the back called out.

"Oh, no, no! Chopper. Look carefully at me and you'll know." the Kayzee next to the previous one informed. "I'm the real Kayzee. It can only be me. These others are all liars."

"No! I'm the one! Chopper!" one Kayzee sobbed. "Me! Don't fall for these tricks! I'll make you fall asleep!"

"I… I'm the real Kayzee…" the Kayzee closest to Chopper whined. "Puh… Please… Trust your eyes and look at me… I… I'm not lying…"

"Noooo! You bad people have to stop with this!" the second closest Kayzee cried. "I can't bear it! Chopper! Smash these bad people with your Hammer! I can't take it anymore, you terrible mean people!"

"Oh, that's a nice idea. That'll clear this up."

"Yes, good idea! I just hate imposters! Chopper! I'm the real Kayzee! So don't you dare hit me!"

Chopper whacked the one that acted kind of emo. "No… Noooo… I… I should have worked harder on my Kayzee disguise…" That one turned into a Duplighost. "I… I won't forget this."

The Duplighost ran away. Chopper knew the first one that spoke was the real one, so he whacked the other three. The last one he hit was the one with the stars at the end of that one's sentence.

"Ohh! Somehow you managed to see through my disguise." That one turned back to a Duplighost. "Darn it! I thought I was doing so well!" the Duplighost ran past Chopper's partners and began to grumble.

"Yaay! I knew you wouldn't hit me!" Kayzee squealed. "If you did, I would be maaaad! But you didn't! I'm so happy that you knew I was the real Kayzee! Tee hee!"

"Well, it was kinda obvious," Chopper shrugged. "Their text was obvious."

"Text? What text?" Koopla gawked. "The heck?"

"Never mind... Let's just go." Chopper quickly shook his head from the peck, picked up Bruce and threw him right into the wall. After Bruce blew up, they headed into the room through the hole, which had a chest and an Upgrade Block. Chopper hit the block, and since Bruce was the only one to upgrade, he chose to upgrade him. He was now Ultra-Ranked, allowing him to use the Mega Bomb.

"It's about time I got my Ultra-Rank!" Bruce grinned.

After that, Chopper opened the chest and found a Red Key. So, since there was a red door in the palace, Chopper and his friends went back into that first room, where he used his Tornado jump on the blue switch. Part of the room moved up, and the red door was revealed. Chopper walked over to the door and unlocked it with the Red Key.

They saw in the next room, a part of the mirror didn't look like it was a mirror. But, they didn't go there just yet. They just went into the door ahead, where they found a skinny bridge up ahead, and on the mirror side, Clubba statues. A White Clubba stood by the bridge and noticed them come in.

"Who're you?" the White Clubba asked as the group entered the room.

"Uh oh... This isn't good." Chopper gulped.

"The great and honorable Crystal King said that I can't let anyone pass! You're up to no good! I'm going to have to hurt you!"

* * *

**Five minutes later-**

"And take some of that!" Chopper kept whacking at the White Clubba, and he ended up surrendering. However, he fell off the bridge down the cliff instead. Thankfully, the Clubba Statue was destroyed.

"I feel kind of bad for that guy… I mean, he fell off the bridge." Parakarry trailed.

"Oh, no worries. He'll probably be fine." Bow assured as she cackled. Her cackling stopped when they ran into another White Clubba.

"I won't let you! I won't and I won't and I won't! You can't! You'll have to go through me if you want to get past!"

"So much for that..." the green ghost groaned.

* * *

**Seven minutes later-**

The White Clubba fell off the bridge like the other one. But this time he did it on his own.

"Did that Clubba... Did it just commit suicide?" Chopper gawked.

"Don't worry," Koopla assured. "No one really _dies_ in this world. ...Right?"

"Ummmmmm... Yeah, I hope." Up ahead was another statue, and there was another White Clubba by the wall. From what they could tell, this was the last one.

"Hey, didn't you hear me? I said I'm not budging, you got that?" the White Clubba growled. "Do you have any idea how mad the Crystal King will get if I let you pass here? I don't want him mad at me, so I have to teach you a lesson!"

Before the White Clubba could attack, Chopper shot an ice ball at it, and it became frozen. C-2 Choppor aimed at the frozen Clubba, and he shot it, making it get destroyed.

"There, it has been done," C-2 Choppor stated. The last Clubba statue got destroyed, so they went to the mirror side through the other room they were in, and they crossed that bridge, heading into the door.

The next room had a red ! switch, and a panel that could spin around by the mirror. They got on the panel, and Chopper shot an ice ball at it, making it go to the other side, not the mirror side now.

They headed into the door, and on the mirror side, they could see a Duplighost, and on the regular side, there was a White Clubba. They just headed into the door up ahead after beating the Duplighost. The next room was kind of weird. On the mirror side, there was...Chopper and Bow? They all looked confused when they saw this.

"Choppor, any idea what that is?" Chopper asked.

"Negative, my scanners don't go through the mirror," C-2 Choppor stated. "But, my scanners tell me to get through the wall, you must slide and become invisible."

"Oh, OK!" Chopper began to slide over to the wall, and Bow made him invisible. They made it through the wall, and they were now in a small room with a door to the right, and a door south.

"OK, this is good. Now, let's…" Chopper suddenly saw Bow, Professor Toadsmeth, an old Koopa with an aqua blue shell named Koopa Koot, Kolorado, and Luigi.

"What…the heeck…?" Chopper gawked as he smacked his forehead. "...Really?"

"Chopper, I'm the real Bow," Kolorado declared. "But of course, you know that, don't you, my boy?"

"Chopper! Look at me!" Toadsmeth cried, waving his arms. "I'm the real deal! Nobody else looks like Bow."

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me…" Bow face palmed. "Chopper, I'm the real Bow! I mean, this is ridiculous."

"I'm the real Bow, sonny. You believe me, don't you?" Koopa Koot asked as he shook his cane. "Back in the old days, we never paid any attention to the real one. They were fakes!"

"I'm the real Bow," Luigi stated. "There isn't any doubt in your mind, is there? Chopper?"

"OK, young bean… You'd best smash these imposters one by one." Kolorado suggested.

"That's a good idea," Toadsmeth agreed.

"Chopper, smash them all except me, OK?" Luigi suggested.

"You REALLY think I believe you guys are Bow? Seriously, this is just stupid." Chopper groaned. "I can tell you guys are practically imitating their voices...horribly. Bow's voice sounds just fine."

Bow seemed to like this, and she smiled sweetly at Chopper as her eyes sparkled.

"Oh, Chopper! I knew you loved me!"

"What? I never said anything about love!"

Chopper whacked Koopa Koot first. "You must have some sort of sixth sense, sonny." Koopa Koot turned back into a Duplighost. "Grrrr! Remember me! I'll return!"

The Duplighost simply fled from Chopper while grumbling.

Chopper smashed them all except for Bow. When he smashed Luigi, he wasn't quite happy.

"Chopper! I said I was the real Bow so many times… So mean…" Luigi turned back into a Duplighost. "Just joking. I definitely thought I had you going there, though…" That Duplighost fled from Chopper also.

"_**Gwah hee ha ha!**_ Yes, run away, you freak-sheets! Chopper already knows that I'm the real Bow!" Bow turned back to Chopper. "Thank you for listening to me. I knew you always had a soft spot for me, right?"

"Uhhhhhhhhh..."

"You don't have to say it!" Bow kissed Chopper on the cheek and blushed as she turned away, making Chopper nearly cry in agony...again.

"Ewww! Not again!"

"It's the least I can do. Now let's get everyone else here." Bow gave Chopper a cute wink before phasing through the wall, and while Chopper was wiping off the ghost kiss, she brought everyone into the same room as him.

They proceeded into the next room to the right, and they found a big gap. There was a blue ! switch that could be seen through the mirror. Chopper used Koopla to hit the switch where it seemed to be where it was on their side, and a bridge appeared.

"That wasn't so hard," Koopla commented as she got up.

They went into the next room, and they could go into the mirror side, so they went to the room with the two doors and used the one north. They found a small Dino Statue.

"I think I can push this…" Chopper trailed as he walked over to it and pushed it. Luckily, he was able to move away from the hole that he almost fell in.

They went to the other side, which is the normal side, and they went into the door south, where they found a bigger statue, with some hole. After going down it, they moved forward after landing on a spring to the next door. Chopper found a chest and opened it. It contained a Palace Key.

"I guess we better go to the further room we made it to, because there was a lock there," Koopla recalled.

"Man, I'm getting so tired. I feel like my wings need rest." Parakarry sighed.

"I hear ya, man…" Yosho said while panting. They made it back to that door, and Chopper unlocked it. They found three sun platforms on the ground, and two white dinosaur-like creatures called Albino Dinos

"Hmmm… Hey, dinosaur guys. Are you dangerous?" Chopper asked. They didn't seem to move, but they spoke.

"You can't go through here unless you solve the puzzle," one Albino Dino informed. "Once you solve the puzzle, we'll let you through."

Chopper saw two Albino Dino statues, and he knew what to do. They can only be moved in a certain direction, and talking to them would change their direction where they are.

"OK… I think I got this. But, it's going to take a while to do. So, hang on guys." Chopper suggested.

"OK, I'll try to hang on," Kayzee assured.

* * *

**Ten minutes later-**

After moving the blocks to their position, the Albino Dinos were on the sun platforms. A red rug began to roll down and became stairs. There was also a door as well. Once they went in, they found a Heart Block and Save Block. From what they could tell, they were almost done with this place.

"We're almost there. I can feel it..." Bow trailed. "But, it might be cold in the next room…if it's actually a room."

"I wonder who this Crystal King is anyway…" Chopper wondered as he hit the Heart Block and then the Save Block.

"Well, that question will be answered soon. We need to go now." C-2 Choppor suggested.

"Yes, you're right. Let's go!" Chopper began to open the door, and he noticed some wind blowing through the room. Everyone began to shiver, especially Chopper, but he tried to hold on and went through the door, with his friends following.

* * *

**Boss chapter is next. And I will say that the Chapter 7 boss is my favorite boss in the first Paper Mario game. It's just interesting. **

**However, it's better that I don't go into detail with it. Only one more Star Spirit remains, and we're going to get it in the boss chapter!**


	40. Crystal King: A Boss Battle on Ice

Once Chopper came out of the door, he saw that they were outside. They were no longer inside the palace now. There was a snowy bridge going up to a small circled bridge. It was snowing, and there were northern lights up in the sky. Yosho was shivering as always.

"Why does this king have to be out here? Can't we have a battle inside rather than outside? I'm probably goin' to freeze!" Yosho cried.

"We're almost there, so there's no reason to get so worried," Chopper assured. "We'll fight the Crystal King, get the Star Spirit, and get out of here. It's not like he's going to be hard… OK, Lakilar was kind of tough, but not very."

"We should just go up to see this king. I'm waiting to kick someone's butt." Koopla said as she cracked her knuckles. Chopper nodded and went up the snowy bridge at the tip of Shiver Mountain with his friends.

"Who comes to my palace!?" boomed a voice as they reached the top of the snowy bridge. "…Ah, it's you. I've been expecting you."

Someone appeared from the dark blue sky, and he looked rather mysterious…for one of Bowser's minions, that is. He only had two yellow eyes and a crystal crown with a red gem in the center. This person was also wearing a light blue robe. The weird thing about this boss was that he had no face, hands, and feet, which creeped everyone our a bit.

"Yes, you are the one named Chopper, are you not?" the mysterious person asked in a cold voice.

Chopper stepped back and got in his fighting stance. "Yeah, I'm Chopper! You must be the Crystal King, right?"

"Of course, you fool! I am the king of Shiver Mountain! Camikon said you'd be here a little later…but he did say that you were a fast one."

"OK, enough Crystal King. Where's the Star Spirit? I got one last Star Spirit to collect, and I didn't find it in the Crystal Palace! I suppose you're holding it, right?"

"This wouldn't be the one you're talking about, are you?" the Crystal King held up a Bowser Card, which had a Star Spirit shown. They all jumped up from this, forcing Chopper's friends in their fighting stances.

"So he DOES have the Star Spirit!" Koopla gaped.

"I'll make sure to blow this guy up for you, Chopper! We'll get him good!" Bruce declared.

"Why would Bowser have the Crystal King guard the card like before? Didn't he fail last time?" Parakarry pondered.

"My Smack doesn't work on him, unfortunately… So I don't like this one bit..." Bow trailed.

"The last Star Spirit… You will give that up right now. If you refuse, then we shall take you down." C-2 Choppor stated.

"Yeah, the robo's right! Yer goin' down, invisible guy!" Yosho shouted.

"We'll give you a big beating, you cold king!" Kayzee shouted.

"Crystal King, we're gonna take that Star Spirit even if you like it or not. You're going to be toast!" Chopper smirked.

"Heh, heh, heh, heh… I know you believe you can save the last Star Spirit, but I'm afraid I won't let you." the Crystal King cackled coldly. "I've been watching you make your way here, and I'm rather impressed to see you made it this far. However, don't think that victory is guaranteed to you! First I shall defeat you, then I shall present Bowser and Maquano with an iced Chopper gift! …Signed by the Crystal King!"

**Tattle: **_Whoa… This guy…has no face! Well, I heard that he's the Crystal King. …Holy… This guy's got some pretty good stats on him! Max HP: 70, Attack Power: 7, Defense Power: 2. He may not look big like the other bosses, but he can summon these crystals, and he'll spit 'em at you. They can do 4 damage each! Luckily, they only have 1 HP, so if you can attack multiple enemies, then use it! Trust me, this guy's not easy. Even if King Lakilar could recover that HP, he might recover his HP without anything like those Spinies. I'm not kidding. You should also use attacks that pierce defense, or lets you do unlimited damage. And…take him out before he even tries to recover HP. No wonder Bowser gave the last Star Spirit to his toughest minion…or is he REALLY his strongest minion?_

"Come out, my small little crystals! Your time has come at last!" The Crystal King summoned three crystals with yellow eyes. One is a sphere shaped, the other is a cube shape, and the last one is a diamond shape.

"All right, I guess I better use my Power Bounce on him if we're to take him out fast," Chopper muttered. "So, time to get started!"

Chopper walked to the Crystal King, and he began to stomp on him. Since the Crystal King had 2 defense, each stomp only dealt 1 damage. He stomped on him ten times, taking 10 out of him.

Since C-2 Choppor's attacks weren't affected by defense, he aimed his gun at the Crystal King, and he fired at him. However, the Crystal King inhaled the small crystals and spat them at Chopper. He guarded two of them, but couldn't guard the last one. So, he took 10 damage overall.

"Geez... This guy is serious business." Yosho gaped.

"10 damage? We haven't seen someone deal that much damage without charging an attack!" Bow gaped.

"OK, let's go for another Power Bounce! And this time, let's hope it makes up for that attack..." Chopper began his Power Bounce on the Crystal King once again, stomping on him eight times. C-2 Choppor aimed at the Crystal King again, and he fired a yellow blast at him. The Crystal King only had 40 HP left. Not bad at all.

"Not bad… But I just got started!" the Crystal King summoned his floating crystals, wasting an entire turn. "Once I use these guys against you again, I think I'll have a better chance of destroying you!"

"Oh, that's not bad at all…" Chopper trailed. "You just wasted an entire turn."

"An entire turn? Not one bit, considering my last attack was powerful!"

"Well, I should take those crystals out first. Hmm… I'll use my Shooting Star I've still got with me."

Chopper decided to become Fire Chopper so he wouldn't freeze from the Crystal King's attacks. He took out his Shooting Star, and a bunch of shooting stars began to rain down on the Crystal King and the crystals. It did 6 damage, ignoring the Crystal King's defense.

C-2 Choppor blasted him once again, and the Crystal King fired an ice beam at Chopper. He took 7 damage from it, due to his attack being able to ignore what type of element Chopper had on, but he didn't freeze.

"I think that could've froze you," Parakarry realized. "Thank goodness for that Fire ability, huh?"

"All right, time for some fire!" Chopper spewed out a bunch of fire at the Crystal King, which heated him up. Sadly, that did only 4 damage. "What? I didn't deal more damage? Come on! You're an ice enemy!"

"You honestly think your Fire will actually melt me? You are pretty foolish to think that… I am not Frosty the Snowman!" the Crystal King scoffed.

"Of course you aren't. You have no face!"

"Well try all you want, but fire attacks cannot pierce through my defense. I am one of Bowser's strongest minions, after all."

"Maybe not. But this will surely pierce your defense." C-2 Choppor fired a blast at the Crystal King, leaving him with only 18 HP left.

"Hmm… I'm running out of ideas. Well, I can still do this to make this fight much easier for me!" the Crystal King raised his arms, making him automatically recover 20 HP.

"What a cheap move!" Chopper gaped. "He recovered 20 HP! You know what? If you're going to be cheap, then I'll be cheap!"

Chopper summoned Muskular to help him, and he used his Chill Out to lower his Attack by 3, leaving the Crystal King's Attack to be 4 instead of 7. Kayzee flew over to the Crystal King and punched him. That really didn't do much, but the Crystal King wasted up a turn summoning his Crystal Bits.

"OK, so he summoned his Crystal Bits. Kayzee, why don't you take them out with your Sing attack?"

"OK!" Kayzee flew over to the Crystal King and began to use her Sing to take out the Crystal Bits.

"Hmmm?" the Crystal King took damage from the attack, and his Crystal Bits were taken out also.

"Yay! Now they're gone!"

"I still have another move to test out!" the Crystal King brought his right arm down, and Chopper and Kayzee were hit by an Ice Slash attack. Chopper guarded it, but Kayzee, on the other hand, got injured.

"Whoa... That attack came out of nowhere!" Parakarry gaped. "That was...unexpected!"

"Oh, boy… This isn't good… Well, better Power Bounce him!" Chopper began to Power Bounce the Crystal King again. He jumped on him ten times, so it left the Crystal King with 20 HP left. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at the Crystal King, and it took 6 from him. This battle was pretty much over right now.

The Crystal King shot an ice beam at Chopper again, but Chopper managed to guard the attack, unlike before. So he got pretty lucky there, but his HP was rather low.

"I think I can make another attack," Chopper used another Power Bounce on the Crystal King, and he hit him six times, leaving him with 8 HP left. Once C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him, the Crystal King had 2 HP left. But, he wasn't as dumb as the other bosses. He recovered 20 HP right off the bat.

Chopper took out a Whacka's Bump, and he ate it to recover 25 HP, because he REALLY needed to heal himself.

"This guy just won't give up!" Koopla frowned." He'll just recover all that HP we took away from him!"

"You just have to keep attacking. Keep using that Power Bounce on him." Bow suggested.

"Let me make my attack first," C-2 Choppor suggested as he fired a blast at the Crystal King. "I'm really the one who is probably considered best for this battle. ...No offense to you guys, of course."

"Don't worry about it," Koopla assured.

"Gah! You pest! I'll make this even more complicated for you!" the Crystal King floated up and began to spin around. Suddenly, there were THREE Crystal Kings. "Take a guess who the real one is. We'll give you a chance to attack!"

"Man! This IS tough!" Chopper jumped on the first one, but he phased through him. Kayzee was able to get up, and when she saw the three Crystal Kings, she knew what to do. Before C-2 Choppor could fire, Kayzee floated in front of him and used her Sing. It turns out the one in the front was the real one.

The Crystal King got pretty annoyed by this. Now that his Attack power is back up, he shot an ice beam at Chopper, getting rid of his Fire ability.

"Good, that should let me freeze him now," the Crystal King grinned. "Now I have an upper advantage."

Chopper quickly shook himself and shot a fireball at the Crystal King, since he was mad that his fire ability was now gone. Yosho wanted to get into some action, so he fluttered over to the Crystal King and used his Ground Pound on him. Unfortunately, it did nothing, because the Crystal King recovered 20 HP after he attacked. What a pain!

"Oh, fine… Time to use my Power Bounce on him again." Chopper groaned as he stomped on the Crystal King eight times, and then C-2 Choppor fired at him afterward. The Crystal King used his Ice Slash to attack Chopper, but he managed to guard the attack.

"Allow me to attack first," C-2 Choppor suggested as he fired a blast at him and then turned to Chopper. "The honor is all yours."

"OK, good!" Chopper began to charge up a fireball, and it made the Crystal King's eyes widen.

"You wouldn't dare!" the Crystal King gaped.

"Sorry, but I have no other choice," he shot the fireball at the king, and it managed to defeat him while he began to burn up. Chopper received 43 Star Points from the battle, and they all noticed the Crystal King was no longer scorched by the flames.

"This can't be! The last Star Spirit! King Bowser, forgive meeeeee!" the Crystal King cried as he slowly began to fade away. However, before he could, he gave Chopper a glare. "Don't think it's all over! One day, we'll meet again, and I will be stronger than before! Remember that now, Chopper!"

After his final speech, the Crystal King faded away and turned into stardust, which began to fly off into the sky.

"We did it..." Chopper sighed. "We finally won."

A glittering light appeared from the snowy ground, and when it exploded, the Bowser Card the Crystal King had appeared. This Star Spirit had a brown mustache. It was most likely the Star Spirit that was being a downer when Chopper was in a coma from the battle against Bowser.

"There it is, Chopper. The last Star Spirit. We're almost done with our quest." Parakarry sighed.

"Go ahead, you earned it," C-2 Choppor stated.

Chopper nodded to his partners, and he walked over to the Bowser Card. He grabbed it and held it up. The Bowser Card began to spin around, and the card began to fade as last Star Spirit began to appear. The last Star Spirit, Kalmar, was finally saved.

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_Chopper has saved the last Star Spirit, Kalmar, from the Crystal Palace at the edge of the world. Now, with the seven Star Spirits together, he has the power to challenge Bowser…and the Star Rod. At last, it is time for Chopper's showdown with Evil King Bowser and Evil Lord Maquano. Can Chopper rescue Princess Peach and recover the Star Rod? Or will wishes forever go ungranted?_

* * *

**What a cool boss this was! *shot for bad pun* ...Although, I feel that the Power Bounces kind of made this boss a LITTLE repetitive. I did say that the Crystal King is my favorite boss in the game. It's not my favorite in this one, but my favorite will eventually come. Trust me on this.**

**The Crystal King originally doesn't talk while fighting, but I made him talk just to make it a little more interesting. And, I gave him and Attack of 7 on purpose. Just to make him a little tougher...though I personally found him tougher than Huff N. Puff when I first fought him.  
**

**We're getting close to Chapter 8, which means we're getting to another awesome chapter! So, stay tuned for that.**


	41. Chapter 7 Interlude

Back up in the sky, where Bowser and Peach's Castle were, Peach was out on the balcony, looking down at Toad Town and the rest of the world. She noticed that at the edge of the world, some star dust flew away from the peak of the mountain. But, she could also notice a pale green boy and some friends with the last Star Spirit, leaving the Crystal Palace.

"Twink… Is that…the last Star Spirit?" Peach asked. "And is that boy with him Chopper?"

Twink took a look also, and he noticed Chopper. "Hey, that is Chopper! Does this mean he rescued the last Star Spirit? That's great!"

"I remember someone who fended Bowser off from the castle one time before Mario showed up when she came here for a visit. She actually gave me a lot of respect, but it could be because I'm a princess. Her pale green color reminds me of that boy's."

"Don't suppose that the person who saved you…was Chopper's mother?" Twink pondered. "Did you know her name?"

"Well… She told me her name's…**Tonberria**."

"Really? That's interesting. Maybe if you were able to talk to him in person, that would make him surprised. I don't think he even knows about that."

"His mother came here eleven years ago. I was a little younger back then. Of course, I'm not necessarily old. Anyway, let's go back into the room, shall we?"

Peach and Twink walked back into the room, but unfortunately for them, Bowser and Maquano walked into Peach's room. Bowser seemed to be in a little good mood today. But, that might change…

"Oh, Princess Peach! Your cuddly old Bowser's here!" Bowser chuckled. Twink hid under one of the blue curtains, and both Bowser and Maquano walked over to the princess.

"Can't we have a friendly conversation for a change? C'mon! Lemme see a smile!"

"I have nothing to say to you," Peach retorted as she turned away and crossed her arms.

"Oh, don't be such a pill. You're stuck with me for a long, long time, beautiful. You'd better get used to it."

"Chopper won't have a chance coming here," Maquano spat. "The last Star Spirit is guarded safely by the Crystal King, and the entrance to Shiver Mountain is sealed. I'm sure he is already lost."

Peach turned back to Bowser and Maquano. "No, Chopper is coming, Bowser and Maquano. And you can't stop him!"

"_**Gwaa ha ha ha! **_Oh, you poor, silly girl!" Bowser cackled. "I'm invincible with this Star Rod, didn't you know? Chopper's no match for me! He's history, get over it!"

"Yes, Chopper is doomed. Even if he got the seven Star Spirits, he won't make it here." Maquano grinned. "This place is high up in the sky, and even if he made it here, Staris will be able to handle him! Isn't that right, Staris?"

Staris rose up from the yellow puddle that appeared, and he slowly nodded. Peach didn't say anything. However, Kammy and Camikon came into the room with worried looks.

"Your Raunchiness! We have an emergency!" Kammy cried.

"Lord Maquano! We have some VERY bad news!" Camikon cried.

"Grr! It'd better be important!" Bowser growled as he turned to the two. "I'm right in the middle of a friendly chat with the princess."

"You better be telling me something important," Maquano growled. "I want to go down to his castle and kill some of the prisoners. I'm getting a little bored, and I haven't killed anyone in a while, so they'll do just fine."

Kammy and Camikon looked at each other and gulped. "Uh… Chopper has now saved all the Star Spirits! There…IS a chance he could come here using their power… We must make ourselves ready in case he shows up."

"What!? Gah! Cho-pp-eeeeer!" Bowser screamed. "OK. Listen, Kammy Koopa. Send everyone to their posts! We'll ambush him the second he gets to my castle!"

"Perhaps Princess Peach can join us with our watch on Chopper," Maquano suggested. "Peach, you can have a front-row seat to see Chopper get crushed!"

Bowser turned to Staris and pointed to him. "You! Yeah, you! Tie her up immediately! If she gets out this time, heads will roll!"

"Tie her up, Staris," Maquano ordered.

Staris got a rope and used it to tie up the helpless princess.

"No! Please!" Peach cried. Twink appeared with a bold look.

"You big…Koopa, and you evil…knight!" Twink cried, trying to bash Maquano with all his might, despite not doing anything. "Show some respect to the princess!"

"It's you again…" Maquano sighed. "Look, there's no time for you to be attacking. You can't even hurt me!"

Maquano reached down by his waist, and where his curved up handle was, he pulled out his sword. His sword appeared to be red, and it had a dark mist that surrounded it.

Maquano swung his sword at Twink, and it sent him flying out, with darkness covering him.

"Twiiiiink!" Peach cried.

"Take the princess! Now! Let's move!" Bowser shouted.

"Noooo!" Peach cried as Staris began to carry her out of the room. He was angered by the name "Chopper", which was a name he loathed more than anything else by now. Peach tried to struggle, but Staris kept a firm grip and left the room.

* * *

**Crystal Palace entrance-**

"I thank you for saving me from that evil Crystal King," thanked Kalmar. "My name is Kalmar. Chopper, well done. If you didn't come, Shiver Mountain would've been doomed. You have successfully rescued all of us Star Spirits. We are in your debt. Now all that is left is for you to challenge Bowser. My Power should help you…to bring back the Star Rod, to beat Bowser, to bring peace back to the Mushroom Kingdom, and…to save Princess Peach."

Kalmar began to give Chopper some of his Power. Chopper felt the energy in him, and he learned the last Star Spirit move.

**Chopper's Star Energy goes up to 7! Chopper can now use Up & Away, a new Star Spirit Power! With Up & Away, you can turn all enemies into stars!**

"Chopper, you must make your way back to Shooting Star Summit. From Shooting Star Summit, we'll prepare the route to **Star Haven**. The name of this route is **Star Way**. Once you travel the Star Way, you'll finally reach Star Haven."

"Star Haven, huh? It sounds like some cool kind of place up in the sky, I guess." Chopper pondered as he wondered what Star Haven looked like.

"Once you make it to our sanctuary, we'll tell you something. My only wish is for you to save this precious world. You can do it, Chopper. Good-bye for now."

Kalmar began to fly back to Star Haven as his voice echoed, "I'll see you up in the sky."

"So we get to go back to Star Haven?" Parakarry asked. "That was always a nice place… Don't you think it was, Bow?"

"Yes, it certainly was," Bow agreed. "And we're actually going back there. I wonder how those Stars are doing up there anyway."

"Wait, I thought that Star Way is called Star Road," Bruce recalled. "I mean, I heard it from a kid with some doll while we once took a stroll in Toad Town."

"…Who said that?" Chopper asked.

"Some kid. Who else? He had this cool-looking doll with him too. I think he lives somewhere near Merlon's house. It was a little hard to see it, but there's a house near Merlon's.

"I wanna see what's there. I bet he'll get along with Bloopi!" Kayzee squealed.

"We better get going, then. We have a LONG way to go now." Chopper began to leave the palace entrance, and his friends began to follow him out of Shiver Mountain…while listening to the awesome music.

They fought some enemies on the way back, and Chopper leveled up from some battles. He went with HP, so he has 40 HP now. Afterward, he rested at the inn in Shiver City, and he found a bunch of Mushrooms and an Ultra Shroom in the center. His friends were shocked at this also.

"Who left these here? It's like…Santa Claus came here!" Koopla gaped.

"Well of course it's Santa Claus! Who else delivers presents?" Kayzee questioned.

"That's obvious," Chopper nodded. "Anyway, time to leave!"

* * *

**Toad Town-**

Right by Merlon's house, there was a Toad child with a doll in his arms. Unfortunately, they couldn't see much of the doll except for the blue hat, and that it's a light brown color.

"Hey, what do you want? Are you looking at my doll?" the Toad child asked.

"Umm… Yeah, we are. What kind of doll is that?" Chopper asked.

"I found him while I was in Shooting Star Summit," he retorted. "Sorry, but I'm not telling you anything about him! What are you even doing anyway?"

"I'm going to stop Bowser. That's what I'm going to do! But, I don't understand why that doll would be in Shooting Star Summit…"

"I don't know. I found it, and I kept it. And you say you can stop Bowser? Ha! Even if you're not from the Mushroom Kingdom, you don't have a chance against him! You even got your butt kicked by him a couple of weeks ago!"

"That was before… This is now." Chopper declared, giving a serious look. "I've went through a lot, and I already got all seven Star Spirits. So… You're saying I don't have a chance?"

"You got the seven Star Spirits? …OK, I'll give you that, but if you beat him, then I'll admit that I'm wrong. So, go ahead and fight him already!"

Chopper nodded, and he headed through the blue gate. There, he and his friends made their way to Shooting Star Summit, and to where Chopper first met the Star Spirits by himself.

"Whoa... This is Shooting Star Summit?!" Bruce gaped.

"How come you never showed this place before? !" Koopla exclaimed.

"Because we never needed to come here...?" Chopper shrugged.

"Well, we're here now, so we better just deal with it," Bow suggested.

_"Chopper, can you hear me…?" _As Chopper reached the top of the hill, he heard a voice echoing around the area.

"Hmmm… That's the Star Spirit's voice." C-2 Choppor confirmed.

"Yeah, it does sound like it," Yosho agreed.

_"I'm going to open the entrance to Star Way. Enter this path without fear. The Star Way continues all the way up here to Star Heven. We 7 Star Spirits will be waiting for you here. We wish to give you our remaining Power. With this Power, you'll be able to stand up to the Star Rod Bowser holds."_

The panels with the glowing stars began to light up, and in the center, a ray of light with star particles shot down from the sky. Everyone jumped in surprise and stepped back.

_"We anxiously await you… Chopper, make haste to Star Haven!"_

Chopper turned to his friends, and they nodded. He also nodded to them, and they began to walk into the ray of light. They noticed that their feet were off the ground.

"Whoa! What's this?" Bruce gasped. "Are we being sent up? I'm... I'm afraid of heights!"

"Just shut up and deal with it," Koopla snapped.

* * *

**Star Way-**

Up in space, there was a path made of star dust that they all landed on, with some of them sighing in relief now that they weren't floating. They noticed they were on Star Way, and they could even see the blue sky and the stars. Bruce looked nervous.

"Oh, boy… I'm not liking this. Did I ever tell you that I tend to look down when we're up high?" he shivered.

"No… But thanks for telling us. We should try to take the Star Way up now." Chopper suggested as he began to move on, noticing blue fiery enemies called Embers.

This path is not really that long. Basically, they were all going around a spiral path on Star Way. On their way up, at the end, they could see moonlight lanterns on some small clouds. Up ahead, they noticed a pathway leading to Star Haven.

"There it is. Star Haven dead ahead." Koopla grinned.. Once they made it there, the star dust disappeared, and they found themselves on purple ground with star marks on them. There were some trees that were a light blue color, with the leaves being yellow stars. There was also some star water too.

Chopper walked to a Star that had grown up and spoke to it. "Hey there! How's it going?"

"Good afternoon, …or good evening, maybe?" the Star pondered. "In Star Haven, you can see stars all the time. There used to be a lot more shooting stars…but that was before the Star Rod was taken. The beauty of this place was incredible back then…"

After speaking with that Star, Chopper wanted to rest at the inn. After that, he hit the Save Block to save his game. They followed the brown brick path to the right afterward, and they saw a big sanctuary. It was a blue color, and it had some kind of dome at the top. There were even two star fountains in the water.

"I never seen anything like this in Star Haven," Koopla gaped. "…Maybe it was a different area. I'm not fully sure."

"I saw a bridge, and Star Kids playing. It must be somewhere else in Star Haven." C-2 Choppor pondered.

"And that water looks just like-"

"_**WE GET IT!**_"

"Whoa! No need to snap, everyone..." Yosho trailed.

Chopper noticed that there was some kind of star dust path behind the Star Sanctuary. "Hey, I think I can see a path behind the sanctuary… But, I don't think we can go there. Let's just go in the sanctuary."

He walked up the stairs, and he went inside with his partners following him. The interior had light blue walls, a light blue path, and a gray pedestal. There was clear water inside here instead of star water. All seven Star Spirits were each floating over a pillar surrounding them.

"Chopper, you finally made it. The time has come to take the fight to Bowser's turf." Eldstar declared. "Now… Hold still while we 7 join together to bestow upon you our final Power."

All seven of them began to give Chopper some power, and he felt like he had gotten a very strong ability to fight Bowser.

**Chopper can now use Star Beam!**

"If you use this Power, you can drain the power of the Star Rod whenever Bowser uses it," Eldstar explained before remembering something. "Ah yes! And one more thing, I have one final gift which should come in handy. Mario used this before, and I'm sure you can use it too!"

Something shiny began to appear, and a blue boat-like vehicle was now in front of them.

"This is the legendary Star Ship of Star Haven. Bowser is keeping his castle way up in the sky. With this ship, however, you can reach it. Climb aboard! On to Bowser's Castle! We will always be with you. Whenever you are in need, use our Powers to help you."

"Thank you, Star Spirits! Thank you, Eldstar, for this Star Ship!" Chopper smiled. "Now… It's time to face off against Bowser! …And not to mention Maquano. Hopefully, there's a chance to stop Staris too."

Chopper jumped into the Star Ship, and the others tried to squeeze in. It was tough to fit in it, but they managed to do it.

"It's REALLY crowded in here," Parakarry winced. "I feel like I'm getting squished!"

"Yer not the only one here!" Yosho agreed..

"Let's just shut up and get going already," Chopper suggested. The Star Ship flew up, and it left the Star Sanctuary.

The Star Ship began to fly upward and headed directly for Bowser's Castle. They were all ready to take down Bowser. Chopper's face even showed it.

* * *

At the beginning area of Shooting Star Summit, another Toad kid saw a shooting star fly by. "Look… …a shooting star! Princess…come back… Princess…come back… Princess…come back…"

"Did you wish for something? I hope your dreams come true." his mother hoped.

"Me too!"

* * *

Many people in the Mushroom Kingdom also began to make wishes when they saw the Star Ship fly by. Most of them kept saying:

"I want to see the princess… I want to see the princess… I want to see the princess…"

But, the Toad kid with the doll made a different wish, like this:

"I want to eat Shroom Cake… I want to eat Shroom Cake… I want to eat tons and tons of Shroom Cake… Oh, shooting star… Please fulfill my wishes… Pretty please…"

* * *

The Star Ship was getting near Bowser's Castle, with the first thing they saw being the clown-like smile holding both castle. The ship flew into the mouth of the Bowser head statue, with Chopper giving a determine look.

"All right, Bowser… This time I'm ready for you!"

* * *

**Oh boy, Chapter 8 officially starts next chapter! Is it awesome? Yes, it is. But the exploring stuff can be a little tedious... But, there's some good action in it.**


	42. Bowser's Castle Part 1

**CHAPTER 8**

**-A Star-Powered Showdown!-**

The Star Ship floated into the small hangar, where there were some Koopa Klowns. Getting off the Star Ship, everyone saw the dark gray tiles on the ground. There was a Save Block in the room as well. Chopper, for the first time, was going to go through Bowser's Castle.

"Hold on a second… Why couldn't we have taken the Star Ship to Peach's Castle instead of flying into the hangar?" Chopper questioned. "We could've just made our way out to Peach's Castle already."

"My scanners saw that some watery monster would've attacked us if we flew to Peach's Castle…and it's coming here right now," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Wait, you're telling us that Staris is coming here?" Koopla gulped. "Oh boy… We're in for it now."

"Maybe we just need to get out of this hanger," Chopper hit the Save Block, and he went to the door up ahead. Once he opened it, he saw it led outside. He could see a bridge, with lava underneath, and a door that led into the castle.

"Guys, come out here. We can probably get to Peach's Castle if we keep going." Everyone came outside, and when they walked over to the bridge, a yellow fist stretched by them to punch them.

"What the…" Bruce looked up, and he saw Staris on the roof of of Bowser's Castle, giving them all a glare as he tried to ready another punch.

"Guys… Staris is here." Bruce gulped. Everyone looked up, and they were shocked. However, Chopper realized something and the fear wiped off his face.

"Hold on a second… This is Staris in his second transformation!" he scoffed. "Why would we be afraid of him we beat him before?"

"You're right!" Kayzee flew up to Staris, and she stuck her tongue out at him. Staris stretched his arm out to punch Kayzee, but she kept avoiding them. "Miss me! You silly watery god! You can't hit me like that! Because I'm…"

Staris shot a Star Bea at Kayzee from his mouth, and it made Kayzee crash into the hangar.

"Wait… When did he learn to do that? He didn't do that when we were fightin' him before!" Yosho gaped as Kayzee got herself back up and used her heat vision on Staris. But, since Staris was made of water, it didn't do anything.

"He may be water, but I've got ice! Take this, Staris!" Chopper shot an ice ball at Staris, freezing him in place. "OK, guys. We gotta find some entrance to go to before he breaks out!"

Kayzee flew around to see if there was anything. Across the bridge, there was a side entrance to the right. "Ooh! I see a side entrance! Let's go in there!"

"We better make it quick. Staris is about to break out of the ice." Bow warned, looking at Staris right now, who was actually shaking.

They crossed the bridge and quickly headed over to the side entrance. The ice began to show Staris's glowing green eyes, forcing him to break out. He noticed that they got away.

"…" Staris stretched his arm out towards the roof, and he began to go someplace else in Bowser's Castle. Hopefully to find Chopper.

* * *

**Side Entrance-**

The side entrance took the eight into a room with some small ledges going down and leading to armored Koopas called Koopatrols, which were the enemies that were patrolling Peach's Castle.. There are only two around as of now.

Chopper started off by shooting an ice ball at the first one, and then C-2 Choppor shot the Koopatrol to finish it. They had 8 HP, an Attack of 5, and 3 Defense. The Koopatrol remaining attacked Chopper by going into its shell and tossing itself, but Chopper managed to guard that attack.

Unfortunately for the Koopatrol, he became frozen by Chopper's ice ball, and was defeated by C-2 Choppor's blast, giving them 6 Star Points. Not only did Chopper get the Star Points, but the Koopatrols dropped a Castle Key, so Chopper took the key back to that door and unlocked it. It led them into a bigger room with some nuts and bolts. This part was like a factory, but there was a bridge that they could cross to get to the next room.

Koopatrols appeared around here also, and they weren't afraid to make an attack on Chopper and his friends. They fought them in the big room, and after they won, they headed into the entrance that led into a hallway with a blue rug. The walls were a gray color, which was something you could expect. There were also torches with blue fire on the walls too.

Koopatrols and Hammer Bros. were what were in the room. The Hammer Bros. had 12 HP, an Attack of 6, and a Defense of 1, according to what they saw from their stats so far.

"Is there really anything to this part of the castle? The enemies here aren't much of a challenge…" Chopper trailed as he was bashing a Hammer Bro. with his hammer.

They got to the door, and they encountered a big door with a statue of Bowser's head in the next room. There ere also three blocks with Bowser's face on them.

"What a strange room… Be ready for anything you see." Chopper had ice around his fists, ready to freeze anything.

"Bloooaaahhhhhhhh! Welcome, worm!" the door roared. "I'm called the Guard Door of Bowser's Castle. It's my job to keep suspicious types from entering."

"Hold on a sec… The door TALKS?!" Yosho gaped as he lowered his sunglasses.

"Weird… Doors don't usually talk." Chopper frowned.

"You must be Chopper. Let me guess… Do you want to go through here?" the Guard Door asked. "Hmm? You want to get to the other side of this wall, right?"

"Well of COURSE! Why wouldn't I?"

"OK then… Heh heh heh… Stand in front of me. All of you!" Chopper did what it said, and he and his partners stood in front of the door. "Are you standing squarely in front of me? OK… Then…I'll let you go through."

"Hold on, is this some kind of trap?" Bow asked. "I remember being here and there was a trap in this spot."

"No… There is no trap." Suddenly, a pit opened up from the ground Chopper and his friends were standing on. "Oh, looks like I was wrong! Bwa ha ha ha!"

Chopper looked down, and he noticed he wasn't even touching the floor, making him and his friends fall through the trapdoor. Bruce was screaming for his life, due to being afraid of heights. He thought he was going to die.

"…HA! You should NEVER trust a door with a Bowser face on it! Oh, man! I am good at this!"

* * *

**A prison-**

All eight of them fell into a prison, and they quickly got up as they fell the cold, hard floor.

"Ugh... That was an awful fall..." Parakarry moaned.

"I hear ya," Chopper agreed.

"Gaaaah ha ha ha ha! You fell for it, worm!" the Guard Door bellowed. "You'll never escape from that impenetrable prison! Try all you like! All you'll do is exhaust yourself!"

"That's not fair! You can't just leave us here, you bad, mean door!" Kayzee shouted.

"I'll tell you what: If you make it back up here, I'll let you go through. How's that? Ahhh ha ha ha! I know you'll never make it! I hope you have a good time shaking and crying down there! Gah ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"But… Then we'll never save everyone!" Kayzee's eyes began to water up, indicating that she was going to cry.

"Don't cry, Kayzee. I'm sure we'll think of something!" Parakarry assured. "These Toads probably want to get out also."

Chopper hit the Heart Block first, but then someone called for him. He looked at the old Toad with the white mustache, the turquoise polka dots on his cap, and the red robe he's wearing.

"Who are you?" Chopper asked.

"I am the Minister," he introduced. "I've been taking care of Princess Peach ever since she was a little girl. You must be new to here. It's been eleven years since someone from another planet came here. She actually reminds me of you for some reason. Tell me, son. What's your name?"

"My name is Chopper. I came here to save Peach and take back the Star Rod from Bowser. Hopefully, I can also take down Maquano and stop Staris as well. But, I need to stop Bowser before those two."

"Chopper, eh? I don't exactly remember who came here, but she said her husband went to some other place called um… I think it had the word dream and also land. Was it Dream Land? I think it was…"

"I don't really know who this person would be. But, do you know a way out of this place? We can't stay here forever."

"This is a little secret…but the crack in the wall over there can be blown up. We just don't have explosives. Maybe you got something."

"Explosives, huh? Well, thank you for the help." Chopper walked over to the wall, and he made a whistling sound for Bruce to come over. He picked him up and threw him at the wall. Once he blew up, the wall revealed a secret entrance through the hole.

"Ah, there we go! These walls are just a piece of cake!" Bruce declared. "What weak material. The walls are much easier to break than anything in Koopa Bros. Park. You're really lucky to you have me along, aren't you!"

"Yep, I sure am. Let's get out of here." Chopper suggested as he and his friends went through the hole in the wall, and they found a path up ahead with platforms in the lava. Chopper hit the Save Block first, and they moved on.

"Whoa… This is the first time we ever saw lava. Let's be careful here." Koopla suggested, looking down at the lava.

"Don't look down at the lava, if I may give suggestions," C-2 Choppor stated.

Chopper jumped onto the platforms that were moving left and right and he crossed over some platforms that sank when he stepped on them. He was the first to make it over to the next area.

"Must not fall into the lava... Must not fall into the lava… If I do, I will explode." Bruce was jumping to each platform carefully. However, Yosho took care of things by putting him in his mouth so he'd make it faster.

_"I can't believe I'm doing this,"_ Yosho thought. _"I'm worried that the inside of my mouth will explode. The ladies will never go for me then!" _

After the party members made it over the platforms, they found a blue ! switch sitting on a platform further away from them. Since C-2 Choppor could shoot something while staying there, he used his visor to scan the switch and fired.

"The platform is now moving," C-2 Choppor stated as he saw a platform to the other side of the lava began to move toward them. So they used it to move on. There was another platfom after crossing over lava that had an entrance to where a chest is. C-2 Choppor fired at the switch, and the platform began to move, letting them use it to get across to another platform.

Parakarry noticed a gap between the platform and a skinny platform, so he carried Chopper over there and then over to the next platform. Basically, they were jumping on platforms over the lava.

They got to the next area, and they had to go over the lava this time, since there's no platforms around. Luckily, Kayzee could fly over that, so she flew Chopper over the lava and to a platform by a lava fall. The platform moving left and right on the lava fall didn't get hot when Chopper jumped on it, but he needed Bow to make him invisible so the lava wouldn't hurt him.

"This lava isn't much of a problem. Being transparent prevents us from getting hurt!" Bow cackled as they went through the lava fall transparent. The others were invisible too, so they didn't get hurt.

However, Parakarry had to carry Chopper over to another platform after that lava fall, and they found a doorway on the lava. Kayzee flew Chopper and his friends over the lava and into the next room, which had lava covering the ground, but luckily, there were stairs, so they took the stairs up to three Koopatrols, and a Magikoopa guarding a blue ! switch.

Once they took notice of Chopper, they gasped.

"Uh-oh! Ch… Chopper…is right…there!" one Koopatrol gulped. "Now what are we supposed to do in this situation? Kammy Koopa told us something, but I'm drawing a total blank. I think…she told us not to let him touch that switch… Oh…oh…no… Do you think that means we have to fight him?"

"No! He'll wipe the floor with us!" the second Koopatrol cried.

"Stop your bellyaching! You Koopatrols shouldn't be acting like this!" the Magikoopa snapped. "And besides, who says we should be afraid of Chopper, huh? He's not so bad! Whatever happens, we can't let him push that switch! Don't you care that King Bowser needs our help? C'mon! Take this…boy! Show him what you're made of!"

"Waahh! We have no choice! Gotta be brave… Gotta be… _**Attaaack!**_"

Chopper simply summoned Skolar to use Star Storm on them, and Kayzee used her Sing on them to finish the battle up. The battle rewarded Chopper with 13 Star Points. Since the enemies were gone, Chopper whacked the switch with his hammer, and the lava stopped flowing. The lava began to harden also.

"Aw…yeah! The lava totally cooled off and hardened!" Yosho smiled. "We can walk across that now, right, buddy?"

"That was a smart thing to do," Bow smiled as she looked at Chopper. "I want to cuddle up with you now, but now's not the time for that."

"Oh, no... I don't want that at all. It's so pointless!"

They headed back to the previous where they found the chest, and Chopper got on Yosho so he could jump up to the chest. It had a Castle Key in there. Afterward, they headed back to the last room, where Chopper unlocked the door.

"All right, the time has come to pretty much leave this area! Let's go, everyone!" Chopper declared.

He opened the door, and everyone went in. But, it suddenly began to feel dark.

"I can't see a thing in here!" Koopla cried.

"Crud… What are we supposed to do here?" Bruce asked. It seemed like they were doomed…in darkness.

"Gah! I'm sick of this darkness! We can't just stay here and do nothing! We gotta do something." Chopper cried.

"I know what to do," Bow declared, rubbing one of her hands on Chopper's cheeks. He didn't notice at first, but he ended up finding out once he lit up some fire from his hands.

"I don't mean that, Bow. What I meant was we need some light."

"Of course… Fine then."

"Light visors turning on," C-2 Choppor used his visor to make some light. They saw that they were in a dark cave. They couldn't see the walls, but they could see a dark yellow rocky path that's slanted going up. Some of the parts of the castle were torn off, since the material's weak. They kept going up through the cave slowly, trying to be aware of anything dangerous.

They could see some white shelled enemies called Boney Beetles while moving through the dark cave. This one doesn't have spikes, but attack it with your hammer, and spikes will appear. They simply avoided it to keep themselves from getting hurt.

After traveling through some of the cave, they found a gap to the left up a slope, so Parakarry flew Chopper over it.

"If Choppor wasn't here, I wouldn't be able to help you get through here," Parakarry sighed. "Choppor, thank you so much for your light."

"You are welcome, Parakarry. I wish to see Bowser pay for what he has done to my friends." C-2 Choppor declared. "I wonder if C-1 Mega is here as well. I'm a bit curious on that."

They began to keep going up a slope in the cave to the left after crossing the gap, and they found another gap up ahead. There wasn't much around after they went over the gap. They just saw the next path up ahead, so they just moved on. C-2 Choppor was keeping his light visor on through this whole dark cave.

Going up the slope to the left, they saw two ways to go. Both ways had a Koopatrol, but Chopper froze one of them and whacked them with his hammer. Nothing was up, so they took the path down, and then to the left up another slope. There was a small gap they needed to cross over. After fighting the Koopatrols, Chopper leveled up. He chose FP, so he had 40 FP.

"All right, looks like it's my turn to help you, Chopper! This won't take long!" Parakarry grabbed Chopper's arms, and he flew over the gap.

"Man, there's so much to this cave. I mean, I see three ways to go! How am I supposed to know which way to go?" Chopper asked.

"Let's take the one that's furthest," Bow suggested. They took the path to the far north, and went up the slope. There was another gap, so, as usual, Parakarry flew Chopper over it. They kept going up, but there was a Spiky Boney Beetle that came after them.

"Eeek! Man, I honestly think this place is scary." Bruce shivered. "Wait, hold on! Man up, Bruce! If Bombette were to go out with me again, I gotta be more of a man!"

He walked over to the Spiky Boney Beetle, with his fuse lit up and blew up the Spiky Boney Beetle, defeating it.

Before Chopper kept going up, Yosho noticed something down the gap. He used his tongue to get Chopper back over to the other side.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?!" Chopper snapped. "Now Parakarry's going to have to carry me over there again!"

"There's a spring below this path. Let's go down there!" Yosho jumped down, and so did Koopla and Bruce. Chopper shrugged and jumped down with the rest of his friends, where they saw another path ahead. They kept going to the left and up a small slope near them.

They actually felt some kind of light up ahead, which made them feel excited. That is, until they heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, I think I see a light here! Rookie! We can finally see again!"

"I thought we were gonna be stuck in here, Boss! But, we can see! That's great!"

When Chopper made it up the slope, he saw Popple and Rookie by the dark cave's exit. They could tell by the dark gray tiles and the doorway. Popple noticed Chopper and his friends and gaped.

"What's this? Do my eyes deceive me? Don't tell me that the pale green drip made it here…" Popple groaned.

"How did you even get here? This place is high up in the sky!" Chopper gaped. "There's no way you could've made your way up here!"

"We found a wizard on a broomstick, and we got ourselves a ride here. So, we made it here, see? And there's nothing you're going to do to stop us from getting any treasure here!"

"There's no treasure here! All there is is guards and a bunch of other evil stuff. There's even a Star God here, and he looks like he wants to take anyone down!"

"Urg… I think I remember something…" Rookie moaned as he put his hands on his head.

"What? You're beginning to remember something?" Popple gawked. "What is it? Something good?"

"I don't know… But I seem to remember fighting a boy like him in some castle. And I remember being thrown off. Remembering it makes me MAD!" Rookie growled as he took out his two vine swords.

"Oh, yes… I almost forgot about the battle! If you think you're going to the top of the castle, you're wrong! We'll be there before you, see?"

"Fine, let's get this over with. I would really like to get back to business after this." Bow declared.

"Very well then, hot stuff! _**Rookie! Attack them now!**_"

"Of course, Boss!" Rookie jumped toward Chopper, who got in his fighting stance, ready for battle.

**Tattle: **_Popple again? Ugh… This guy just refuses to leave you alone. Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 6. Defense Power: 0. He's still not much of a problem. He'll do what he usually does. Just take him out before he steals anything from you._

**Tattle: **_Rookie again? OK, I wouldn't say he's as bad as Popple, but he's tougher than him. Max HP: 60, Attack Power: 7, Defense Power: 1. He can fire a leaf beam at you, and he'll even drain your HP to recover his own. So, he's got some new moves. But, if you got fire or ice, he won't be so tough…if you beat him fast, that is._

Chopper became Bomb Chopper and took out a bomb and threw it at Rookie to take 5 away from him.

"All right, I'm making an attack this time!" Bruce began to use his Mega Bomb attack on Popple and Rookie, and he took away 10 from both of them. Popple, in anger, began to walk toward Chopper and quickly stole a Shooting Star from him. He retreated back to Rookie, holding the Shooting Star.

"I'll be taking that, see?" Popple then ordered Rookie to shoot a leaf beam at Chopper. He guarded Rookie's attack, so it only did 6 damage to him.

"All right, time to get to some Power Bouncing…" Chopper jumped onto Rookie, and he began to stomp on him. After eight stomps, he jumped off of Rookie. Kayzee wanted to attack both of them, so she used her Sing on both of them. Apparently, Rookie fell asleep from the attack.

Popple dropped the Shooting Star, but he simply attack Chopper by ramming into him. It removed his Bomb ability.

"Oh yeah? Well… How about this, then?" Chopper became Beam Chopper and shot a beam at Rookie. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Rookie, and he fired at him, leaving Rookie with only 20 HP. They're getting there…

"Grrr! This isn't right! You'll pay, see?" Popple reached into his bag and pulled out a flamethrower. He used it on Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack.

"_Zzzzzzzzzz…_" Rookie snored while Popple turned his head to him and smacked him in the face.

"Boss! Why'd you hit me?" Rookie asked as he suddenly woke up.

"You were sleeping when you were supposed to be fighting, see? Now get back in there and get them!"

Chopper used his Power Bounce again, and he actually managed to stomp on Rookie nine times. It left him with 10 HP left. Bruce, on the other hand, wanted to use his Mega Bomb attack again, so he blew up in front of Popple and Rookie. It made Rookie fall to the ground in defeat.

"Oof! Sorry, Boss. I'm beat…" Rookie moaned.

"Rookie! No! Oh, fine, I'll finish this myself, see?" Popple whacked Chopper with his sack and removed his ability.

"OK, fine. I'll go without an ability!" Chopper walked over to Popple and whacked him with his hammer.

"Ah, yes! He's got no defense. Now to take care of things from here." Bow appeared by Popple, and she began to smack him. After six times, Popple quickly shook his head, due to spinning around from being smacked.

Popple began to search for something in his sack. He took something out, but it was just a pile of dust, which made him mad.

"Ha! You had nothing! You should be beaten in no time. So…" Chopper jumped on Popple and stomped on him two times, leaving him with 6 HP left.

"I'll finish this up," Bow appeared by Popple and after smacking him, he fell to the ground in defeat. The battle gave Chopper 27 Star Points.

"Must…get up…but…can't… This…isn't over…see? I…got something…left… Oooooog… My aching head…" Popple moaned, unable to get himself up.

"This…certainly stinks…doesn't it, Boss…? Uuuuurg…" Rookie moaned.

"No worries...Rookie... We'll...strike when...the time...comes..."

"Looks like they're not getting up…" Chopper trailed as he jumped over them. "Well, guys, we should get out of this cave and never come here ever again."

"I agree with you on that!" Bruce jumped over the two thieves and walked onto the dark gray tile. "Good to be here instead of the cave!"

"Looks like I won't need the light visors now. Light visors turning off." C-2 Choppor walked over to the exit of the cave, and so did the others. Kayzee was relieved to get out, since she seemed to be afraid of the dark without light.

"Let's get outta here!" Yosho declared as they began to go through the exit. They were never going to come back here ever again. Hopefully, they didn't have to.


	43. Bowser's Castle Part 2

Chopper was pushing a block with Bowser's face in a small room, which revealed a path. It went right back to the room they were all in before they fell through the trapdoor and into the prison. Everyone felt relieved that they made it out of the cave. C-2 Choppor was glad not to use his light visors too. So, basically, things were all fine here. No one wa hurt, and it seemed like no one was going to be scared of going around the castle - though leaving Popple and Rookie in the dark cave wasn't the best thing for them to do...

Once they all went through the doorway, the Guard Door noticed them come out of the doorway that the middle block was blocking.

"Hey, we're back!" Chopper waved to the door and he said hi in his child voice. The Guard Door looked completely shocked about this. _Very _shocked…

"Blooooaa-huh? You came back!?" the Guard Door gasped. "You escaped from that underground jail!? But there was no way you could escape!"

"Well, we found a way to get outta there, door!" Yosho shouted. "So, yer gonna have to let us pass through that door!"

"Grrrrrrrrrrr… Of all the dirty tricks… I guess I have to keep my word. You can…go on through. Grr. But don't think I'll forget this!"

"I'm sure you won't!" Chopper assured. "You thought that we would be trapped, and you were wrong! In your FACE!"

"We'll see how you like it when you actually face off against the real deal! There's no way you can defeat Bowser AND Maquano!"

"Oh, shut up," Chopper opened the large door, and everyone followed him in. They found themselves in one of the main rooms in the castle, with a blue rug leading to the center of the path. There were stairs going up, and there was a circular path around the upper floor, with two doors. Up ahead was another door. Oh, and a Save Block's around too.

"Thank goodness there's a Save Block!" he walked over to it and jumped under it, saving his game. Afterward, he and his friends went up the stairs and to the door to the left. They could see some blue torches hanging from the ceiling.

"This is a rather interesting hallway. How did Bowser get all of those blue flames in the torches and how did he also get the lava into his castle?" Koopla pondered. "That's something I don't understand."

"Well he's Bowser," Bow shrugged. "Maybe he used the Star Rod to make the lava appear in his castle. That may not be the case, but maybe he got all his minions to carry buckets of lava to the castle. That's what I believe."

"I think that might be what they do," Yosho agreed.

"Do you always agree with what Bow says, Yosho? I mean, come on…" Chopper sighed.

"Well… I can't help it. She's cute. I can't resist lookin' at her. It's just my thing; I am a ladies man after all."

"Don't you mean a ladies Yoshi?" Parakarry asked.

"Ermm… I dunno. I mostly hear it bein' 'ladies man'. So that's how it is. But, c'mon, Bow. How about some quality time together, huh?"

"I think not. I already have a thing for someone else, so I wouldn't spend some time with you." Bow sighed.

"Aw, c'mon! Ya know ya wanna date me!"

"...Why would I want to date a Yoshi?"

"Ah, ferget it! This is wastin' our time!"

"Let's see what's in the door!" Kayzee suggested as she opened the door, where they found a shop. A Spiked Goomba was in the shop, but he didn't appear to attack.

"Strange… That Spiked Goomba would've attacked us by now. Hmmm…" C-2 Choppor began to scan the Goomba. "My scanners tell us he doesn't know us at all. So it should be fine talking to him. Go ahead, Chopper. Talk to him."

Chopper walked to the Spiked Goomba, and he talked to him. "Whuhhh? Who're you, man! I don't know your face. Maybe you're that Chopper people in the castle are talking about, huh?"

"Uhhhh... Nope! Not at all!" Chopper sweat dropped.

"Heh heh… Just joking. I'm the guard of this warehouse. I'm really, really bored, man."

"That must stink if you're bored all the time. Can't you do anything fun?" Kayzee asked.

"Can't. I'm supposed to guard this warehouse. Wish I could do something, but it's my job. Hey, you know… If you've got any coins, I'll sell you stuff."

"Sure, that's a good idea," Chopper nodded. "There are some nice items around here, and I could use some of them to fig-er, I mean use in the castle."

"Oh, you're loaded, man! Take a look around. I'll sell anything you see."

Chopper looked at some of the items and noticed he had room for one more item. He thought taking the Super Shroom would be a good idea.

"Hey, how much for the Super Shroom?"

"Oh, that's 30 coins. Yeah, I know it's expensive, but we're running a bit low on money after buying off those C Robos from Maquano. Wait, there's one right over there!"

"Yes, I am a C Robo," C-2 Choppor stated. "I don't have a Star in me, though. I am empty. However, I'm not for sale, considering that I'm with him."

"Oh, all right. Go ahead and buy that Super Shroom, kid. It's good for a kid like you who's walking around here."

Chopper paid the Spiked Goomba 30 coins, and he waved goodbye to him, and then he left the warehouse, along with his friends.

"He wasn't so bad. I actually kind of like that guy." Chopper smiled.

"Yeah, he wasn't so big and bad like all the others around here," Kayzee agreed. "I'm so glad we met someone who's nice."

"Let's check that doorway to the right downstairs. I think there's something over there." Parakarry noticed.

They headed downstairs and went to the right to find a small tunnel with stairs leading down. After going down them, they found a prison cell with a lock on the door. There was a Koopatrol guarding the door.

"Huh…? Chopper's here? Oh no… I better not let him free those Toads!" the Koopatrol ran toward Chopper, but ended up getting whacked by Chopper's hammer.

"Next time, think before you attack," Chopper suggested as the Koopatrol got blasted by C-2 Choppor and fell to the ground, dropping a key.

"OK, you win, mate. Man, Bowser's going to kill me when he finds out I lost to him…" the Koopatrol ran from Chopper to somewhere else in the castle while he picked up the Prison Key and unlocked the prison door, freeing the Toads.

"Oh, phew! We can go!" a Toad cheered. "…But, if we try to leave, Bowser's minions would probably find us and probably leave us trapped again. So, I think it may be best to stay here. But, you can go if you want."

"Umm… OK." Chopper walked over to a different Toad, who was standing by a bed.

"Pssst… Psssst… The Toad House's slogan is… 'Refresh your Body and Soul!'" the Toad said. "…This isn't a real Toad House, but you can take a quick nap here if you feel like it. They're not the most comfortable beds, but it's better than nothing, I guess. Are you going to take a nap?"

"I'll take a quick one…"

"These are difficult times… Please rest well, though." Chopper nodded, and after taking a nap, his HP and FP were fully revitalized.

"Did you sleep well?" the Toad stopped for a moment. "Oops… Shhh… I should be quiet… Otherwise, they'll find us."

Chopper and his friends went back into the hallway, and up the stairs. They took the path to the right and went into the door, leading them into a small hallway with a similar floor and walls. There were Magikoopas and Koopatrols in the room as well as Hammer Bros. You know, the usual kind of Mario enemies.

"Huh... I'd expect to see some Hellspawns here..." Chopper trailed.

"Hellspawns? What are they again?" Yosho asked.

"Minions Maquano has."

"Oh."

They got to the door and knew there'd be something else up ahead. Chopper took a peek through the door and noticed there wasn't much through. But, one thing for sure was that it was a big room.

"What's in that room, Chopper?" Bow asked.

"Nothing really," Chopper shrugged. "Well, I guess there is something, but I don't really notice that much stuff. Maybe we'll see when we go in there."

"I hope it's not dark in there. We had ENOUGH dark areas already…" Bruce sighed. "Hopefully there's something to blow up."

"Man, what's with you an' blowin' stuff up?" Yosho asked. "I mean, I understand yer a Bob-omb, but blowin' up stuff could kill us!"

"Man, going through Bowser's Castle reminds me of the days where I went into Maquano's Castle that was set up on my planet, Clara. Man, I can remember that part with a lot of lava, and looking kind of like Hell."

"Is it still around to this day?" Kayzee asked.

"Oh, yeah, it is. It's on the lava area of my planet. There are a lot of things on my planet, actually. It's pretty interesting. There's the jungle, which I live in, the desert, the beach, a poison forest, a very cold, snowy place, some mountains with a couple of ninjas and kung fu guys, the sky, which has A LOT of things around, and the lava place. I don't really go there anymore for some reason. There's been other stuff there, but I don't remember. I had to go into space once, and it was cool."

"Really? That sounds interesting." Parakarry commented. "I wish I could've gone to your planet. It looks like it's actually a cool place. I mean, traveling to all of those places and delivering letters. That's gotta be a great thing. How about after Bowser's Castle, we take a look at your home planet?"

"Sure! We can just use the teleporter in Toad Town. It's that easy to get there!"

"Ummm… Guys? Aren't we supposed to be going into the room and not talk right now?" Koopla reminded. "We gotta go save Peach and beat Bowser! Don't you remember?"

"Oh, yes. Of course. I didn't forget that. I was just telling you guys what my planet's like. C'mon, let's go!" Chopper opened the door, and they all headed into the next room.

Little did they know a small Koopa in his egg was following them.

"Huff huff… Oh, no! They got away! Oh, man… I shouldn't have ran this whole way here. I have wings! WINGS!" Jr. Troopa groaned as he sat down to catch his breath.

"Man, did I have to go through A LOT to get here! I became frozen in that cold place, and then some fiery monster guy found me and thawed me out. Then he told me Chopper was going to Bowser's Castle. Man that was a lot of flying! Not only that, but I had to go into a dark scary cave! I hated going through here! So bad! I'm going to rest here and catch my breath before going."

* * *

**Next room-**

Chopper saw that they were in a bigger room with a high ledge up to the upper right with a blue ! switch. The doorway was pretty tall, so going through it wouldn't be a problem.

Going into the next room, they found another ledge and also a spring. Chopper jumped on the spring to bring him up to the ledge. Some of his friends flew up, while the rest jumped on the spring. They noticed while up on the ledge that there was a locked door to the left. There was no way they could get in there without the key, unfortunately…

"So how are we supposed to get into that door?" Yosho asked. "I don't see anythin' around here to help us!"

"Hmmm…" Chopper noticed a chain to his left and jumped up to grab it. Suddenly, water began to pour down and fill up the room. No one was really afraid of water, so it wasn't too bad.

"Oh, water. That's nothing to be afraid of." Kayzee sighed. "No one's afraid of water, right? If you are, then you need to learn to swim!"

"We probably would've learned to swim by now. None of us are afraid of the water. So, no worries." Bruce assured.

"I know, but I just wanted to say that. Tee hee!" she giggled while everyone looked at her in silence. "Oh, OK. Let's just go!"

Chopper jumped into the water and sank to the bottom. He didn't see any fish around, so it was all right to move around. He just walked around on the bottom, but he began to swim up a little. C-2 Choppor floated over the water, refusing to go in unless if it's necessary while Bow went underwater to follow Chopper. They just headed back to the other room. Since the doorway was tall, going through there on the surface wasn't a bad idea.

Chopper saw a small dock on a ledge on the surface. He swam up so he can get up onto it. He quickly shook himself and saw the blue ! block.

"Well that certainly was a good swim. I needed that. Now…" Chopper hit the blue ! switch, and a part of the wall flipped over, revealing a spring. He took it up to a higher ledge, and the wall appeared to have a crack in it.

Bruce got out of the water, his hat wet. "Man, I hate it when my hat gets wet… I wish I had arms to swim around in the water."

"I see a crack in that wall on the upper level. You should go over there and check it out." Parakarry suggested.

"Really?! No way!" Bruce gasped as he got on the spring and walked over to the crack. Chopper moved back, and he blew up the wall with Bruce, allowing them to go through the hole.

"I wanna see what's in there!" Kayzee shouted as she flew up to where Chopper threw Bruce and went in before they did.

"Umm… OK. Let's just go in." Chopper sweat dropped as he headed on in with his party members. They found a brick block that was above them and a blue ! switch sitting on it.

"Looks like I need to help ya for this one!" Yosho grinned. Chopper shrugged and got on Yosho's back, who jumped under the block. The Yoshi kicked the switch, and the wall flipped over and made a tunnel with a couple of windows.

Through the two tunnels, another chain awaited, so Chopper used his Speed Dash to get over there and grabbed the chain to pull it down, filling up the place with even more water.

"OK, let's go back," Chopper went back to the other room, as well as his friends, and they jumped into the water now that it was higher up. There was a dock by where a Castle Key was, so Chopper got onto the dock he took the Castle Key.

"Yeah! We got the key!"

"But now we have to empty all the water..." Bow sighed.

"Oh... Then that's bad."

After doing all of that work, they finally got to the locked door and unlocked it, allowing them to enter through. I the next room, to the lower right, there were stairs going up, and there were blue torches on the walls as well. There was a long blue rug as well. But, when they went up the stairs, they could see some gold Bullet Bills firing toward them.

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he saw one coming for him, but Bow made him invisible. After the Bombshell Bill passed by, they quickly moved to the Bombshell Bill Blaster.

"OK, let's take these things out!" Chopper landed a first strike on the Bombshell Bill Blaster, but it did nothing. However, once he used his D-Down Pound on it, it left the blaster with 4 HP left. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at the Bombshell Bill Blaster, and it was destroyed. However, the Bombshell Bill Blaster remaining fired a Bombshell Bill.

"I'll fire at both of those," C-2 Choppor said as he used his Multi-Shot attack, and it hit both the Bombshell Bill and the Bombshell Bill Blaster. Once Chopper whacked at it by using his D-Down Pound, it was destroyed, giving Chopper 8 Star Points. It also dropped some coins, so he took those as well.

"All right, this shouldn't be too bad! Let's keep going!" Chopper went up the stairs to the left, and he noticed more Bombshell Bills coming their way.

"Man, there are a lot of Bombshell Bills today," Koopla groaned. "What's with all of them anyway? Something going on or something?"

"I have no idea," Yosho grabbed one using his tongue, and he spat it out at another Bombshell Bill Blaster up ahead. Getting to the Bombshell Bill Blasters, Chopper threw Bruce at them, and he blew them up without any problems.

After destroying those blasters, they found stairs going up to the right, and they went up those. And what did they find? More Bombshell Bill Blasters! In fact, Chopper had to fight some of the Bombshell Bills to get to those two blasters. However, he was able to level up from one of the Bullet Bill battles. He chose to upgrade his BP, so he has 27 BP.

"Let's just go defeat those two blasters already," Koopla suggested.

Yosho noticed some Bombshell Bills flying over them. "I don't think we're done with the Bombshell Bills… There's still more."

After destroying the Bombshell Bill Blasters with some of Chopper's Fire Hand attacks, they went up the stairs after getting the coins. He also avoided the Bombshell Bills coming toward him with Bow.

"These Bombshell Bills are getting very annoying now," Bow groaned. "I wish we could do something about it, but it's best to avoid them."

"I'll handle those bad Bombshell Bill Blasters! I know just what to do!" Kayzee flew over the Bullet Bills and used her Heat Vision to melt them down and destroy them. Yeah, that's what you gotta do whenever you see them! Good thinking Kayzee! …I guess.

"There are no more Bombshell Bills or Bombshell Bill Blasters in this room anymore, according to my scanners," C-2 Choppor informed. "There are only stairs going up to a door. We are getting deeper into the castle now. So, we must be prepared for this."

"Wait… How much is in this place?" Chopper asked. "Have you gone through this castle at all?"

"Negative. I have only been in Peach's Castle. No information on Bowser's Castle. But… My brother did go into this castle. However, my scanners aren't picking up any signs of him here, apparently, so we shouldn't pay any attention to that now."

"Let's go into the next room then!" Parakarry suggested. He flew up the stairs and to the door. He opened it for everyone else.

Everyone ran into the room, and then Parakarry went into the room to follow them. Little did they know there was a shadow following them through as well. The figure grinned as he caught the door before it closed.

"I'm coming for you, Chopper! Just you wait!"


	44. Bowser's Castle Part 3

Once they went into the room, they saw that it looked kind of familiar to them. They were back into the room with the Bowser blocks and the dark gray floor. There was also a new enemy in the room. It was like a Koopa, but made of bones, which are called Dry Bones. Attacking them will only make them collapse, and you won't get Star Points either.

Chopper didn't have to use any of his items, because he didn't take any damage. He just only used up some FP while fighting the Dry Bones. After the fight, there was a hidden block that C-2 Choppor discovered in the room..

"I can see a block with Maple Syrup in it. Chopper, go get that!" C-2 Choppor suggested. Chopper noticed it too and jumped under the block. He grabbed the Maple Syrup and chugged it down, recovering 10 FP. Two Dry Bones went after them, and they ended up getting into a fight with them. However, Koopla thought of something.

"Chopper, you know that Fire Shell ability I got from becoming Ultra-Rank?" Koopla recalled.

"Yeah, why are you asking me right now? We're in the middle of a fight." Chopper noted.

"Well… Fire can take out these guys. So, let me test out my Fire Shell!" Chopper nodded to Koopla, and she got in her shell. A bunch of flames surrounded her shell as everyone looked surprised. She attacked both Dry Bones, and it did double damage. Yeah, that's right! She did 16 damage to them! Not only that, but Chopper got 10 Star Points from them!

"Whoa… She did that much damage to Dry Bones? Man… That's really something…" Parakarry gaped.

"Yeah, I agree with that. 16 damage to Dry Bones? That's…overkill!" Bruce gasped. "That's more than Bow's Fan Smack!"

Chopper checked the other yellow ? block that wasn't hidden, and he found a Super Shroom in there. He looked at the Bowser blocks after that, thinking of what he should do.

"Hmmm… There's nothing really around here. So what SHOULD we do here?" Chopper leaned over the third block, and he noticed it moved a little. "Huh?"

Chopper saw something behind the block, and when he pushed it, a doorway was revealed. Koopla was busy defeating one Dry Bones, which gave Chopper 5 Star Points, and then she walked over to the doorway.

"So, Bowser thinks he can trick us by blocking the doorway with those blocks of his, huh? Well, he's not doing a very good job at it…" Koopla trailed.

"Time to take a look at what's inside here," Chopper declared as went into the doorway, where he found himself in a tunnel with short pillars on the walls.

"This is a small tunnel…" Bow trailed. "But at least we're not too tall for this. Of course, we're both pretty small."

The doorway in the tunnel led to another similar room. This time, there was a Spiky Boney Beetle in the room. There was also a door that was locked and three Bowser blocks. Chopper and his friends fought the Spiky Boney Beetle and checked the blocks. Kayzee noticed that the first block could be pushed, so Kayzee simply pushed it out of the way without problems - since she has super powers.

Chopper hit the Save Block first, and then he went into the doorway that had been revealed by the first Bowser block. They were led into another tunnel. Luckily, there was a Heart Block in the tunnel, so Chopper hit it to recover his HP and FP. After that, they all moved on through the tunnel and into the next room, which was similar to the others, but the middle Bowser Block had already been pushed aside. There was a Hammer Bro. in the room as well, and it saw them come in.

"Huh? Chopper's here already? Oh… That's not good. But, if I beat him, then I'll surly get a promotion from Bowser! Yeah, I'll be top class Koopatrol then!" the Hammer Bro. grabbed a hammer and prepared to throw it. "Eat this, you round little boy!"

"Uaaaaaaghhhh! I found you, Chopper!"

"Oh, no..." Chopper groaned as Jr. Troopa came running into the room and knocked the Hammer Bro. away.

"Gaaaaaaaaah!" the Hammer Bro. cried as it crashed through a wall.

"Jr. Troopa! I thought you were frozen! What the heck?" Chopper gaped as he got in a fighting stance. "How in the WORLD did you end up surviving in that...harsh cold? !"

"At last! You're mine! It was a pain finding you, you know? Today, at long last, I'll settle my score with you!"

"Great… This is bad." Koopla groaned.

"Here it comes, Chopper! This is the final fight! Only one of us is walking away from this battle!"

"Yeah, this better be the final fight, because I'm tired of seeing your shell!" Chopper growled.

**Tattle: **_It's Jr. Troopa again! My man! The little guy still has some egg shell left on his body! Heh… Max HP: 60, Attack Power: 7, Defense Power: 2. Whoa! He's been working out! He looks as though he may be able to change his shape, too. You've got to love this guy's effort, Chopper. To follow us all the way here? What dedication! Come to think of it, how do you think he got here, anyway?_

Chopper saw that Jr. Troopa had 2 defense, so it would be pretty tough to just stomp on him two times, because that would only do 2 damage. Since he wanted to deal some good damage against Jr. Troopa, he started off with his Power Bounce. After ten stomps, he stopped and moved away from him. C-2 Choppor's attacks doesn't really affect defense, so he shot a yellow blast at Jr. Troopa, taking away 6 from him.

Jr. Troopa made his attack, and all he did was stomp on Chopper's head. The attack did 7 damage to him, which was the same amount of damage that Rookie did.

"Whoa, that did A LOT…" Bruce gaped.

"True, but we'll do more to him! …And that much damage was the amount Rookie and the Crystal King did!" Chopper Power Bounced Jr. Troopa again, and he stopped after his eighth stomp. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Jr. Troopa afterward, and they've already taken away half of his HP!

"This battle is moving rather fast," Bow commented.

"Darn it! OK, try on this for size! Ultimate Power!" Jr. Troopa had bat wings appear on him and also a spike on his head. He dove down at Chopper, which was guarded when he brought his fists up.

Chopper shot an ice ball at Jr. Troopa, which made him shiver. It reminded him of when he became frozen by Chopper's ice.

"Brrrr! Man… I hate it when you do that!" Jr. Troopa shivered, his teeth chattering as well. "It just makes me mad!"

Since Jr. Troopa had a spike on his head, only C-2 Choppor, Yosho, Kayzee and Parakarry could most likely attack him.

"I'll make my attack on him!" Parakarry declared as he got in his shell and rammed right into Jr. Troopa. His shell protected him from the spikes. He did 6 damage to him, though he would normally do 8 damage.

Jr. Troopa was annoyed that he was getting hit by Chopper, even when he had a spike on his head and was off the ground.

"Shoooot! OK, maybe something else… How about this!" Jr. Troopa's spike and wings disappeared, and he was now holding onto his wand. Jr. Troopa then began to use magic, and lightning came down and zapped Chopper, taking away 9 from him.

"OK, that did a lot!" Chopper said.

Now that Jr. Troopa was on the ground, Chopper brought out his hammer, and he used his D-Down Pound on him to give him a good whacking. Once he did that, Yosho fluttered up to him and used his Ground Pound to hit him, leaving Jr. Troopa with only 10 HP left.

"Aaaargh! You've still got some skills!" Jr. Troopa growled. "What is wrong with me? I'm using everything I got, and he's still taking me down! This is all wrong!"

Jr. Troopa fired some magic at Chopper, who was able to guard the attack. Unfortunately, Jr. Troopa got a D-Down Pound to the head, and he was about to go down.

"All right, time to finish this up!" Chopper declared as he prepared to make a big jump on Jr. Troopa.

"Ooh! Ooh! I know what to do!" Kayzee said as she flew over to Jr. Troopa and grabbed his wand.

"Hey! I need that to attack Chopper! Give me that back!" Jr. Troopa cried until Kayzee whacked him in the head with it.

"Tsk tsk tsk! You've been a very bad Koopa! Tee hee! Did I do it right, Chopper?"

"Sure, I guess. I don't really do that." Chopper shrugged. "I'm too cool for that anyway…or was it because I like to say better lines than that?"

Jr. Troopa was left dazed, and Chopper was given 30 Star Points. Jr. Troopa was very disappointed with his loss…for the sixth time.

"Darn it! Darn it, darn it! Don't think you've won, Chopper! I swear to you, I'm gonna beat you so bad next time!" Jr. Troopa growled as he left the room. "And believe me! I'm going to get back at you when you least expect it!"

After hearing his words fade away, everyone slowly sighed in relief.

"Well, now that we beat him, should we just…keep moving, then?" Bruce asked.

"Of course we gotta keep moving," Chopper replied. "We need to get to Peach's Castle! That's the reason why we're here!"

"No dip, Sherlock," Koopla groaned.

"But my name isn't Sherlock..."

After that, they went into the open doorway and took the tunnel to an empty room. There was absolutely nothing in there except for a chandelier

"What's going on? How come there's nothing here? Hmm…" Chopper used his Tornado Jump, but nothing was revealed. "Choppor, check for anything around here. There's GOTTA be something here."

"No hidden things around here," C-2 Choppor stated. "There IS something back in the room we were in, according to my scanners. I suggest that we go back there."

"All right… You're the robot." They went back into the room where they fought Jr. Troopa. Chopper noticed on the Bowser block something hidden.

"Hmm?" Chopper pushed it to the side, and another doorway was revealed. When they went in there, they went through the tunnel going to the left. On a gray pedestal in the next room, they found a Castle Key. Chopper took the key, and they went back to the room with the locked door. However, Chopper hit the Heart Block first, and then he hit the Save Block in the other room.

"All right, be prepared for anything in the next room. If we gotta fight anything, or talk to someone, we're going to have to do it. You guys hear me?"

"Yeah, we hear ya. Let's hope that it ain't borin'." Yosho hoped. "I hate doin' borin' things, just to let ya know. If it's a fight, then I'll do it!"

"I remember what might be in the next room…but I don't exactly REMEMBER what to do in there," recalled Parakarry.

"If there's any trouble, I'm here if you need a hand to hold onto, Chopper," Bow smiled. Unfortunately, Chopper didn't give her the reaction she wanted.

"I can handle myself. I've been taking care of myself for…four years! I'm sure I can handle the next room!"

"It better not be anything dangerous," Kayzee hoped. "Well, I can handle dangerous things, but what if it's like in Shiver City, with that mayor?"

"That's not going to happen ever again. C'mon, let's just get going!" Chopper put the key in the lock and unlocked the door. They all headed in to see what would come up next.

Once they all came out of that door, they found themselves in another room with a Guard Door up ahead. Apparently this room was just like some of the previous rooms they were in, except there were no Guard Doors.

"A Guard Door? Well, I bet we're gonna fall into another pit unlike the other one. Man, these doors are not so smart."

"I heard that!" Everyone looked at the Guard Door, which stopped for a moment. "Err… I mean… Grooaaahhhhh! Who would've thought you could make it this far?"

"We made it up here on our own. So, we'll just keep going now." Koopla stated as he walked over to the door."

"You won't make it any farther. Because, unfortunately for you, I won't let you pass. Graaa ha ha ha ha ha!"

"What…? You won't let us through? No… We already failed!" Kayzee's eyes water up and began to cry.

"_Oh man… You don't have to cry you know."_ Chopper thought as he face palmed._ "We don't easily give up, you cry baby! …No, that's not a nice thing to say. We can handle this."_

"But… I guess, if you really want, I'll give you once chance." the Guard Door decided. "Because I know there's no way you'll make it anyway. Want to give it a shot?"

Kayzee then stopped crying, and flew to the Guard Door. "Yes! We're GOING to do this so we can get through! If you don't let us, I'll smash you!"

"I don't like that that much…" Bow trailed. Kayzee turned around to her while she was taking her fan out. "No, we can smash it, and smack it! It would be perfect! _**Gwa hee ha ha!**_"

"And don't forget exploding!" Bruce added.

"Grrooaaa ha ha ha ha ha! This is completely pointless, but I suppose I'll let you try, because, of course, I have such a kind and generous heart…" the Guard Door cackled. "Just joking, worm! Grooahh ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Your laughing is getting so annoying..." Chopper groaned. "Just get on with it!"

"So you're letting us attack you? Perfect…" Bow smirked, ready to smack the door with her fan.

"No, I'm not talking about that, green ghost!" it turned his attention back to Chopper. "Now! Chopper! Do you know what I've got in store for you?"

"Uhhhhhh... No?" Chopper sweat dropped.

"OK then. Now for a little quiz."

"D'oh! I hate quizzes!"

"Several of my followers will come out here. Your job is to carefully keep track of their numbers and colors. Then you'll have to answer my questions correctly. Quite frankly, we both know that this is impossible, but if you get five questions right, I'll let you go through here. You're only allowed two mistakes though. Grooooaaaahh ha ha! Fool that you are, you'll likely make three mistakes and suffer the dire consequences… Let's get going!"

The Bowser blocks opened up, and through the doorway, three Dark Koopas, and four Goombas came out. They looked at them carefully.

"Times up!" They all went back into the doorway. "Now. Tell me how many Koopas were there!"

"There were three. Duh…" Chopper said as he rolled his eyes.

"Grrrr… You're right! That question must've been way too easy. Now they'll be harder! Next question!"

The blocks opened up, and three red Shy Guys, four blue ones, and four green ones came out of the doorway. They all looked carefully.

"Times up!" the Shy Guys went back into the doorway. "Now. Which were there three of!"

"I saw three red ones," Koopla answered.

"Grrrr… You're right! That question must've been way too easy. Now they'll be harder! Next question!"

The blocks opened up, and two Bob-ombs came out of the left dorrway, two red Shy Guys came out of the middle, and four blue Shy Guys came out of the right. They were simply moving around, having no idea what to do.

"Times up!" the minions went back into the doorway, and the blocks closed the doorways. "Now. Who came out of the middle entrance!"

"Well… I saw the red Shy Guys come out of the middle entrance…" Bow trailed.

"Grrrr… You're right! That question must've been way too easy. Now they'll be harder! Next question!"

"Ya said that before..." Yosho trailed.

The doorways were revealed again, and two Goombas, four Koopa Troopas, three blue Shy Guys, and one green Shy Guy scurried out. They wandered around aimlessly until they had to go back through the doorway.

"Times up! Now. How many Goombas were there!"

"My scanners tell me there were two. And yes, I know it is right." C-2 Choppor answered.

"Grrrrr… Right answer! Aaaarghhhhhhh! I can't believe you've gotten four questions right! All right, enough of this! I'm gonna quit messing around and ask you a really hard one! Next question!"

A Goomba, a Dark Koopa, and a Koopa Troopa came out of the doorway. After time was up, they went back, through their doorway.

"Now. How many arms did you see just now!"

"I saw four of 'em. Both Koopas have two arms, and the Goomba has none. So, the answer is four." Chopper answered.

"Grrrraaaaaaaaghhhhhhh! Cor… Correct!" the Guard Door stammered. "I can't believe it! You got five of my super duper brain-busters right! _**Greaaaghhh!**_ I've been defeated…! By a little kid! Oh, the shame…!"

"Ha! See, doesn't it stink to be you now?"

"You'll see when you actually see Bowser yourself! Just go on through already!"

"Fine…" Chopper opened up the Guard Door, and everyone followed him through. Now they're around the exterior of Bowser's Castle. There wre two yellow ? blocks in this area too. "Hmm… This is interesting. We're in the exterior of Bowser's Castle now. It looks pretty cool."

Bruce looked down, and he saw that they're higher up than before. "Uh… Guys? Whatever you do, don't fall off or look down! I'm serious!"

Chopper hit the yellow ? block closest to the door, and a Super Shroom came out. He took it with him and found a Maple Syrup in the other block. A Koopatrol walking around in this area noticed Chopper, and he jumped up in fear.

"Ch-Chopper's here? Oh no… This isn't right! Those three Anti Guys were in the other room! They should've taken care of him by now!" the Koopatrol cried.

Chopper also noticed C Robo Elites in the area as well. These C Robos had black stripes on them, and their robotic body is a gold color. They avoided the enemies around them. Though C-2 Choppor blasted the C Robo Elite, considering that he had a goal to wipe them out, and then he followed the others up some stairs.

Kayzee noticed a Jammin' Jelly below the staircase they were on and knew what to do.

"I see a good item! Let me get it!" she flew down to get it and brought it to Chopper. "Here you go! I got this just for you!"

"Gee… Uh… Thanks?" Chopper gawked as he put the item away. "Wait, a Jammin' Jelly is good!"

Bow was getting a little jealous again. She kind of wanted to smack Kayzee right now. But, if she did, it wouldn't make everyone happy about it.

"_I swear… I'm going to keep you away from Chopper one day."_ Bow thought, fuming up a little._ "If only I could teach you a lesson with my fan. You should already know that I found him first. Plus, Chopper gets infatuated with me whenever I change how I look." _

They went up stairs to the left, and they began to walk across a bridge ahead of them. A Magikoopa on a broomstick was on the bridge, as well as Dry Bones and an Elite C Robo, which had 12 HP, an Attack of 7, and a Defense of 2. They fought the enemies, with Chopper burning down the Dry Bones with his Fire Hand, and they kept moving on on the bridge.

After fighting some other enemies like the Koopatrols and Magikoopas, Chopper leveled up. He chose HP this time, so he had 45 HP overall. Afterward, they found a door leading back inside of the castle, so they went through the door, and they were in another familiar hallway that they were in before. It was one of those rooms with the circular path in the center with a staircase and blue torches.

"I swear that I've seen this room before..." Parakarry trailed.

"We have," Koopla confirmed. "Except we came from the left and not the right."

Chopper hit the Save Block first, and they all went to the left doorway. The stairway was pretty similar to them when going down, and they found a Koopatrol at a prison cell, holding a Prison Key. There were three Toads in the prison and also a Bumpty. One of the Toads sitting on the hard metal beds was playing a harmonica, while another was snapping his finger to the beat.

"Hey, quit playing that harmonica!" the Koopatrol barked. "I know most prisoners use harmonicas in their prison, but I'm getting sick of hearing it!"

"Well what else am I supposed to do?" the Toad asked. "I already smell pretty bad, and I miss my family. Can't you let us go?"

"Hmmm… Let me think… _**No! **_I will not let you out! I don't care if you gotta go to the bathroom. If you gotta go, wet your pants! …Or diaper, because that's what you're wearing instead of pants…or underpants."

"Ahem…" the Koopatrol saw Chopper and jumped up a little, despite him coughing.

"Eep! It's Chopper! ...Hold on a minute… You're smaller than me! I shouldn't have a problem with you at all! _**Hiyaaa!**_" the Koopatrol was able to fight, but Chopper shot a fireball at him, and C-2 Choppor shot a blast at him, obliterating it instantly, dropping the Prison Key.

"All right! Now we can free those prisoners!" Yosho cheered. "Yeah, I think we could actually use the Toad House too!"

"It's a good idea, but the beds are AWFUL!" Parakarry sighed. "But… It's for recovering, so we can do it."

Chopper grabbed the key, and he unlocked the door. The prisoners were relieved that they were free now. But, they stayed in their cells just to be safe from harm.

"This is a makeshift Toad House," the Toad beside the bed explained. "The Toad House's slogan is… 'Refresh your Body and Soul!' I know it's not a great house…but plenty of sleep will heal you, no matter where you happen to be sleeping. Will you take a nap?"

"Sure," Chopper nodded.

"Please, get some sleep," the boy nodded to the Toad again and jumped onto the bed and lied down paper flat. He knew he was going to need some good sleep to prepare himself for Bowser and Maquano.

And possibly even Staris.

* * *

**We're almost there. This is such a long chapter. No, I don't mean the chapter you read right now. Chapter 8 is a pretty long chapter. Longest one in the first half of this story, that's for sure.  
**

**It's quite possible we'll have another fight next chapter...**


	45. Bowser's Castle Part 4: Staris

After thirty minutes, Chopper got out of the bed and stretched. All of his HP, FP, and Star Energy were restored. The Toad noticed him wake up, as well as his friends. Chopper didn't know, but Bow actually watched him sleep while she was invisible. Maybe she just wanted to see how he looked when he was asleep.

"Did you sleep well?" the Toad asked.

"Well, yeah, I did," Chopper nodded.

"Well that's very nice to know."

"Yeah. I guess that's it?"

"I guess so..." the Toad trailed. "Take care—and go! Good luck, Chopper! Bowser will be no match for you!"

"Hold on a minute. Take this with you." the Toad Guard walked over to Chopper and held out a yo-yo. "I never really found any use for this thing. Maybe you might use it?"

"OK… I guess I will..." Chopper inhaled the Yo-yo, and when he swallowed it, he had a backward light blue cap and was holding a typical red and white yo-yo as his weapon. They call him Yo-yo Chopper with this ability.

"This'll be good! All right, let's go, guys!" he used his Speed Dash to leave the room and head back in the main hallway.

"So… What does that Yo-yo even do?" Bruce asked.

"Ummm… Not fully sure. Let me test it out." Chopper twirled the Yo-yo, and it hit the bars on the staircase going up. The Yo-yo came back to him like any typical yo-yo. "Oh! This is pretty nice! It'll come in handy against some of those bad guys!" he went to the left staircase, and his partners followed him to the door.

"Man, I hope we don't run into any annoying puzzles…" Koopla hoped.

"Don't jinx it..." Parakarry warned.

The next room had the blue rug and some colored blocks acting like stairs. There were two blocks that could be raised up if the red ! switch got hit by something, so Chopper went up the stairs and was above the switch.

"Bruce, I'm going to need you for this part. You'll have to blow up the switch." Chopper said as he jumped down onto the lower block. When Bruce came, he dropped him on to the switch.

"I hope that this works," Parakarry hoped.

"I think it will. Don't worry about it, Parakarry." Once Bruce blew up, the blocks moved up. Chopper used them to cross over to the doorway, which had an Ultra Shroom in the room.

"Ooh! This is good!" Chopper grabbed the Ultra Shroom and he put it away for now. With that, they left the room and went to the door to the right. This time, they saw a staircase going leading to a door and a straight part going to another door.

"Oh, boy… I remember this." Bow recalled. "You have to choose the right door, or else you have to start the area over again."

"Oh, then that's not a good thing. Let's go up." Chopper took the stairs up, and his partners followed into the door. There, they found the blocked stairs like in the other room and a red ! switch.

"All right, let's do this. Time to blow up the switch!" Chopper picked up Bruce and threw him to the switch. He blew it up, and Chopper saw the floor rise up on where he stood. This allowed him to cross over the blocked wall and go into the doorway, which had a Castle Key.

"Oh, there's a key in here? I guess we needed this for the lower door." he put the key away, and when he turned around, he saw Bow grab the key from him.

"I guess we did need a key before going through a door puzzle," Bow said as she looked at the key. "I'm sure we'll be getting to that shortly. So, we better be prepared."

"Right…" Chopper hurried back into the other room with the two doors and his friends followed to the lower door.

"Are you sure you found something to unlock the door?" Kayzee asked. "Because I didn't know that door would be locked…"

Bow took out the key and unlocked the door. Once they went in, they saw some caged wall with a torch higher up, then low, low, high, low, and high. Parakarry and Bow remembered this.

"Oh, this is the one I was talking about," Bow gasped. "Yes, this puzzle. Look at the blue torches carefully. It should help us through this place."

"And if we choose the wrong one, we gotta start over again," Parakarry added. "So, we better choose the right one, or else we're in some deep trouble."

"Let's just give it a shot! Now… Up, down, down, up, down, up. That's what it is." Chopper remembered as he took the stairs going up and went into the doorway. He and his partners came out of another doorway, and they were in a room that was similar to the other. Chopper remembered the torches and took the doorway that was down the stairs.

They did it right, and they just went through the doors in that order the torches were by going down, up, down, and up. Once they did that, they found themselves in a room with chandeliers with blue torches on them, and a bridge with a blue floor. They knew they were high up in the castle.

"Wow, that was a lot easier than I thought. It was just a piece of cake!" Yosho grinned. "Bowser thought he could've kept us away with that! ?"

They could see some Koopatrols, Magikoopas on broomsticks and Hammer Bros. on the bridge. Some C Robo Elites were flying around, so they had to fight them. It took them a while, but they received some Star Points from them.

After making it to the other side of the bridge, they went into the door and were in a similar small hallway. There was a Heart Block in the room, so Chopper hit it to recover his HP and FP. Walking through the hallway, they saw someone that most people found familiar, but not really to Chopper.

"Umm… Who's that girl in the pink dress standing in front of the door?" Chopper asked.

"That's…Princess Peach? She's here?" Koopla gawked.

"Oh, so THAT'S Princess Peach. I didn't expect her to look like that!"

"What did you expect her to be?" Bow asked.

"I don't know... A young girl, maybe?"

"I can't believe that's what you thought," Bruce snickered. "You thought she'd be a girlfriend for you?"

"No..."

"Anyway, back on topic..." Koopla started. "Who's going to her first?"

"I might as well," Chopper suggested, walking over to Peach, who seemed a bit delighted to see him.

"Are you the one named Chopper?" Peach asked. "I'm so glad you came! Thank you so much!"

"Hold on a minute, how did you get here? I thought you were in your OWN castle!"

"Oh, me? Oh, I just saw a chance to get away from Bowser and Maquano and I ran! There's no need to fight them because I'm already safe. See? No need to fight. Let's hurry up and go home. I'll be right behind you."

"Home? Don't you mean your home? Meh, let's just go." Chopper began to walk out of the room, but then he heard some snickering. "Hmm?" he turned around and suddenly saw a Duplighost, who ran from him. He walked back to the door and saw Peach again.

"Did you just see that?"

"Yeah, that's not Peach!" Kayzee gaped. "Didn't you see that, guys?"

"I saw it!" Yosho agreed.

"Scanners indicate that it is not Peach, but a Duplighost," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Hey, you're not Peach! Take this!" Chopper shouted as he whacked Peach with his hammer.

"Ouch! Oh, how could you? You're so cruel, Chopper!" Peach cried. "Why do you want to hurt me? I'm going to tell King Bowser you're treating me like this!"

"Because you're not Peach! Have some of this!" he whacked her with his hammer again.

"No! Ow! Stop it! Please don't! Help me, King Bowser!"

Chopper whacked her once again.

"I said, cut that out!" Peach turned into a Duplighost once he whacked her one more time. "Aw, shoot! I wonder how you saw through my disguise… It was perfect… Well, I guess there's nothing I can do about it now… I'll just beat you up instead! Come on out, guys!"

Three other Duplighosts came out, but Chopper used his Yo-yo to hit all four of them, and Parakarry used his Air Raid to defeat them easily. Unfortunately, Chopper got no Star Points from the fight.

He wanted to recover that FP that he used up, so after hitting the Heart Block in the beginning of the hallway, he headed into the door the Duplighosts were blocking. They were in another room with another Guard Door.

"Oh, great… Another Bowser door room. This is going to stink." Chopper groaned.

"Bleeeaaaargh! How in the world did you get this far in the castle? !" the Guard Door gasped. "Congratulations…but this is the end of your adventure, I'm afraid. I've got much better defenses than the other Guard Doors do. Your luck has just run out! _**Come on, boys!**_"

The Koopa Bros. came down in front of Chopper and flashed their thumbs as they put them up. Needless to say, there were groans coming from at least three people.

"Oh, god… Not them." Koopla groaned.

"WHY does it have to be these guys?" Bruce asked.

"Here come the Koopa Bros.!" Red grinned. "I bet you never thought you'd see us again, huh, Chopper? You do remember who we are, don't you?"

"I don't exactly remember you guys. It's been a while." Chopper shrugged.

"What!? I just said we were the Koopa Bros., Chopper! How can you not remember us?!"

"Now they're going to beat you within an inch of your life!" the Guard Door cackled. "Feel like running away, worm? Tell you what: If you beat them, you can go on through here. Of course, you'll fail…but at least you can try. Geeaarrr har har har…"

"Don't think we're like before! We've increased our power beyond our wildest dreams! After you trounced us, we learned a new technique and trained all day, every day. We're not just the Koopa Bros... We're the Super Ultra Mighty Koopa Bros. the Great! Check out our coolness!"

The Koopa Bros. had their thumbs up once again. But, they didn't notice a yellow puddle behind them. Staris rose from the puddle, and it made Chopper and his friends freak out.

"Yeah! You fear us, don't you? Well you should be afraid! Because our technique will make you cry for mercy!" Red noticed Chopper was pointing at Staris, who was a lot bigger than the Koopa Bros. "What? What're you pointing at?"

"Behind you…"

"Huh…?" They all turned around, and they got whacked away by Staris's fist. "Dwahhhhhhhhh!"

Staris pulled out Skolar, the third Star Spirit. Everyone gasped as they heard Skolar's cry.

"Chopper! You must help me!" cried Skolar. "Staris is about to absorb some of my power and transform!"

"Oh no! He's got one of the Star Spirits! Don't worry, Skolar! We'll help you!" Chopper ran toward Staris, but Staris began to absorb Skolar's power, creating another big flash.

After the flash was gone, Skolar flew away, but Staris was different. He still had his arms, but he had a bone thing in his chest area, making him more muscular and giving him a tail and also three tentacles on his body that could be dangerous.

"No… He's changed again!" Bow gasped.

"And he has...tentacles?" Yosho gawked. "What the heck?!"

"Well, this wasn't according to plan, but it's not bad!" the Guard Door cackled. "I guess this Staris will take care of you! He even got that Star Spirit on his own! Gwar har har har!"

Staris began to walk toward Chopper and his friends, who got in their fighting stances to prepare for battle.

**Tattle: **_No... Staris is in his third transformation! This is VERY bad you know… Max HP: 70, Attack Power: 8, Defense Power: 2. Those tentacles can really hurt you, and that Star Spirit must've made him take less damage! But… You were able to defeat his last three forms. Though…this one seems pretty dangerous to me. But, you're Chopper. You can handle anything thrown at you!_

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce. He wanted to hit his head in order to destroy him. He was only able to stomp his head eight times, unfortunately.

"Choppor, shoot his head!" Chopper cried. "I know your attacks aren't affected by defense!"

C-2 Choppor aimed at Staris and shot a blast at him. It made him explode, but he rose back up from his puddle. Staris had one of his tentacles whack Chopper, knocking him down. He was able to get back up after taking 8 damage.

"Ouch… OK, he seems tougher than Jr. Troopa. We better take him out fast." Chopper used his Power Bounce and stomped on him nine times this time. C-2 Choppor shot a blast at Staris again, and it left him with 41 HP left. There were still ways to go...

Staris made a huge star waterfall come down on Chopper. He was able to guard the attack, luckily. Afterward, Chopper used his yo-yo to attack Staris, and then Kayzee used her Heat Vision on the Star God, taking 6 away from him.

Staris's tentacles sunk into the ground and began to whack at Chopper when they rose up. He guarded four of them, but he got hit by two, each of them doing 3 damage. His Yo-yo ability got removed, unfortunately.

Chopper used his Power Bounce on Staris again, and he managed to stomp on him seven times.

"Man, let's hope he doesn't do anything that'll be bad for us. Because if he does, this fight will get annoying!"

Yosho fluttered over to Staris and attacked with his Ground Pound. It made him explode, but the Star God simply rose back up from his puddle. Staris stretched his arm out, and he attacked both Chopper and Yosho, leaving the Yoshi injured. When his arm returned to him, his tentacles looked like they were going to attack.

"Oof… That really hurt..." Yosho moaned.

Chopper shot an ice ball at Staris, but it didn't make him freeze. Looks like this transformation really made him tougher…

"We'll leave him with 10 HP soon. Let me just make an attack." C-2 Choppor aimed at Staris and shot a blast at him. Unfortunately, Staris summoned a waterfall, which came down on him, making him recover 20 HP.

"Oh, crud… He healed himself." Chopper said as his eye twitched. However, that didn't stop him from bashing Staris with his hammer.

"Well this is rather bad… But, we can still get him with a couple of attacks!" Parakarry went into his shell and attacked Staris, leaving him with 20 HP left. Staris fired a star beam from his mouth at Chopper, who luckily managed to guard the attack and take 9 damage instead of 10.

Chopper used his D-Down Pound to hit Staris, and then Kayzee attacked with her kicks and punches. Now Staris 3 had 10 HP left. It didn't stop the Star God from throwing its arm into the ground. The arm managed to whack Chopper when it came to him. Some star water splashed onto Chopper's face as well.

"Dude... Yer gonna have to wash that off when we get outta here." Yosho gagged.

"How many times do you have to bring that up?!" Koopla growled.

"Think of the children!" Bruce cried.

C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Staris while trying his best to ignore the argument, while Chopper knew how to finish this off.

"I'll finish this off just like old times!" he began to inhaled some star water from Staris, and when he noticed him doing this, he tried to do something, but Chopper spat the yellow star out at Staris, making him explode. He brought his thumbs up after the battle and got 34 Star Points.

"Huh?" Chopper saw Staris began to disappear as a puddle. "Great... He escaped. He was one of the important people we needed to stop!"

"Yeah, I don't blame you, Chopper," Bruce agreed. "But… I'm still a little worried about after saving Peach, he'll still be around."

"_**Gosh!**_" the Guard Door yelled._** "**_Ummmmmmmmmm… So, since you beat that Star God that beat the Koopa Bros., does that mean you beat the Koopa Bros.? No. You beat that thing, he beat them… But you didn't actually lay a finger on… Arrgaaahhhhhhhhhh! It's too confusing! …OK, fine! I guess there was no big difference between that guy and the Koopa Bros. You can go through. It's not possible for you to beat King Bowser anyway. I'll let you have the honor of being beaten personally by the evil King Bowser. Lucky you!"

"Oh, cool! Let me heal first!" Chopper hit the Heart Block in the other room first, and then he headed through the Guard Door. They found some stairs going up to a small door, so they all headed up those stairs and took a peek at what was through there. "Hey! This is the end of Bowser's Castle! Yes! We made it!"

"Wait, we made it? Woo hoo! Yay! Now we can get into Peach's Castle now!" Kayzee squealed. "That bad evil king will get a good beating!"

"Wow, I can't believe we made it through this whole castle. We're pretty good." Koopla smirked.

"Yes, we did that. But that doesn't mean it's all over yet." Chopper informed. "C'mon, let's just keep going!"

Chopper opened the door, and they all headed through. One thing for sure was that Bowser was definitely not in his own castle. If he's not there, then where could he be?

And was Maquano waiting with him as well?

* * *

**This is the end of Bowser's Castle! ...Wait, it's not over yet. That's right, there's still more! Well, it may not be A LOT, but you'll see what I mean.**

**And I also thought it would've been a better idea to have Staris be fought before the end of the castle in this fic, simply because it works much better. ;)**


	46. Bowser and Maquano: Double Battle!

**Oh man… I've been waiting for quite a while to get to this chapter! This, along with the next two chapters might probably be one of my favorite chapters in the story. How exactly is it my favorite? Well… You will just have to find out for yourself. That's what you're supposed to do anyways. So… How about we get started on this chapter, huh? Yes, that's what we should be doing now. So just read!**

* * *

When everyone walked out of the door, they could see that they made it out of Bowser's Castle. They were standing right in front of the castle, where there were a couple of lit torches. The sky was dark, since they're up in the sky. There wasn't much around this small area except for complete silence. No one said a word. The only thing C-2 Choppor could see was a hidden yellow ? block.

"…There's a hidden block," C-2 Choppor informed, breaking the silence.

"Oh, I see it," Chopper walked over to the block, and when he jumped under it an Ultra Shroom came out. He took it and put it away and hit the Save Block afterward.

"It feels so quiet being out here. It's creeping me out at the most." Koopla said as she looked up at the sky. "Oh well. At least the sky looks nice."

"I don't get why yer all afraid of bein' out here," Yosho said, giving a cocky look. "Sure, it's quiet, but I don't see anythin' scary here!"

Bow then appeared right in front of Yosho and gave her a scary face, causing the Yoshi to turn white as a rabbit.

"_**Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!**_" Bow began to cackle as Yosho slowly got back up.

"Ha ha ha ha! Now, you were saying…" Bow smirked.

"Ya just scared me. That's all. As for this place? It ain't so scary!" Yosho frowned as he brushed the dirt off his jacket and legs.

"Guys... We should really get to going into the castle and saving Peach." Chopper suggested. "Staying here isn't going to do anything. Let's hope it's the REAL Peach this time…because, well, you know."

"We should also be careful with the guards," Bruce added. "I'm sure there are guards in Peach's Castle, in case if we made it up here."

Chopper slowly opened the door and headed through, with his friends following him from behind.

* * *

**Inside of Peach's Castle-**

Everyone noticed there weren't any guards in the castle. Some of them began to wonder, but they knew the answer: they were waiting for them in Bowser's Castle, but failed to catch them. That must've been the answer!

"This place is so spooky… I thought Princess Peach's Castle would be nice and colorful. I'm so scared…" Kayzee shivered.

"Relax, Kayzee. It's just dark outside. That's why it's dark in here." Parakarry assured. "Besides, there's no monster coming out to get us…besides Bowser, of course. But, he's after Chopper, not us."

"So this is Peach's Castle, huh?" Chopper said as he looked around the castle. "I thought it was supposed to look all light and stuff. Oh well… Let's check out the castle."

Chopper went up the stairs to the door and opened it to let his friends through. After they headed through, he followed them into the next hallway.

"Man, if we weren't trying to save Peach, then I would really enjoy being here…" Chopper went up the stairs to the next door in the second main room of the castle. They found a smaller hallway through the third main room and found a door awaiting them. They could even hear someone's voice through that door as well.

"It sounds like a girl's crying for help!" Kayzee gaped. "We've gotta do something!"

"And that's what we plan to do," Chopper declared as he walked into the next room. There, they saw Peach tied up and hanging from the ceiling.

"Eeeek! Somebody help me!" Peach cried.

"Don't worry, Peach! I'm coming to get you down!" Chopper ran toward Peach, who smiled. She didn't care if he was only eight. It was better to be saved than kidnapped.

Before Chopper could jump up, some dark magic fired down at Chopper, which made him jump out of the way. Bowser floated down on his Koopa Clown Car, and Maquano floated down using his dark power.

"Gwaa ha ha ha ha! If it isn't the little boy I trounced, Chopper!" Bowser cackled. "I've been waiting for you… I'm amazed that you managed to come this far. How lucky…for me. You've been a distraction for far too long, little boy! It'll be a pleasure to squash you personally! Again!"

"Help me, Chopper!" Peach cried.

"Shut up, you. I never gave you permission to speak." Maquano snapped. "You're lucky I'm not completely in charge here…"

"Hey! That's not the way to treat a princess!" Chopper cried. "Leave her alone, right now!"

Bowser jumped out of his Koopa Clown Car and landed in front of the entire group. Everyone clenched their fists and got in their fighting stances.

"It's been a while…Bowser!" C-2 Choppor stated.

"So you DID betray me!" Bowser growled. "You're going to wish you were never created, Choppor!"

"We can take you down! It's eight against one…or two!" Chopper smirked. "There's no way you can beat us!"

"Fool! You can't beat me! I'm inviiiiincible!"

"We'll see about that!" Koopla taunted.

"Gwaaaah ha ha ha! All right, Chopper! Let's see your so-called power!"

**Tattle: **_Here it is, Chopper! You lost to Bowser before, but it's time to get back at him! Max HP: 50, Attack Power: 6. Defense Power: 1. His claw can poison you, and he can even burn you with his punch and flames! But, if he tries to use that Star Rod, you still have that Star Beam to take him down! Go on, Chopper! Take this Koopa King down!_

"All right, I'll show you my power!" Chopper used his Power Bounce on Bowser and stomped on him seven times.

"This is for getting rid of my friends, Kin—No, you evil Koopa!" C-2 Choppor shot a blast at Bowser who seemed rather surprised to see the damage he took from him.

"Well, I never underestimated your power, Choppor!" Bowser gaped. "As one of my best minions, you are a rather tough fighter... Especially against me!"

Bowser stomped toward Chopper and used his Koopa Claw on him. Luckily, Chopper was able to guard the attack.

"Hmmm… Let's see if you like cold breath instead of hot breath!" Chopper shot an ice ball at Bowser, and it felt pretty cold to him, but not enough to freeze him. Parakarry got in his shell and used his Shell Shot on Bowser. They were getting him down pretty fast now. He was halfway done with, too!

"All right, enough of that!" Bowser roared as he raised the Star Rod. "Now witness the power of this fully operational Star Rod!"

"Oh no… If he uses that, then Chopper will be done for!" Peach gulped.

"Yes, use that Star Rod, Bowser," Maquano grinned. "He doesn't stand a chance now. Heh heh heh…"

Bowser began to use the Star Rod's power, and when he was surrounded by a rainbow glow, he was invulnerable to all attacks.

"This is where it ends, Chopper!" Bowser cackled. "Ready to give up?"

"I knew you would use that thing. Too bad for you, I got a little something of my own!" Chopper smirked. "Time to use the Star Beam!"

Chopper summoned all seven Star Spirits, and they surrounded Bowser. A light beam hit Bowser, and his invincibility was taken away.

"What the…OW! What in the world was that?!" Bowser gaped as he looked around. "What happened to my rainbow glow that helped me become invulnerable to all attacks?!"

"Bowser… He just got rid of the Star Rod's power." Maquano informed.

"Goooah? He got rid of the power of that stupid Star Rod?!"

"Ha! Now we got you! Take this!" Kayzee cried as he gave Bowser a punch to the nose. The evil Koopa King held his nose in pain while he roared at the group.

"Graaaargh! You cheap little…coward! This fight's just beginning!" Bowser stomped his way to Chopper and was ready to punch him. Luckily, Chopper guarded his attack so he wouldn't get burnt. He walked over to the Koopa King afterward and attacked him with his hammer, and then Yosho fluttered over to use his Ground Pound on him.

Bowser breathed out fire on Chopper, taking 8 out of him. When Chopper shot a fireball at Bowser, it left him with only 10 HP. Koopla got in her shell and attacked Bowser afterward.

While Bowser stomped his way to Chopper, Chopper thought of something. He quickly put the Lucky Day Badge on while fighting, and when Bowser tried to punch him, he ended up missing.

"Gwargh!" Bowser stomped his foot in anger as Chopper took off the Lucky Day Badge, smirking.

"How come you put that on before he attacked you?" Bow asked.

"I just wanted to see what would happen. Basically, just for some good old humor." Chopper replied as he took out his hammer and used his D-Down Pound to finish him off. The battle gave Chopper 39 Star Points and also leveled up. He chose FP this time, so now he had 45 FP.

Bowser stomped his foot in anger again after being beaten. "Gosh, you're not bad! How'd you get so strong? Still, you're just an annoyance. That was like a warm-up for me."

Bowser got on his Koopa Clown Car and grabbed Peach.

"No! Chopper! Please come help me!" Peach cried.

"All right, Maquano, let's get out of here!" Bowser suggested. He looked at Chopper before flying off.

"You go on, Bowser. I haven't had my chance to have a little fun." Maquano said as he floated down and drew his sword. "This should be fun, fighting against my nemesis!"

"Oh man… Maquano wants to battle too…" Chopper groaned.

"All right, go on ahead! Works for me!" Bowser grinned. "But, if you make it Chopper, follow me if you wanna save Princess Peach! I'm going to watch this fight!"

Chopper became Sword Chopper and held his sword tight. "All right, since you have your own sword to fight us, I might as well use my own to fight back."

"A sword fight?" Bruce gaped. "This could get ugly..."

"It's been a while since we had our battle," Maquano grinned. "Now the time has come at long last! This is the end!"

**Tattle: **_I don't really know much on this villain, but I'm sure you do. His name's Maquano, right? Is he the evil demon knight that is one of your greatest enemies? Yeah, that's what you said. Max HP: 80, Attack Power: 8, Defense Power: 2. He can use his sword to fight against you, and he'll even use some dark magic. He's got some other powerful attacks that can deal 10 damage to you! Man, he seems a lot tougher than Bowser! No wonder he wanted Bowser to go steal the Star Rod… He wanted more power for himself._

"Yeah, Staris's third form didn't exactly beat you, but I gave him a chance. But, once you're up against me, it'll be over for you. You may have beaten Bowser, but I'm far more dangerous."

"Yeah, you are. But, I'm still going to kick you butt!" Chopper taunted. "I beat you three times before, and I'm sure I can do it again!"

Chopper began to start off with his Power Jab attack, which was similar to the Power Bounce. He began to jab multiple times at Maquano and stopped after the eighth time. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Maquano and shot a yellow blast at him. This didn't exactly make Maquano give up, though.

"Impressive… But let's see how you deal with this!" Maquano swung his sword once, and dark lightning came down on Chopper. He was able to guard the attack, luckily.

"Man, this evil knight has a lot more defense than Bowser! How did he become so tough anyway?" Kayzee asked.

"Well… He's always been like this, unfortunately." Chopper said as he swung at Maquano with his D-Down Slash. Bruce walked toward Maquano and blew up in front of him. He quickly shook himself from the explosion, wiping the soot off his cape.

"I hope this isn't my new cape… Because then it would surely be ruined." Maquano growled. "I ESPECIALLY hope this one is not the one Bob blew his nose on - even if he doesn't HAVE a nose!"

The demon knight quickly swung his sword at Chopper, which he failed to guard. Thankfully, his Sword ability didn't come off him, to his relief. Chopper managed to use Power Jab on Maquano again and managed to hit him eight times like before.

Yosho laid an egg and threw it at Maquano. He hit him directly in the head, but he didn't become dizzy from it. From what they could see, he was halfway finished.

Maquano swung his sword, and a dark Sword Beam came flying toward Chopper. He was able to guard the attack, but it ended up doing 9 damage. Chopper swung his sword at Maquano, and then C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Maquano, leaving him with 30 HP.

"Hmmm… I guess I can do this to help me." Maquano raised his arms up used some dark power to raise both his Attack and Defense by 3, so his Attack was now 11, and his Defense was now 5.

"Oh, boy… This is pretty bad." Chopper gulped. "We gotta attack him with attacks that don't affect defense."

Chopper began to think about how he should attack, and he decided to go with D-Down Slash. He swung at Maquano, ignoring his defense. C-2 Choppor aimed at Maquano and shot a blast at him. They were getting him down pretty fast.

Maquano jumped toward Chopper and began to swing down at him. Chopper held his sword up, hoping to block the attack. This attack could do up to 12 damage, but since his attack is boosted, it could do 14. But, Chopper was able to only take 3 damage from the attack thanks to him blocking it. He then attacked with his sword, and it only seemed to do 1 damage

"Dang it! I forgot to use an attack that ignores defense!" Chopper groaned as Kayzee flew toward Maquano and punched him. She also did 1 damage. But, Maquano's Attack and Defense boost wore off, to their surprise.

"My Attack and Defense boost wore off... Great. But I still have the upper hand!" Maquano quickly swung his sword at Chopper, who failed to guard the attack. It also left his HP low.

"Oh boy… I need some help. I'll call Misstar." Chopper summoned Misstar, and she came down and kissed Chopper, making him recover 20 HP. Bow fumed a tiny bit, but not a whole lot. "OK, though being kissed by a star…is odd, but at least I recovered HP."

C-2 Choppor aimed at Maquano, and shot a blast at him. Maquano was almost defeated now, but he wasn't going to go down just yet.

"Not so fast! This isn't over yet!" Maquano used his dark powers to make him recover 30 HP. "Well... Now it looks like I have 40 HP left!"

"Oh… You…" Chopper growled as he used his D-Down Slash on Maquano, and then Kayzee attacked Maquano after that, leaving him with only 30 HP.

"Heh heh heh… There's no way I would let you beat me so easily. I was prepared for this battle, you know!" Maquano grinned as he swung down at Chopper with his sword. However, Chopper tried to block Maquano's attack. He only took 4 damage in the end.

Chopper used his D-Down Slash on Maquano again, which was definitely a good idea, and then Koopla got in her shell and attacked Maquano. However, little did they know the demon knight was grinning.

"I still have one more attack I would like to show you!" Maquano used some dark magic to boost his Attack up. It seems like he had a devastating attack coming…

"Oh, boy… That's not good." Chopper gulped as he used his Power Jab on Maquano and he hit him eleven times.

"This attack could be pretty bad. I'll just make you invisible, and everything will all be better." Bow assured as she used her Outta Sight ability to make Chopper invisible. She also made the other partners invisible as well.

Maquano raised his sword up and swung it at Chopper. There was a huge amount of dark energy coming at him. But in the end, he didn't get hurt. Bow made everyone visible, and she wasted up a turn for herself. But, C-2 Choppor went first and he shot a yellow blast at Maquano.

"All right, time to end this!" Chopper declared as he ran toward Maquano and jumped in the air. With one final slash, Maquano was defeated.

"Arrgh! You little...!" Maquano knelt in defeat while Chopper got rewarded with 37 Star Points. He removed his ability afterward and smirked at Maquano.

"Well! Looks like you got beat again!" Chopper smirked. "So, how does it feel to get beaten by an eight year old?"

"Considering you're no ordinary eight year old, I'm not too surprised," Maquano got himself up, and he recovered all the damage done to him. "So you HAVE gotten stronger ever since Bowser beat you… Nevertheless, there's still no way you can save this Mushroom Kingdom!"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Bowser's been using up that Star Rod for a long time, and I even told him what would happen if he used that Star Rod too much. He's going to eventually drain the power out of it, but that's not a bad thing for me! Heh heh… That power will be given to me, and Staris will also have that power. But I'm making sure the Star Rod's power mostly goes to me! There's no chance you could possibly save the Mushroom Kingdom and the Stars!"

"I don't believe you. There's still a chance to save the Stars."

"Fine, don't listen to me. Don't say I warned you though. But when the power's completely drained, the Star Rod's Power Stars will be scattered around different areas of the Mushroom Kingdom. Luckily, there still are minions Bowser has that will take those Power Stars, so don't think your whole quest is over so soon, Chopper!"

Chopper stood in silence while Maquano levitated off the ground and out the window.

"You can follow me if you still think you can stop Bowser and I…and save that princess you came here for." Maquano said as he flew away.

"Do you think those things Maquano said are true?" Bow asked. "Is Bowser actually draining the power from the Star Rod and making its power scatter in different places in the Mushroom Kingdom?"

"Don't believe him. He always tries to say things like that just to fool me." Chopper stated. "What we SHOULD be doing now is getting to the roof! Let's go!"

But before they went, they went to the first main room of Peach's Castle, and to the room to the right, in the cabinet, a Toad was hiding in there. The Toad was worried that Chopper was a bad guy, but he told him he wasn't and he understood. He allowed him to sleep in the bed to heal, and he did just that. After that nap, they went back to the room where they fought Bowser and Maquano and headed on through the door to go up some stairs that led up to the roof.

"Follow me if you dare!" Bowser cackled as he held Peach close to him, who began to cry while he flew up on his Koopa Clown Car. Maquano followed him by flying up. They went into the door leading to a small tower. Inside, there were stairs circling around and going higher up in the tower. They could see the last Save Block in the castle, and for this chapter.

"We just gotta climb up these stairs, and we'll be ready to take Bowser on…and maybe Maquano!" Chopper declared after hitting the Save Block. They began to go up the circular staircase in the small room, which had a gray ground and gray tall, skinny pillars. They went through the door once they reached the top.

Once they came out of the door, they saw how high up they were. They're probably at the highest area of Peach's Castle. They could see a skinny bridge that led up to a floating platform with te Koopa Clown face on it. They could also see Bowser, Maquano, Kammy, and Camikon on the platform. Peach was also on there, tied up. Chopper carefully crossed the bridge and got on the platform. Everyone else was relieved that they made it on there.

"Gwaaa ha ha ha ha! Welcome to your nightmare!" Bowser cackled as he stood beside a green ! button. "You should thank me, Chopper. Since you have what it takes to stand up against me, I've arranged a special arena for you to defeat!"

"There's no possible way you can escape from this battle, Chopper," Maquano grinned as he sheathed his sword. "Go ahead, hit it, Bowser."

Bowser stomped on the switch, and the bridge collapsed. "Gwaa ha ha! Like it? You're completely trapped! How does it feel, huh?"

"Oh, man… This is not good at all." Chopper gulped.

* * *

**I wonder if we should believe Maquano's warning. It COULD be true...but let's not get our hopes up. Bowser REALLY isn't done yet. That was a warm-up. Yes, it was good for Chopper to level up before the battle against Maquano, since he's a big threat.**

**I'd say the Maquano battle was probably one of my favorites in Chapter 8, but the next fight is still up there too. It does have a lot, that's for sure. :)  
**


	47. Bowser: The REAL Fight Begins

Chopper gulped as he and his friends noticed there was no escape now. It was either fight or die from here.

"Bleah nyeah heh hee ha heh! You fell right into our trap! And you call yourself a hero?" Kammy cackled. "Did you think we were foolish enough to just sit back and watch as you saved the Star Spirits?"

"Uhhhhh... Yeah?" Chopper sweat dropped.

"Oh, typical Chopper! Being the dumb idiot you usually act like! I've put together a little surprise for you…a device that increases Bowser's power! King Bowser will be so powerful that not even the power of the Star Spirits and Maquano's power can compare!"

"We'll just see about that!" Maquano thought as he gave Kammy a glare without her noticing.

"Lord Maquano… Is something bothering you?" Camikon asked, only to be ignored by his master.

"He'll now truly be invincible…thanks to my wisdom!" Kammy continued. "Are you ready, my King? Then power up!"

Kammy used her power from her wand to make the eyes of the platform glow, and purple lightning began to strike the platform. The platform got darker as well. Suddenly, lightning struck Bowser, and he got bigger. He had a light blue glow surrounding him. Chopper and his friends were nearly gaping at the size of this monster.

"Uuuuaaaaahhhhh! Yes! Oh, Kammy Koopa! That was incredible! I feel like I'm exploding with power! Now I'll be able to squash this stupid little boy!" Bowser cackled as he stomped over by Chopper and his friends. "Hey, you! Chopper! It's not going to be like before, you antennaed loser! Prepare to be beaten!"

**Tattle: **_Whoa! Look at the size of Bowser! He looks so…dangerous! Man, and he's trying to hurt an eight year old? Wow… Well, his Max HP: 100, Attack Power: 8, Defense Power: 2. His fire breath can do 10 damage to you, and he can also use the Star Rod for many things, such as recovering and attacking. He's just like before, so you probably have a chance at defeating him, right?_

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce on Bowser. He managed to hit him eight times. Unfortunately, this was definitely not a good fight for Bow

"It's a shame I can't do much here," Bow frowned. "If my Smack could do more, it would be helpful. I'll do as much as I can do help, though."

"Luckily, I can probably make some good use here," C-2 Choppor aimed at Bowser and fired a blast at him. The Koopa King stomped toward Chopper and jumped on him. He was able to guard the attack, doing only 7 damage to him.

"Well, his attacks appear to be the same as Maquano's," Bruce realized. "I don't know who's tougher. Bowser like this or Maquano. Hard decision."

Chopper walked up to Bowser and used his D-Down Pound to make things a little easier for him. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Bowser again, and he shot a yellow blast at him. They only got him a quarter of a way down, to their delight.

"Gwuuh huh huh huh! Time to increase my power with my good old Star Rod!" Bowser cackled as he took out the Star Rod and used his power to make himself invincible. Chopper couldn't help but laugh at him.

"Are you serious? After the last fight we had with you?" Chopper was bursting with laughter. "I mean, come on! You should've learned by now!"

"Pipe down, boy!" Camikon snapped.

Chopper summoned the seven Star Spirits again, and they used the Star Beam to get rid of Bowser's invincibility.

"All right! Now this should be a piece of…" he noticed the Star Spirits bounced off Bowser, not doing a thing. "…cake?"

"What? What just happened?" Koopla gaped.

"Gwaaah ha ha ha! You idiot! That weak attack doesn't affect me anymore!" Bowser cackled.

"Bowser, I warned you before. Try not to use the Star Rod TOO much…" Maquano growled.

"Oh, who cares!? This thing already made me invincible! I don't really need to use it now! Gwaa ha ha ha!"

"My scanners indicate that Bowser's power is too much for the Star Beam. It does not work on him…" C-2 Choppor informed.

Peach was watching the fight, and she saw that Chopper couldn't attack Bowser. Her confidence in him winning slowly began to drain.

"Oh no! This is terrible! What can I do…?" Peach sighed. "The way things are going, Bowser will surly defeat Chopper… Somebody… Please… Help Chopper…"

"Why do you constantly have to run your mouth? Keep quiet!" Kammy snapped. She was about to raise her wand, until Twink came down and attacked the old Magikoopa, knocking her off her broomstick.

"Oh, Princess Peach, are you all right?" Twink asked. "I'll get you out of those ropes!"

"Twink! I'm so glad you're OK!" Peach smiled as Twink untied the rope. Kammy got back on her broomstick and growled at the Star Kid.

"You insolent little Star Kid! How dare you!" Kammy shouted as she raised her wand. While C-2 Choppor was trying to shoot at Bowser, he noticed Twink was in trouble.

"That Star Kid... I must help him!" C-2 Choppor stated as he flew over Bowser and went over to Twink.

"Choppor? Where are ya goin'?" Yosho gaped.

"Huh? Hey, come back here, Choppor!" Bowser growled. "You're still a part of this fight!"

Chopper shot a fireball at Bowser so he would turn his attention back to him. He knew what Choppor was doing. He even noticed that Twink came in to save Peach.

C-2 Choppor landed in front of Kammy and aimed his gun at her. "Don't even think about it…"

"Hey, it's you… The robot that actually gave Twink and I a chance!" Peach gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm here to stop this evil hag from hurting the Star…" C-2 Choppor trailed. "I will personally handle this myself. Stay back. You'll only get yourself hurt."

"You stupid little piece of scrap metal! You can't even defeat someone like me!" Kammy barked.

"I've taken Bowser on, I'm sure I can stand a chance against you. You've caused enough harm to Star Kids!" C-2 Choppor hovered up with his jetpack and shot a yellow blast at Kammy, which did the same amount of damage it usually does.

Peach used her Focus, and she used it to make C-2 Choppor be surrounded by energy. "I'm here to help you, if you need it."

"Urgh… Hmph! Well, you sure do pack a lot there…" Kammy summoned a yellow block to come down on C-2 Choppor. It did 3 damage. The C Unit aimed at Kammy again and fired a blast at her, and this time, he did 7 damage. Peach used her Focus to make him stronger once again.

"Ow! Why, you stupid little… That attack seemed a lot stronger than before." Kammy gawked. "But, I've gotten a lot stronger than before! This fight should be done in no time!"

Kammy fired magic at C-2 Choppor instead of a yellow block. It did 2 damage, unlike the previous time. Parakarry noticed that C-2 Choppor seemed to be in trouble, so he managed to come down to help.

"Parakarry? Why did you come here?" C-2 Choppor asked

"You seemed to be in a little trouble there. I had to come help you!" Parakarry replied.

"Fine, I'll take you also, Paratroopa!" Kammy sneered.

C-2 Choppor hovered up and fired a blast at Kammy, doing 8 damage, and then Parakarry used his Sky Dive to attack, which did 6 damage as well.

"Yeeow! What's going on! Why does it seem like these two are getting stronger?" Kammy gasped.

"I'm sure I can help you also, Parakarry," Peach assured as she used her Focus, which made Parakarry and C-2 Choppor stronger.

"Thanks, Peach!" Parakarry smiled.

"I remember fighting her before," Twink recalled. "She does seem a lot tougher than before, but having help is a lot better."

Kammy used her magic to make lightning strike down on C-2 Choppor and Parakarry. It did 1 damage to both of them. Suddenly, Bow appeared as well, noticing that both of them were fighting against Kammy.

"Bow? Why did you come here? I can handle this by myself…" C-2 Choppor stated.

"I wasn't much use in fighting Bowser," Bow explained. "Kammy seems to be more vulnerable. Plus, I noticed Parakarry went off to fight Kammy without Bowser even noticing. Besides... Chopper even let me!"

"I suppose having another person would be a good thing. We'll work together."

C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Kammy, and it did 9 damage. Parakarry's Sky Dive did 8 damage, and Bow's Smack did 6 damage. Peach used her Focus on all three of them to make them stronger.

"I think this is working out very well," Peach smiled.

"Three against one? Grrr! This is unfair for someone my age! But, I am rather powerful…" Kammy fired magic at all three of them, but it did nothing, making her gasp. "It… It can't be… My attacks don't work… Oh… Oh no! Peach must be wishing for those three to become stronger!"

C-2 Choppor was about to finish the fight, but then he stopped. "No… I can't do it... She's not the real enemy, in my eyes. That would be Bowser... And even then, I don't think our attacks combined would finish her off."

"What are you saying?" Parakarry asked.

"Scanners indicate that the Star Kid would be guaranteed to finish the fight if Princess Peach wished the power she gave to us to him. It would be double our power."

"But… Why me?" Twink asked.

"Has this witch been bothering you?" Bow asked.

"Well..."

"Then you should be able to do the honors! After how she's been treating the princess?"

"...Yeah! You're right!" Twink frowned. "Peach! Ummmm... Wish the power you gave to them to me!"

"OK, Twink!" Peach used her Focus and made the power given to C-2 Choppor, Parakarry, and Bow get transferred to Twink. He had all the power he needed and used hid Das to hit Kammy, which knocked him off her broomstick.

"Ooooohhh… King Bowser… I have failed you…" Kammy moaned in disbelief.

"Let's get back to Bowser before he notices we're gone," Bow suggested. She made Parakarry, C-2 Choppor, and herself invisible, and they got back to Bowser before he could notice they got away from him.

"Oh, yes! We did it, Twink!" Peach cheered. "Now we must save Chopper! But… What can I do…?"

"I know! Princess Peach! Make a wish!" Twink suggested. "Just like you did for those three and me! Make a wish to give more power to the Star Spirits! Think of the Mushroom Kingdom, Star Haven, Chopper… Make a wish to the Stars, thinking of all those things! If your wish is strong enough, it will reach the Star Spirits and give them strength!"

"OK, Twink… I'll try! It worked before…so I'm sure it will work again!"

"I'll go help Chopper!" Twink began to go over to Chopper, and Peach began to make a wish. Meanwhile, Bowser kept cackling, since Chopper couldn't do anything when attacking him.

"Is this the end…?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, yes… This definitely is your end. Watching you suffer is something I like to see." Maquano grinned.

"Lord Maquano, you know, we could've went over to help Kammy Koopa you know…" Camikon trailed.

"Yes, but I didn't feel like it. Bowser better be careful… If he uses up the Star Rod's power, he's going to be powerless with that Star Rod. Of course, I can still get that power, so I don't really care."

"Gwaah ha ha ha ha ha! What's the matter, Chopper! ? Feeling a bit under the weather?" Bowser scoffed. "You ought to work out more!"

"Oh shut up!" Chopper growled. "At least I'm faster than you, fatty!"

"What? Why I oughta…" Before Bowser could attack, Twink bumped into Bowser, leaving him distracted. "Huh? Who did that?"

Maquano smacked the upper part of his helmet. _"Don't lose your attention! Fight!" _

"Oh my! I feel power flooding into me!" Eldstar gasped as he and the six other Star Spirits appeared.

"Honorable Star Spirits, I'll do what I can to help!" Twink cried as he flew to the Star Spirits.

"Twink! Is that you? What a surprise! I feel… The wishes of Princess Peach and all of the Mushroom Kingdom are giving us power! Perhaps now we can match Bowser's strength! Now! Chopper! Don't give up! Everyone's behind you! Receive our power and do your very best! Power up the Star Beam!"

The seven Star Spirits began to throw in as much power as they could, surrounding Chopper with a couple of sparkles.

"Whoa… What did you get now?" Bruce gasped.

**Star Beam has been upgraded! It's now Peach Beam! Chopper can now use Peach Beam!**

"And…take this to help you too!" Eldstar made a golden sword with the sides of it spiky appear. It actually looked similar to Galaxia, Meta Knight's sword. Once Chopper grabbed it, he had the green hat appear on his head, and he held the sword Galaxia up. He was now Galaxia Chopper!

"Galaxia? Bowser, turn around already!" Maquano shouted.

"Wha… What's going on…? What is it, Maquano?" Bowser turned back to Chopper, who was holding Galaxia. His confused look changed to a serious one. "Chopper! Are you still standing? You should just give up! You'll never beat me! Not even that golden sword can help you! …Even if I don't know where you got that!"

**Tattle: **_All right, you're ready to take on Bowser now! With that Peach Beam, you can get rid of that invincibility on him, and attack! Plus, you got that Galaxia sword with you, so you should get some help with that thing. He's got the same stats as before, with 100 HP, 8 Attack, and 2 Defense. He didn't use the Star Rod that much before, but he'll use it now. You're going to have to be careful in this fight. Maquano might even do something while you're fighting Bowser, so pay attention to him too. This is it, Chopper! Take that Evil King Bowser down!_

"Time to test out the Peach Beam!" Chopper summoned all seven Star Spirits, with Twink above them, and they surrounded Bowser, making a beam come down on him. Unlike the Star Beam, the Peach Beam ACTUALLY worked on Bowser, leaving him fully vulnerable to attacks.

"Gwaaa-huh! You've gotta be kidding me! My Star Rod power's gone!" Bowser gaped.

"Yep, it is! Now let's finish this up!"

"Grrrrrrrr…"

C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Bowser and he fired a yellow blast at him. He's not almost beaten though. They only did 32 damage to Bowser overall, which wasn't too bad. Bowser stomped over to Chopper and and punched him with a flaming fist. Chopper managed to guard the attack though, taking less damage.

Chopper held Galaxia and jumped over to Bowser to use a Power Jab on him multiple times.

"Oof! OW! Quit it!" Bowser cried.

Chopper finished off the last attack with a slash, striking him eight times overall. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Bowser he shot a blast at him. They were almost halfway finished with him.

"You know, this battle isn't as bad as I thought..." Chopper realized.

Bowser used his fiery breath to burn Chopper, which he failed to guard, taking 10 from the dangerous attack.

"Ouch! 10 damage is pretty bad…"

Chopper used his D-Down Slash on Bowser so his attack would pierce his defense. He knew that this sword had some special tricks compared to a regular sword, and they are indeed useful.

"I'm not staying out of this fight you know!" Bruce declared as he blew up in front of Bowser, who stomped over to Chopper afterward and used his Koopa Claw to attack him, which ended up getting guarded.

"Urgh... That guarding is starting to tick me off!" Bowser growled.

Chopper attacked Bowser again, but he used his Sword Drill on him instead by coming at him and ramming right into him with Galaxia. It could do 8 damage, but this attack did 6, due to his defense.

"I'm makin' my move!" Koopla declared as she got in her shell to attack and attacked Bowser. It only did 3 damage, but at least it's better than nothing really…

"This battle's not over yet!" Bowser growled as he used the Star Rod's power to make himself invisible again. "I'd like to see you try to hit me again!"

"Bowser… If you just do that, he'll use the Peach Beam on you. You are being rather foolish, you know." Maquano informed.

"It makes me stronger with this! I'm allowed to do whatever I want with it! You only told me to get it. I can use as much power from this!"

"Lord Maquano, why don't you just take the Star Rod from Bowser?" Camikon suggested.

"No, that won't do much," Maquano replied with a shake of his head. "If he wants to just suck the Star Rod's power away, he can do that. It'll make destroying the Mushroom Kingdom a breeze without it…"

Chopper tried to ignore Maquano, since he told him about what could happen and used the Peach Beam to summon the seven Star Spirits and Twink to make Bowser vulnerable. Parakarry got in his shell and used his Shell Shot attack to hit Bowser directly, ticking him off. But, he calmed down and used his flame breath to burn Chopper, who was able to guard his attack, but it left him low on HP.

"Gonna need to recover," Chopper called for Misstar, and she came down to give Chopper a kiss to recover 20 HP. Afterward, she disappeared without a word. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Bowser, which only got him angrier.

"Bah! This is getting pointless just letting myself be beaten!" the Koopa king held up the Star Rod and used its power to recover 30 HP.

"Oh… That's bad." Parakarry gaped.

"He can recover 30 HP at a time?" Koopla groaned.

"That's just like Maquano. He was able to recover 30 HP also…" Chopper sighed as he used his Power Jab on Bowser just to get him down a little. He managed to hit him nine times, luckily. Kayzee used her Heat Vision to attack Bowser, which did 6 damage like Parakarry's Shell Shot.

"Grrr! Take this!" Bowser held up the Star Rod and summoned a light pulse, hitting both Chopper and Kayzee and making the Dayzeeflower Girl fall to the ground in pain.

"No… That attack was just so strong…" Kayzee moaned.

"Oh, great… This isn't good." Chopper gulped as he used his D-Down Slash on Bowser again, and then Yosho laid an egg and threw it at him, leaving him with 30 HP left.

"Aw yeah! Now we're gettin' him down!" Yosho grinned.

Bowser used his flame breath on Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack easily. Even then, Chopper needed to heal himself, so he summoned Misstar, who used her Smooch on Chopper to recover 20 HP. Afterward, C-2 Choppor shot a blast at Bowser.

Bowser once again used the Star Rod's power to make himself invincible. Maquano slowly shook his head at him.

"You'll never learn Bowser… I won't stop you though…" he sighed.

"Stop doing that already! I mean, you keep doing that!" Chopper shouted. "Oh, fine… I'll just get rid of it."

He summoned the seven Star Spirits and Twink, and they made Bowser vulnerable with Peach Beam. C-2 Choppor shot another blast at Bowser, and it seemed like they were succeeding with the fight. He only had 18 HP left, luckily.

"Grrrr!" Bowser grit his teeth while stomping over to Chopper to stomp on him. He actually squished Chopper, with Bow helping him up afterward. "Gwaa ha ha ha! Now that feels a little better! I always wondered what it would feel like to squish you!"

Chopper used his D-Down Slash on Bowser again, and then C-2 Choppor shot a blast at him. Bowser only had 6 HP left, making everyone smile with glee.

"Yay! We're almost done!" Kayzee squealed.

"About time!" Bow sighed.

"An' then we can go find some ladies and take off!" Yosho grinned.

"Gah! Time to heal myself once again!" Bowser growled as he took out the Star Rod and used its power to recover 30 HP.

"You…" Chopper clenched his fists in anger as he used his D-Down Slash on Bowser to chip away on him, and then C-2 Choppor attacked, because Chopper needs to save some FP. Bowser used his Star Rod to summon another pulse attack that struck Chopper and C-2 Choppor. They both guarded it, while Kayzee was able to get herself back up.

Chopper used his Sword Drill on Bowser to knock off 6 from him, and C-2 Choppor attacked again with his gun, since that was all he decided to do.

"Might as well heal again," Bowser used the Star Rod to recover 30 HP once again, which got REALLY annoying for everyone.

Chopper used his D-Down Slash on Bowser again, and after C-2 Choppor attacked, he was back to having 30 HP left. Everyone hoped that he wouldn't heal himself again.

"Let's hope he doesn't recover any HP," Bruce hoped.

"Don't even say that," Koopla growled.

Bowser took out the Star Rod again, but instead of healing himself, he used it to make himself invincible.

"Oh… That." Chopper sighed in relief as he used the Peach Beam on him to make him vulnerable, while C-2 Choppor shot him. Bowser used his flame breath to burn Chopper, and it left Chopper with not much HP left. He knew he needed to recover.

"You know, I still got a Jelly Ultra with me," Chopper recalled. "This IS the last battle, right? So it doesn't matter if I use this."

he took out a Jelly Ultra and ate it, recovering 50 HP and 50 FP. Now his stats were fully recovered - except for his Star Energy.

Bruce walked over to Bowser in order to blow up right in front of him, bringing him down to 18 HP.

"Time I showed you something else now!" Bowser held up the Star Rod again, and this time, lighting struck Chopper. He was able to guard it, taking only 9 damage.

"Geez... He's going all out, isn't he?" Chopper sighed as he jumped over to Bowser and swung at him with his D-Down Slash. After that, C-2 Choppor shot a blast at Bowser, leaving him with only 6 HP.

"The battle is almost over," C-2 Choppor declared.

"For some reason… My power is beginning to weaken…" Bowser panted as he held the Star Rod up. However, its power didn't seem to respond. "What the heck? ! Heal me, Star Rod!"

"Fine, I'll attack him," Maquano groaned, knowing what happened with the Star Rod. He used some of his dark powers to make dark lighting strike Chopper. This attack did 12 damage leaving the boy cringing in pain.

"Ouch! Hey! Who said you could help Bowser?" Chopper asked.

"I can do what I want. If it kills you quicker, then I'll do it."

"Fine, do what you want. I still got this in the bag. This is it for you, Bowser!" Chopper began to store up some energy in Galaxia, and he jumped up, ready to swing at him from a distance. "_**Take THIS! Galaxia Sword Beam!**_"

He swung Galaxia, and a powerful yellow Sword Beam came down on Bowser. The Koopa king gaped as the attack struck him and made him emit lighting. He began to spin around in pain while he began to change back to his normal size and fall over on the ground.

"Ohhhhhhh, NOOO!" Bowser cried. "I can't believe it! I got defeated…by an eight year old kid! And this time, Mario wasn't here to help! I even became invincible and powerful! It makes no sense for me to lose to someone else! Darn it!"

Apparently, Bowser dropped some Star Points. He appeared to have…40 Star Points, so Chopper collected them and even got the Star Rod that dropped from Bowser's grasps.

"Yes! The Star Rod!" Chopper cheered as he held it up.

**You took back the Star Rod!**

"You know, that Star Rod doesn't look as bright as it was…" Koopla noticed, looking at the dullness of it.

"Yeah, you're right. But, we still got it back." Chopper began to remember what Maquano told him earlier, but decided that it wouldn't bug him.

"So you're Chopper, right? Thank you so much for coming!" Peach smiled. "Though... I didn't expect you to be this young."

"Yeah, I know I look kind of young... But apparently, I'm something strange to many people here..."

"You kind of remind me of someone else who came here a long time ago. She kind of had the same color skin as you. Do you know the name Ton-"

However, before she could continue, the ground began to shake, leaving everyone confused, including Maquano and Camikon. There were even some explosions from the platform as well.

"Bowser, explain to me what's going on right now," Maquano demanded as Bowser and Kammy slowly got up.

"Huh? What do you mean? Uh… Kammy! What's going on here?" Bowser gawked as another explosion appeared before them. "This isn't part of my plan!"

"Uh, your Kingship, the battle with Chopper was so intense that my device for increasing your power seems to have started malfunctioning." Kammu gulped. "Uh…it's entirely screwed up, and its power appears to be heading back into your castle. I hate to tell you this, but both your castle and this spot right here are about to explode. We must flee, my evil King! We have no choice!"

"What, this place is going to explode?" Maquano gawked.

"We better get outta here right… Huh? ..."

Another explosion appeared by Bowser, Maquano, Kammy, and Camikon.

"_**Aaahhh!**_"

The explosion sent them flying off the platform the platform. Bowser, Kammy, and Camikon began to plummet to their doom, while Maquano's cape helped slow down his fall. Bowser's Castle appeared to have some explosions emitting too. The castle began to fall to where the four villains were falling. But… Peach's Castle was the only thing floating down slowly, being surrounded by some energy.

Even Chopper and his friends and also Peach and Twink were surrounded by the energy. The seven Star Spirits must be doing all of this.

"Whoa… This is…pretty cool, I guess!" Bruce gasped.

"I can see some of the stars!" Chopper gaped before looking at the Star Rod and hearing Maquano's warning echoing through his head. Afterward, The Star Spirits brought them all to the castle.

* * *

**Forever Forest-**

Apparently, Bowser, Maquano, Kammy, and Camikon all fell in Forever Forest. Some Boos noticed them fall down, but what really caught there attention was the castle falling, forcing them to flee in fear.

"Ack! Run for it!"

"I don't want to get crushed!"

Once all four of them landed in the forest, they looked up and saw the castle come down. They immediately got out of the way, and the castle landing made a large thud that could be heard throughout the Mushroom Kingdom.

"My plans…all foiled by an eight year old!" Bowser cried. "How could this be? ! I became invincible…but it didn't work!"

"Bowser, it's not all over. Peach may be saved, but if you tried to go kidnap her again, it wouldn't work. You abused the Star Power, and its power split into these." Maquano took out a Power Star, which looked like an ordinary yellow star, but without eyes.

"What? You're telling me the Star Rod's power is all gone? So… You're telling me that…"

"Yes, we can still have our chance at destroying Chopper. If you REALLY want to kidnap Peach, Chopper would have to be taken out of the picture."

"That's something we've been trying to do, Lord Maquano. I mean, we can…" Camikon was soon kicked away by Maquano before he could finish.

"Hmmm… So you're telling me we need to get rid of Chopper, huh?" Bowser pondered. "Well, I always kind of am a little soft for some reason. I mean, I never _killed_ Mario… But, if you're telling me this would make me more threatening and tougher, then I'll take it! Gwaa ha ha ha! Yes, this time we'll get Chopper!"

"I told him that his adventure wouldn't be over," Maquano stated as he crossed his arms. "There are seven of these, and they've been scattered all over the Mushroom Kingdom. I know just what to do with this one."

He threw it up into space, somewhere Chopper will NEVER get it. Onto another planet, perhaps?

"Now then… I got a good place for us to be in that Chopper can't necessarily reach." Maquano made a dark red portal appear, and it sucked Bowser's Castle in. There was also one for them as well.

"Hmm… This is interesting." Bowser remarked. "C'mon, Kammy, let's take a look at what's in here!"

"Of course, your Maliciousness," Kammy nodded as all four of them went into the dark red portal, curious as to what's through there.

* * *

**Peach's Castle-**

While they were planning that out, Chopper gave the Star Rod back to Eldstar at the entrance to Peach's Castle.

"Oh, Chopper! Thank you! You did it! You brought back our precious Star Rod!" Eldstar cried. "I thank you from the bottom of my heart. We will use it to bring peace back to this world."

Eldstar began to look at the Star Rod, and its beauty. But, he noticed it looked a little more dull than bright.

"Hmmm?"

"Eldstar, is there a problem?" Mamar asked.

"Something isn't right about this… When the Star Rod was back at the Star Sanctuary, it looked brighter. This seems dull."

"Hmmm… Do you think that Bowser abused the power of the Star Rod too much and made its power scatter around the Mushroom Kingdom?" Skolar asked.

"Wait… What?" Chopper gawked.

"If the Star Rod's power has been drained out, how will we grant everyone's wishes again?" Muskular questioned.

"This is very bad… I didn't know Bowser used too much power…" Misstar trailed.

"Oh, dear… So you're saying everything is not back to how it was before?" Peach asked.

"I'm afraid not," Klevar sighed. "The Star Rod's Power Stars were scattered around. Seven of them must be around the Mushroom Kingdom."

"But the seven Power Stars that gave the Star Rod power may have gone to other places where we haven't been…" Kalmar trailed.

"And to think this was all over," Twink frowned.

"Chopper, I am sorry about asking you this, but could you hold onto the Star Rod for right now?" Eldstar asked.

"OK, I guess I should…" Chopper trailed as he took the Star Rod from Eldstar.

**You got the Star Rod!**

"I know that you were the one to save all seven of us. You can probably find all seven of those Power Stars. I deeply apologize about this, but could you find the seven Power Stars?"

"What? No relaxin'? !" Yosho gaped. "C'mon! We already did our job! Go make someone else do it!"

"Yosho! We can't back down!" Parakarry snapped. "That's just rude!"

"Well, I don't mind the idea," Bow smiled, floating over to Chopper. "At least I get to spend some more time with Chopper."

"All right, I'll do it," Chopper agreed. "I mean, I don't want to leave the Mushroom Kingdom now. Plus, I don't think it will be so hard. Bowser and Maquano and beaten, and there wouldn't be anyone standing in our way."

"Thank you Chopper. We don't know where these Power Stars are, but maybe someone could possibly know where they are."

"Chopper, what I was going to say before…" Peach trailed as she walked over to him. "Do you happen to know the name Tonberria by any chance?"

"Why, yes I do. She's my mother." Chopper answered. "Why do you ask?"

"She once saved my kingdom eleven years ago from Bowser. Well, Mario came to take care of Bowser, but she was able to free me and allow me to escape. I never expected her son to come here and stop Bowser…"

"I never knew she came here. She didn't tell me about that…"

"How is she doing now?" Chopper's look just showed it all. "…Oh! Is she really…? Oh, I'm so sorry about that!"

"I'm actually the last of my own kind, unfortunately. I know, it's pretty sad for me... But it's all right, I guess. People tend to ask me that a lot, so I'm used to that."

"OK..."

"Hey Peach. You think it's OK if I stay in your castle for a while, just in case you ever get lonely?" Twink asked as she turned to him.

"Of course! I would love to have company in my castle!" Peach smiled. "You're more than welcome to stay!"

Chopper turned back to Eldstar. "Don't worry Star Spirits. We'll find those seven Power Stars and restore the Star Rod!"

"The only thing that's worrying me right now is Staris," Parakarry remarked. "We fought him in Bowser's Castle, but he didn't seem to appear on that platform. Where did he go?"

"I don't know… But, let's just relax for right now. This adventure seems like it has just started."

Peach's Castle slowly descended to the ground, and it seemed like everything would be OK. Looks like Chopper's quest is truly beginning for him.

**END OF CHAPTER**


	48. Chapter 8 Interlude

**We are officially halfway through the story now! Yep, it has come this far already. Now, I told you the interludes wouldn't be with Peach, because the rest of the chapters aren't all about rescuing her now, which you probably read last chapter. This is where I get more original. Yes, kind of like part of Chapter 1, and 5 and 6. These interludes will mostly take place…well, you'll see soon. But, these are the interludes I probably actually seem to like more apparently, and I'm sure you may like them. All right then… Let's start the next half of the story already!**

* * *

Somewhere a little close to the castle, two dark red portals appeared. One was rather big, while the other was smaller. Bowser's Castle came out of the portal with his minions in it as well. Even the Koopa Bros. were in there, as well as those who failed to guard the Star Spirit like Tutankoopa, Bubba Blubba, and C-1 TM. Bowser, Maquano, Kammy, and Camikon came out of the other portal, with Bowser nearly gaping at the whole place.

It was like a volcanic place with a large city off in the distance with red and black colored skyscrapers The ground was also red and rocky, which seemed to make Bowser feel delighted.

"Whoa… So you're saying that you live in this place?" Bowser asked.

"Yes, I live here. Well, I sometimes live here." Maquano explained. "I REALLY live someplace else, but I will not take you there, because that place is top secret. Anyway... I welcome you to Hell!"

"Err… We're in Hell? Does that mean we're actually dead?" Kammy gulped.

"No, you're not dead. If I use a portal to take you guys here, then you are not dead. Besides, I control everything in this place. Even watch."

Maquano made some lava rise up, but he stopped when he saw someone frozen coming by. It was Bob, and the ice was starting to melt.

"Why is Bob frozen right now? In fact, how did he become frozen?" Camikon pondered.

"Ugh…" Maquano made the lava bring Bob onto land. He completely thawed out, and was panting.

"Oh thank goodness! Now I got you this time Ch… Wait a minute…" Bob stopped and looked at his surroundings. He was back in Hell. "Since when did I get here? Oh, hey Maquano! C'mon, let's go for round one!"

Bob raised his fists, preparing to have a fist fight with the demon knight. Maquano simply pushed him, knocking him to the ground.

"Dang it! I swear I'm stronger than you!"

"You? Stronger than me?" Maquano scoffed. "HA! You haven't done SQUAT! You go around acting like a biker, when you're not even that strong! How pathetic! Now get out of my sight!"

"Fine… I'll just go out and be how I usually am. I need my motorcycle."

Maquano groaned as he made Bob's red and black motorcycle appear. Bob got on and backed up by the four and revved his motorcycle. When he took off, all the smoke from the bike spread to the four, making them cough. They could even see the mark of where the motorcycle went.

"Shouldn't you be a little worried that he's probably going to ruin everything around here?" Bowser asked. "I mean, what he just did while on that motorcycle was pretty stupid."

"Well that's because he's an idiot. He'll always do something stupid." Maquano face palmed. "Now then… How about we get to our plans? Chopper is going to be collecting those seven Power Stars to restore the Star Rod. We need to know where he'll be going. Bowser, you have someone keeping a hold of one of them, right? We spoke about this before."

"Oh, yeah. I remember. I think **Poison Piranha **is keeping a hold of it. He's in **Frog Swamp **right now, which is right by **Frog Forest**. It's to the south I think. Yeah, that's it."

"Good, we gotta make sure he doesn't go there. There's some old frog there that's wise, but I wouldn't worry too much on that. It's not THAT important. Come, I'll show you around here."

Maquano began to walk over to the city, with Bowser following. Kammy noticed them leaving and gasped.

"Your Evilness! Wait up!" Kammy cried as she got on her broomstick and followed them.

"Lord Maquano! Don't leave me here too!" Camikon cried as he followed Maquano on his broomstick. They didn't notice that four Koopas were overhearing their conversation.

"Hey, did you hear that, guys?" Red asked. "One of the Power Stars is being held in Frog Swamp! And King Bowser wants Chopper out of the picture! You guys thinking what I'm thinking?"

"…Not fully sure on that one," Yellow pondered. "I mean, Chopper really whooped us last time, and I don't know how we'll beat him this time."

Red walked over to Yellow and smacked him in the face. "Shut up, Yellow! We never got our chance to get him in King Bowser's Castle. We'll make sure to get him this time. Besides, I got a really nice weapon that'll surely take down Chopper!"

Red took out a small time bomb. The other three jumped back while he grinned.

"Whoa! Red! What IS that?" Black gaped.

"This here is a Time Bomb I picked up in the castle's armory! Yup! When the time has come, we'll go get that Chopper with this! We'll sneak it into wherever he's using transportation, and I'll set it up for one minute!"

"Whoa, Red, you're going a little hardcore here man," Green grinned. "I like that! So we're going to blow him up, right?"

"Oh yeah… It'll be destructive, and when King Bowser finds out, he'll probably reward us! I know for sure this won't fail! …Unless we mess up with the bomb. We should just follow him around just to be on the safe side though."

"So mostly we're using brainpower to think where he will go?" Yellow asked stupidly. "That sounds good to me! We're going to ruin Chopper's chance of saving the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"Come on, Yellow. That's not cool at all." Red groaned after smacking his face. "Just do what I say, and make sure Chopper gets what's coming to him."

"Yeah, he's going to get it now after making us ride that roller coaster in our own park!" Green recalled. "Yellow ended up puking all over the place! Don't you remember that?"

"Oh, yeah... Big time." Black groaned.

"That was awful, but this time it'll be over for Chopper!" Red declared. "We're a lot cooler than him anyway! Let's go!"

The Koopa Bros. went in the castle to find anything that could help them get back to Toad Town. Apparently, Bowser had a teleporter hidden behind one of the Bowser blocks in the room they were guarding. They simply used that to go back to Toad Town.

Chopper will sure be in for a treat, will he?

* * *

**Peach's Castle, roof-**

Speaking of Chopper... He was sitting on the roof of Peach's Castle at this point. It was now daytime, and he was looking up at the sky. He could see some stars up there, but not all of them because it wasn't nightime. Seeing those stars made him think about his own kind. Chopper wondered how his kind came to be from the stars, and where their true origin was. Surely they weren't born on his birth planet, right?

After a bit of thinking, Chopper got himself up and looked at the Star Rod. From what he recalled, the power was drained out thanks to Bowser, who abused its power to death during their battle. But how its power became limited, he had no idea. What did spark his attention was when he saw a star in the sky fade away, as if it died.

"What the… Did that Star disappear?!" Chopper gaped.

"Oh, there you are Chopper. I was worried where you were." Peach walked onto the room and noticed Chopper looking up at the sky. "...Is something wrong?"

"I just noticed some of the Stars were dying," he explained as he put the Star Rod away. "It might be because of the Star Rod's power."

"Oh… That's not good... You're probably going to have to get going soon! …But there's one more thing you may want to do before going. There are a lot of things in the underground area of my castle. A Toad told me there was something down there, but they couldn't tell what it was. I can show you the way to the sewers."

Chopper nodded and he followed Peach down to the sewers. In the first hallway of the castle, Peach pulled a door hinge on the ground that revealed a ladder going down.

"Whoa, I never knew about this…" Chopper gasped. "Wait, what about my friends?"

"They're a little busy right now," Peach explained. "But, I'll go tell them you're going down to the sewers and maybe they'll catch up with you later."

"OK, you can do that," Chopper climbed down the ladder to the underground dungeon of the castle. He thought it would be dark and disgusting, but he was actually wrong. The ground was a dark blue color, and he could see a lot of pipes to the side.

"OK… So Peach said there was something down in the sewers… I don't see anything at all."

Chopper went down the stairs and looked around for anything important. He needed to jump over some of the pipes to reach the next room, so he took the path up north, which led to some water. Apparently, there was a chest on top of a brick block over the water, so Chopper simply froze the water with an ice ball.

"All right, time to get what's in there," Chopper used his Tornado Jump to reach the block, and the chest dropped down. Once he opened it, he found a Shop Key in there. "What's a key doing here? I don't understand why there'd be one in a place like this... And this one seems to have a smile on the handle for some reason."

He left the room and went to the path going to the left, which had some corks on some holes in the pipes. They weren't fully in, which made some water leak out of the pipes.

"Oh great… Now there's a little problem in the sewers. If only Mario were here… Wait a minute."

Chopper got on one of the corks and used his Tornado Jump. He was lucky that the cork went in, so he did that to the rest of them, which opened the entrance to another area on the sewers.

"It's strange that these sewers are much different than the one in Toad Town..."

He moved on to the next area, which had some more pipes, but there wasn't anything else around. However, there was a hole in one pipe, but no water appeared to be shooting out.

"Hmm…" Chopper jumped down into the pipe, and he began to explore inside. All the way to the north in the pipes, he could see a locked door, so he thought about the key he had. He took out the key and used it to unlock the door. Once he went through that door, he saw a red carpet with orange eyes, and an orange outlined smile that looked a little creepy.

"What the…" Chopper walked up to the counter, and he saw a strange person who was small and had a red cloak on. He could only see the back of him.

"I have boredom…" the cloaked person trailed.

"Excuse me, sir?" Chopper gawked.

"Guests?" the figure walked toward the counter backwards. He turned around, and his face couldn't be seen from his hood - except for light blue spiral glasses and a freaky smile.

"Now I have… _**FURY!**_"

"I beg your pardon?"

"I say to you WELCOME! Welcome to Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge! In this place **beans **are like precious treasure milked from a famous cow made of jewels! All who come with beans leave with Badges so rare they make mustaches droop with disbelief!"

"Wait, rare Badges? Hey, that sounds good to me! But… What are you really? I never saw you in Peach's Castle..."

"Castle? What castle? Fawful does not recall the happening." Fawful gawked. "In fact, I had the staying here this whole time without the noticing! You, Antenna, are the first to see Fawful's face!"

"Uhhhhh... OK? Well, how did you get here in the first place?"

"What? The story of Fawful? Your words are not beans. I am not wanting them."

"I'm sorry… I don't understand what you mean..." Chopper trailed as he tilted his head.

"You are like brainless cats that are too dumb to know they are stupid! You have curiosity… …But my tale is long, so long it makes antennas grow to the ground. Do you dare hear?"

"Um, OK!"

"Then now you listen!" Fawful began as he stepped back. "I am here, merchant of Badges, only sometimes with fury, but I once had fury at all times. I drizzled rage dressing on the country next door. Rage dressing on a salad of evil! And then the bad man came. **Red ** bad man. I had the punishment. Bad punishment with hammers and jumping on my head and the overheat of my ship."

"Red bad man?" Chopper gawked. _"Is he talking about Mario?"_

"I have a little fury even with my remembering… Red! A jumping hammer in red who are living of this world! You only have the looking of pale green, but not red!"

"Look, there must have been a reason for you to..."

"_**I**** HAVE FURY!**_" Fawful cried, seething in anger, despite grinning. "That mustache of badness! My brain aches at those overalls! I have fury AND headaches now! Fawful would be here, reigning over all and laughing at you! …But no. _**SO MUCH FURY!** **Stupid mustaches! Hairs like the dirty trail of a horse in a barn built by a farmer who is crazy!**_"

"GEEZ! No need to scream!" Chopper gaped, stepping back as Fawful began to pant.

"…I have calm," Fawful hung his head low and removed his cloak. He was wearing a white karate shirt and had a neck part of a cape a black color. He also had an antenna on his head with a bright yellow bulb.

"Whoa..."

"I am waiting like an elevator. I have the commerce. I run Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge, but… The day comes soon when Fawful rises again, and then no baby's candy has safety! I am counting chickens before they are even eggs, before the chickens are even chickens! _**I WILL! HAVE! FURY!**_ I LAUGH AT DEFEAT! I FIGHT WITH RAGE! I HURT YOUR FACE!"

Fawful made a couple of poses before kneeling on the ground in exhaustion.

"_Hooof… Heffff…_" he slowly got back up after panting and realized something.. "D-Did I…have insanity? Did I…have evil?"

"Uhhhh... No comment here." Chopper frowned.

"I suppress the fury, but sometimes… The fury has me. Red puts the fog of rage in my eyes, and my mind goes crazy."

"Are you OK? You don't look too good..."

"P-Please… I will be fine. No worrying for Fawful." Fawful assured. "We talk of beans. Since you are the first customer of Fawful, you will be having the free Badge!"

Fawful took out a Badge resembling a shoe and gave it to Chopper. He was given the Mega Jump Badge.

"Such a fine Badge it is! Discovering the shop of Fawful is something big. But the next time you have the wishing of trading, you need beans. Beans can be discovered in the ground with a stomp."

"Umm… All right, I'll make sure to come to you if I have any beans." Chopper assured.

"I have Badges. Such Badges! Bring beans! BEANS!" Chopper was about to leave. That is, until...

"Wait! Before you have the leaving…"

"What do you want now?" Chopper groaned.

"I have a vision… The south of Toad Town… A new path for your finding… A new path…of DOOM!"

"Wait… If you're saying that the first Power Star is to the south of Toad Town, then I can pretty much be happy about that. Thank you Fawful!"

Chopper left the shop, and he got out of the pipe. He sighed in relief, despite Fawful being helpful. But he couldn't help that he was exactly on good terms with this place..."

"I was wondering were you were!" Chopper jumped up in surprise when he saw Bow rise out of the ground and appear. "Peach told me that you were down here, so I came down here too. But, I couldn't find you...and that made me feel worried."

"Wait... You just came here?" Chopper gulped.

"Of course! You honestly thought I would leave you behind? Of course not!" she giggled while blushing. "And besides... Since it's only us, no one can bother us about our love."

"Eeugh! I'm sick of that already!"

"Ugh... Fine." Bow fumed. "Have it your way, then! Where were you anyway?"

"I was…talking to someone. I don't know who, but he calls himself Fawful."

"Fawful? I don't know who that is, but let's not worry about whoever he is. I'm sure it's not important."

"Probably not... Though, I wonder why he's even here."

"Well, right now there's something more important to take care of. Everyone's ready to go, you know."

"Oh, good! I happen to know where we need to go!" Chopper smiled. "We just need to go south of Toad Town, and we'll find a new path to take."

"Ah-ha! So THIS is where you are!" the two paused when they saw Jr. Troopa glaring that them. "It's about time I found you, Chopper!"

"What the… How did you get here? I thought you left from Bowser's Castle!?" Chopper gaped. "And what do you mean 'it's about time'? We didn't fight that long ago! It's been around...four chapters since!"

"When does he ever learn to give up?" Bow groaned.

"I was going to come back for you, but I ended up falling down into here! I said I'd be back, and here I am! I swear I'll get you this time! " Jr. Troopa growled as he began to charge. "Aaaaaaah!"

"Great… What a great time to fight Jr. Troopa again." Chopper face palmed.

"I may not know much to do, but I'll at least use this!" Jr. Troopa used his power to make a spike appear on his head. "Yeah, I know you always try to stomp me! With this bad boy on my head, you can't jump as many times! Not only that, but I learned some cool moves I didn't show you before!"

**Tattle: **_Jr. Troopa just never learns to stop. I'm getting kind of sick of this kid anyways. Max HP: 60, Attack Power: 8, Defense Power: 0. At least Bow is with you right now, or else this fight would be a little tougher for you. But, he just has a spike on his head. That's nothing to really worry about. Hit him with your Hammer or your Elemental Hands._

Chopper brought out his hammer and whacked Jr. Troopa with it, since that and his Hand attack is all he could do. Bow followed up by appearing by Jr. Troopa and smacking him six times. This made Jr. Troopa a little dizzy, but he was able to get back into the game with ease.

"Darn it! How am I getting hit so easily?" Jr. Troopa whined as he walked over Chopper and got in his egg shell and jumped on him like a Goomba, which was easily guarded by him.

Chopper shot a fireball at Jr. Troopa, which began to scorch him and make him screech. "Ow ow ow ow! HOT!"

Bow took her fan out, and she began to smack Jr. Troopa with it. She was able to smack him five times with it, each time doing 2 damage. Jr. Troopa took a couple steps back afterward and charged after Chopper, ramming him with his spike, which made Chopper cringe.

Chopper shot an ice ball at Jr. Troopa to cool him, off, and Bow used her Fan Smack once again on him.

"Man, what is WRONG with me?! I'm getting beaten so easily! Darn it!" Jr. Troopa growled as he shot the spike toward Chopper, which hit him. Chopper decided to use his Power Smash on Jr. Troopa to do 8 damage to him. Bow used her Smack on him again, which left him with 2 HP left.

Jr. Troopa's spike came back, and he used the spike to hit Chopper by jumping on him. However, Chopper guarded the attack like before.

"This is just too easy…" Chopper whacked Jr. Troopa with his hammer, and he was beaten. Chopper received 28 Star Points. Not only that, but he leveled up too! He decided to go with HP now, so now he had 50 HP.

"Shoooot! I was so close! I swear, Chopper, I'll be back to stop you!" Jr. Troopa whined as he began to leave, but ended up tripping. "Ow! My foot hurts! Wait a minute… I shouldn't be crying about it! I'm tough! I'll see you next time, Chopper!"

"OK, bye!" Chopper smiled as Jr. Troopa finally left them. "Finally! We don't have to deal with him anymore! ...I hope."

"I wonder what he was doing here…" Bow wondered. "After falling in here, what on earth did he do?"

"Beats me. Let's just get out of here." Chopper and Bow left the sewers, but they didn't notice a yellow puddle watching them go. The star God Staris rose from the puddle and simply watched them leave. After one little glance, he sank back into his puddle and disappeared.

* * *

**Peach's Castle, surface-**

When Chopper and Bow got back to the surface, they noticed the other six party members waiting for them, giving impatient looks, especially Koopla, who really wanted to leave.

"We've been waiting for you, Chopper. What took you so long?" Koopla asked.

"Nothing much. Let's just go now." Chopper suggested.

"Good luck on your quest," Peach smiled. "You can come back to this castle to see me anytime when you pass by here."

"We'll be happy to greet you and talk!" Twink said with glee.

"Thanks!" Chopper gave them both a thumbs up before leaving the castle. Knowing that they had to go south, he led the way.

* * *

**Toad Town, south-**

Once they got to the area where there was the train that led to Mt. Rugged, they heard a voice coming from the west of Toad Town, which began to get louder every second.

"Come back here!"

"Run for it, Rookie!" they saw Popple and Rookie running away from some small cloud person with a pink curl of hair and shoes and also a striped light blue and white pants with a brown belt. He looked like nothing else the group had ever seen.

"Whoa... I've never seen someone like that!" Bruce gaped.

"Come back here!" the cloud boy repeated while Popple and Rookie were running to Chopper and the others, who they accidentally bumped into.

"Hey! It's you guys!" Chopper gaped.

"What do you want?!" Kayzee growled.

"Huh? You're still around?" Popple gaped. "Look, we're in a hurry, see? So get outta the way!"

The shadow thief knocked Chopper to the side, and he and Rookie began to run toward the path going south at a faster rate while holding onto his sack as tightly as possible.

The cloud boy stopped right by the grass that Chopper was near and began to pant. His expression began to change from a frustrated one to a sad.

"Oh, no! That bean stole my Grandpa's coins!" he sniffled. B…boo hoo…sniffle… I can't cry. Big boys don't cry. But it's just not fair…! What am I gonna do? ! Waaaaaah!"

As the cloud boy began to cry, the sky was covered in clouds and made Toad Town rain. Everyone gasped as they tried to cover their heads, especially Bow, who used Chopper for cover.

"Oh, CRUD! It's raining!" Chopper cried.

"I don't want my beautiful bows getting wet!" Bow cried. "Chopper, you'll protect a fine girl such as myself, wouldn't you? You're a gentlemen!"

"Could this get any worse!" Indeed it did. Lightning struck the ground as well as Bow began to cuddle with Chopper while protecting her bows. "I just HAD to open my mouth!"

"Oh boy… This isn't good for Choppor. He might rust!" Parakarry gaped.

"Actually, I can't rust," C-2 Choppor informed. "Rain does not make me rust. We should go talk to him though. Chopper, I suggest that you do it."

"He feels so sad. But, you gotta do it, because it can't rain like this forever." Kayzee frowned.

Chopper managed to get out of Bow's grasps and walked over to the cloud boy. "E-Excuse me?"

"Y, yes? …Gee, you're soaking wet, aren't you?" he asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine though. But, are you OK?"

"I... I guess I'm all right now." the cloud person sighed in relief as the sky began to clear up, making it sunny. Sorry… There's nothing like a good cry! But, why was I crying? There was SOME reason…"

Chopper instantly fell over on the ground anime style, just like the rest of the group.

"Oh, yeah! Now I remember! My Grandpa asked me to buy some things for him here. When I walked into town, that bean and leaf stopped me! Oh yeah! He took them from me! He stole my coins! I chased him, but he's way too fast…"

"Oh, I met him a couple of times," Chopper recalled. "I certainly know the leaf guy though. But, we've taken them down a couple of times. Say… What's your name?"

"My name? Oh, it's Mallow! I'm Mallow from Tadpole Pond in Frog Swamp! I'm a frog, but can you believe it? I can't jump. Embarrassing huh?"

"Wait… Did you say that you're a frog…?" Chopper tilted his head.

"Are you serious?" Yosho gawked.

"Yeah, I'm a frog. I was born here, and raised by my Grandpa, who's also a frog." Mallow explained. "He actually saw some kind of star fall down in Tadpole Pond. Amazing, huh?"

"Right… Wait a minute, did you say a star came down on Tadpole Pond?" Chopper gasped. "Then that MUST be where the first Power Star is! Oh, and before I forget, my name's Chopper."

"Chopper, huh? I don't know anything about you, but you seem like you went through a lot of battles and quests. Do you think you can help me catch those two thieves?"

"Sure thing! You're more than welcome to join us!"

"Great! And it seems like you got others on your side too, so I'll do my best to help you as much as possible!"

**Mallow the frog, who doesn't look AT ALL like a frog joined your party! Press (v) to have Mallow change the weather of the area! He can make it rain, which can help grow plants, and can even get rid of fire. While in battle, Mallow can attack and enemy with Falling Cloud or use Thunderbolt to attack all enemies.**

"What are we waiting for? Let's go chase those thieves down!" Mallow suggested as Chopper nodded in agreement.

So with their new friend Mallow, they headed down the path south to get ready to start their new adventure to find all seven Power Stars.

* * *

**And yes, I know that some people might tell me that this already happened. That only happened in Super Mario RPG, not in the Paper Mario series. This makes a little more sense for me, and if you don't like that, well, I can't do much to help you there. But that's not going to stop me. :P**

**And I find Mallow to be a little underrated, personally. But, I think I still need to play more Super Mario RPG to understand the story a little more.  
**


	49. The New Quest Begins!

**CHAPTER 9**

**-The Swamp of Tadpoles and Frogs –**

The fields they were walking on seemed familiar to Pleasant Path, but it was a little wider. There were also spikes up ahead to the southeast that would end up going east and a loop that Chopper could take instead of using Kayzee to get over the spikes. Some of the enemies included hyper-looking Koopas with dark green shells called Hyper Koopas and pink Shy Guys called Hyper Shy Guys. Like the Hyper Goombas and Hyper Clefts, they could raise their attack to a dangerous level.

"Hyper Koopas and Shy Guys? And I thought Hyper Goombas and Clefts were worse…" Bow trailed. "Ugh, this is going to be annoying."

"Well they don't have any defense…well, the Koopa has some, but doesn't have any if we flip one over," Chopper noted. "You can smack one if you wanted to."

"Man, being here with others does make me feel good," Mallow smiled. "I always wanted to meet that man in the red cap named Mario, though..."

"Mario? You're talking about that famous guy, right?" Kayzee asked.

"Yeah, him," Mallow saw Chopper flip over a Koopa with his jump attack. "But, his jump seems kind of similar for some reason. He raises his fist up whenever he jumps. I guess he reminds me of him a little bit!"

"Chopper is pretty cool, really. He's actually cute and friendly too, kind of like Bloopi!" Kayzee took out her Blooper doll and showed it to him. "Bloopi, why don't you meet Marrow!"

"It's 'Mallow', not 'Marrow'."

"Oh! Sorry about that!"

While they were talking, Bow was busy smacking the Hyper Koopa after Chopper flipped it over. The were two Hyper Guys that were standing boosted up their attack by 6.

"Hold on a minute, I think Chopper's in trouble!" Mallow noticed.

After Chopper noticed their Attack was raised by 6, he instantly used his Mega Quake on them to deal a ton of damage. Before Bow could attack, Mallow stepped in.

"Hold on Chopper! Let me give you a hand!" he made lightning strike down on both Hyper Guys, defeating them easily. What was surprising was that the attack ignored defense.

"Whoa, that was impressive! I never knew you could do that!" Chopper gaped.

"I know, it's really weird. Whenever I cry, it begins to rain, and I can even summon lightning down. I'm definitely a weird frog…"

"Umm… You really think you're a frog...?" Bruce gawked.

"Uh huh! I was born in Tadpole Pond, so of course I'm a frog!"

"You don't even look like a frog. Why are ya sayin' yer one? It doesn't make any sense!" Yosho barked until something hit him. "…Wait! Are there any chicks in Frog Forest or Frog Swamp?"

"Well, of course there are. There are a lot of girls there."

Everyone looked at Yosho, who had his fist like he accomplished something.

"Scoooore!"

"Yosho, you know they're probably frogs," Koopla face palmed. "And I don't think you could actually go out with a frog…or whatever you would do."

"Koopla's right. I don't think things will work out for you with any of the girls in that forest." Parakarry agreed. "A lot of 'em are tadpoles, and there aren't much frogs out there. They're probably too small for you."

"Oh… Well that sucks." Yosho pouted.

"Let's just look around. We can't stay here and talk." Chopper began to go down the path, and he stopped at the loop. "Well it's about time we got back to some loops! Yes!"

Chopper used his Speed Dash to go through the loop to the other side. Bow simply turned invisible and phased through the loop.

"I actually really like that this isn't over," Bow smiled. "It gives us more time together, you know. Don't you think so, Chopper?"

"I guess so. I didn't really want to leave you guys so soon. But, at least this isn't about rescuing someone now, is it?"

Kayzee stopped at the spikes for a moment before flying over decided to take Mallow over to the other side, since he couldn't fly across. She helped the others that couldn't fly too, like Koopla, Bruce, and Yosho.

"Scanning area… No hidden objects detected." C-2 Choppor informed.

"What are you, strange thing?" Mallow asked. "You kind of look like Chopper."

"I am C-2 Choppor. I am a robot created by…Hellspawn Joe, Number One Hundred and Second of the Hellspawn Ranks given by Evil Lord Maquano."

"Joe? You never told us that..." Chopper gawked.

"You never asked me that."

"Umm… OK. Guys, let's keep going." Mallow suggested as he ran on ahead. "Just follow me and we'll get to Frog Forest. I also hope we catch those thieves who stole my coins!"

They took the southeast path going into another area, which seemed to have ponds around. They were small, but, Popple and Rookie could be seen at the end of the long path, and when they turned around, they saw them coming.

"Boo! So you're still coming after us, you stupid little…whatever you are." Popple growled.

"First of all, I'm a frog!" Mallow corrected as he clenched his fists. "And yes, I've come here to get my coins back. So give them back to me, you thieves!"

"I'm afraid you won't be getting them, see? If you were to fight us, then I'd have Rookie take care of you! What? You think a kid like you can take us on? Ha!"

"Hey, I beat you up many times before!" Chopper cried as his fists had an icy glow surrounding them. "You're saying a kid can't take you down?"

"You're... You're different! I don't know why you teamed up with that 'frog', but I don't really care! I'll keep you from leaving here, see?"

"What? Boss, don't use it!" Rookie cried.

"Still your tongue Rookie," Popple snapped as he took out a flamethrower. "We'll just set this place on fire! Let's see how you deal with that, see? Rookie, get going!"

Rookie headed toward the path to the next area while Popple turned on the flamethrower and a bunch of flames burst out. He even blocked the path with flames. Parts of the ground had flames, and even the trees were on fire.

"Oh no… He's going to destroy Frog Forest!" Mallow cried.

Chopper became Water Chopper and he tried to get rid of the flames. But sadly, he had no luck with it. The flames were too powerful…

"Whoa, Chopper! You suddenly changed color! You're…blue now!"

"That happens sometimes. Whenever he gets an ability, something looks different on him." Bruce explained. "He might have some kind of hat, or he could have a weapon. His color can even change too! Yeah, it's kind of weird for someone like him."

"Hey, Mallow. You're able to do some things. Try to make it rain again." Chopper suggested, becoming exhausted from squirting water at the fire. "This isn't working for me!"

"Wait… Make it rain?" Mallow gaped. "But only clouds can do that! I'm not a cloud! I'm a frog! Didn't I tell you that before?"

"But… You made it rain before. You even used a Thunderbolt attack on those Hyper Guys." Chopper noticed a Fire Guy jumping out of the flames, and he sprayed some water at it to defeat it.

"Hmm… Let me think…" Mallow pondered while everyone looked shocked at the stronger flames. Some tadpoles in the small ponds were trying to get out too. "Wait! You mean something like this?"

He raised his arms up, and suddenly, rain clouds covered the sky and it began to rain. Since Chopper had his Water ability on, he recovered HP from the rain, making him sigh in relief.

"Who really cares if my hair's wet? In fact, I don't care at all! Wait, I wouldn't want to be bald either. At least I can have a little drink." Koopla grinned as she opened her mouth and let raindrops fall in for a little drink. Parakarry shrugged and did the same thing.

"Natural water is actually pretty nice," Parakarry noted.

"Hey, the flames are disappearing," Bow noticed as the fire blocking their path got weaker until it got fully extinguished.

Mallow made it stop raining, and the sky was normal again. The sun could be seen again. Kayzee felt the sun's rays coming down on her.

"I'm feeling GREAT!" Kayzee cheered. "Though I use super powers, this sunlight is really nice! I wish Bloopi can enjoy it too, but he could get dried up."

"Bloopi's a doll. It wouldn't matter if the sun's rays came down on him..." Parakarry trailed.

"Says you…"

"I must scan for anything hidden," C-2 Choppor declared as he scanned the area. "Hmmm… There is something hidden. It's some kind of Badge. It's by the end of the area."

Chopper nodded, and he removed his Water ability and walked over to the hidden red ? block. It was a little too high for a normal jump, so he had to use his Tornado Jump to get a Mega Smash Badge.

"A Mega Smash Badge? That looks like a tough Badge. I think it'll be VERY good against enemies." Koopla approved.

"OK, might as well put it on," Chopper removed his Power Smash and replaced it with a Mega Smash. The difference is that Mega Smash does more damage, but it costs more FP. 6 FP to be exact.

"Now that there's no more fire around here, we can get back to moving on," Bruce stated. "So let's move!"

They went into the next area and saw a small waterfall and a gap between them and the ledge ahead. There was a vine that leads down to the water.

"I haven't gotten a chance to grind on something in a while. I suppose I should check what's down there." Chopper jumped onto the vine, and he began to grind down. He found a blue ! switch on some land over the water that Chopper ran on with his speed. Once he hit the switch with his hammer, a bridge appeared on the gap, but it didn't cross over. It seemed like Parakarry could carry Chopper over there.

Chopper swam in the water, and he found a spring at the bottom of the four foot water. He used it to get back up to the others.

"Whoa, that was pretty cool! I never knew you could do things like that!" Mallow gaped. "Man, for someone who isn't from the Mushroom Kingdom, you sure know some cool things!"

"It's...really nothing special," Chopper frowned. "Many people can do that."

"Oh... Well I guess it's probably because I haven't seen much else of this place except for the pond."

"Let's go. We can still catch up to those thieves." C-2 Choppor suggested as he flew over the gap with his jetpack.

"All right, I'm gonna have to carry you over, Chopper," Parakarry grabbed Chopper's arms, and he brought him over to the other side.

"I think I can see an Upgrade Block by the waterfall," Bow noticed, which got Chopper's attention and made him go over to it.

"All right, who am I going to upgrade?" he pondered.

"Why don't ya give me another upgrade?" Yosho suggested. "I could use my upgradin' skills to woo in the ladies!"

"Well… I already upgraded everyone else. ...Wait! I got Mallow here. Come over here, Mallow."

After Parakarry helped Mallow over the gap, he went over to Chopper. The energy from the Upgrade Block went into Mallow, giving him a new power. He learned a new move called Shocker, which summons down a lightning bolt on one target. His Falling Cloud attack and Thunderbolt could also do 6 damage as well.

"Hey, I feel a lot stronger now! I feel like I could shoot a huge lightning bolt on an enemy!" Mallow grinned. "…But I still don't understand how I can use weather abilities. Am I a special kind of frog?"

"…You should realize you don't look like a frog," Koopla face palmed. "Frogs are green. You're not a green color. They can hop."

"Maybe it's best if we just leave this frog stuff out of the picture for now," Chopper suggested. "We need to catch Popple and Trin- I mean, Rookie."

They all went to the next area, which had a path going to the right, but there was a HUGE gap they couldn't cross. Below was water and near them, some steps going to the north with a pathway. There was a sign, so Chopper went up the steps to read it.

_To Go to Frog Forest, Go Right. To Go to Midas Bowl, Go North._

"Midas Bowl? What kind of place is that?" Chopper questioned.

"Midas Bowl is where some frogs go to relax. It's like a beach, but there are a like of water bowls around. It's quite nice and…" Mallow stopped when he noticed footprints. "Hey, Chopper! I see some footprints! Wait… Are they actually the footprints of those two thieves?"

"Choppor, go take a look at the footprints. See who they belong to. They don't look like frog ones…"

"Scanning…" C-2 Choppor began to scan the footprints. "Footprint Identity: Popple and Rookie. Yes, they must have gone this way."

"Let's chase them down! I'm going to get those thieves for stealing my Grandpa's coins!" Mallow began to head to Midas Bowl, and Chopper followed him.

"We better follow too. We could probably relax there if we wanted to also." Bow smiled, thinking about a pool with Chopper standing next to him. "Maybe I could get a sun tan!"

"Uhhhh... That probably doesn't fit for a Boo." Chopper commented.

"Well you certainly could get one yourself."

"Hey! I like how I look! Anyway, moving on!"

* * *

**Midas Bowl-**

Once everyone caught up with Mallow, they saw the amazement of the place. It looked like it was a beach, but with some slight changes. They could see some light blue bowls that were on some ledges. Some were lower down for frogs that couldn't jump high. Some frogs were swimming in the bowls as well. They looked much different to Mallow - in fact, this place was probably one of the most interesting things they have ever seen in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Well… So what do you think about this place, Chopper? Pretty cool, huh?" Mallow smiled.

"Wow… This place is…amazing!" Chopper gaped. "I don't know HOW there's a place like this for frogs, but it's cool! You must go here sometimes, right?"

Once Yosho took a look at the place, his mouth dropped down to the ground. He then brought it back up. "Holy… Aw right! THIS is what I'm talkin' about! Oh yeah… And take a look at the ladies here!"

Yosho grinned as he took out some breath spray and used it on his mouth. "Yeah, I'm sure the ladies'll love me when they find out my breath doesn't reek!"

"Didn't I tell you before? They're just frogs…" Koopla face palmed.

"All right… Time to get me a woman!" Yosho jumped onto one of the bowls where some female frogs were and jumped right into the water next to a frog, who was confused. He was even wearing his jacket in the pool!

"So… Hey there, pretty lady. How's about maybe later you an' me go somewhere to have some good quality time. How's that sound?"

"…I'm married, you know," the frog informed, Yosho's face immediately changed from a smile, to a confused look, but that wasn't going to stop him.

"What? Oh, come on! How about you ditch the zero and get with the hero, huh? I'm Yosho, 120% Yoshi, ready for action!"

"_I wonder how this is going to end up. I bet it'll be funny!"_ Kayzee thought while giggling._ "Tee hee hee! I love to see funny things!"_

"Heads up, Mallow!" Chopper shouted as he heard the sounds of punching and kicking coming from the bowl and a Yoshi coming flying toward them. He picked Mallow up and moved him out of the way, while Yosho fell right by Bow, who seemed to cackle at his stupidity. Kayzee giggled as well.

"OK, THAT was hilarious," Koopla laughed. "I never knew you weren't so good at bein' a ladies man! Ha ha HA!"

"So… Ya still want me, Bow?" Yosho asked, looking at the girly Boo. "I know I got my ass kicked back there, but I'm sometimes a softy. Come on, I know ya want me."

"I think not," Bow retorted as she flew away, while Parakarry helped him up.

"I wonder where those thieves are…" Mallow trailed. "Because that's why we're actually here for, right guys?"

"Of course we are. We just have to explore this place." Chopper noted. "I think there's another path at the top bowl. They're tough to get up to, so Yosho might need to help me get up there."

"I know how to get up there! I don't think you saw this, but I can do this for some reason." Mallow stretched his arms out, and he reached over to the bowl that was closest.

"Holy… You can stretch your arms? I never knew that. But then again, frogs don't do that…"

Mallow got onto the bowl, and he turned to Chopper. He stretched his arm out to reach for his hands and pulled him up.

"It's really weird..." Mallow trailed. "I mean, I can barely jump, I'm a lot smaller than all the frogs here, and I can never learn to stay on a lily pad. Plus, frog's predators don't seem to go after me. Don't you agree about that being weird?"

"There must be a reason..." Chopper pondered sarcastically.

Yosho got himself up, and he stuck his long tongue out to get Bruce in order to catch up. Parakarry helped Koopla, and the rest flew up, due to having the ability to fly.

"My scanners tell me that Popple and Rookie are up ahead," C-2 Choppor informed. "After the next bowl area, we should be getting to them."

Once everyone got to the top of the area, they headed into the next, where they saw some more bowls. On the top bowl was Popple and Rookie swimming. Chopper hit the Save Block near him first before going to go up to stop them.

"Yeah! Those are the ones!" Mallow grinned. "What are they even doing, swimming in the water? Frogs go in there!"

They began to head on up the bowls, but Chopper noticed a chest at the bottom of the middle bowl, so before they reached them, he went into the bowl and opened the chest. It contained some kind of seed.

"Huh? Why is there a seed at the bottom on a bowl? Oh well…" Chopper swam up to the surface, and he jumped right onto the bowl Popple and Rookie were in. "All right, it ends right here! I didn't expect to see you for the rest of my adventure, but at least I can still fight something."

"Oh, great… It's that kid again…" Rookie groaned. "Seriously, he never learns to leave us be! And I always keep thinking about something between him and I..."

"Give me back Grandpa's coins, you thieves!" Mallow cried as he got onto the bowl and got in a fighting stance. "I don't want to have to chase you again! Grandpa gave me those coins to go buy something for him, and then you had to come in and steal them!"

"Blast! And we thought we would've been safe here…" Popple groaned. "Criminy… A terrible fate has come upon us, Rookie. But, we won't let them beat us this time unlike last time!"

"I had enough of these jerk wads for once," Rookie growled. "And it kind of stinks we haven't been training much. It hasn't been a long time since we fought."

"Bah! We don't need to worry! The coins are now ours, see? We steal it, we keep it! That's the number one rule of stealing! And if you don't like that, and maybe we'll give you a beating, you light yellow cloud thing!"

"Chopper and I can take you on! He's taken you on before, and I'm sure my powers can help too! I'm not afraid!" Mallow cried.

"Ha ha ha… Well then… Do your thing, Rookie!"

"I'll do it!" Rookie cackled as he pulled his two poison vine swords out. "This should be entertaining!"

**Tattle: **_Popple just never stops. It's like I don't really have anything left to say about him. Max HP: 60, Attack Power: 6, Defense Power: 0. He'll do the usual, but the water sometimes might heal him, so try to take him and Rookie out before they heal. They can heal 5 HP after three turns._

**Tattle: **_Rookie's still working for Popple, huh? Well, I can't complain about that. Max HP: 70, Attack Power: 7, Defense Power: 1. The water seems to heal him more than Popple, because he's a leaf. That, and the sun is also helping him recover 10 HP every three turns. But… He and Popple and in water…and electricity can do some good damage to water. Maybe Mallow can give you a hand against them!_

Chopper started off with his usual Power Bounce attack on Rookie. He seemed to heal more HP in the water than Popple, so taking him out first was probably the best thing to do. He stopped after stomping on him seven times. Mallow used his Thunderbolt attack to make a dark cloud appear and hit both of them with lightning. Since they were in water, it did 2 more damage to them.

"YEOW!" Popple cried. "Rookie! Did you just feel that? It felt like we were zapped! Boo! This can't be!"

Popple took out something from his sack. Unfortunately, he threw a bean, and Chopper was able to take it and hold it up. Rookie, meanwhile, fired a solar beam at Chopper thanks to the water and the sun, taking 7 out of him.

"Man, that does hurt…" Chopper cringed as he used his Power Bounce on Rookie again, and this time he stomped on him nine times instead of seven. "All right, we're getting Rookie down…but it's not enough though."

"I'll just use another Thunderbolt," Mallow declared, making Popple and Rookie's eyes widen when more lightning struck them. Popple jumped out of the water and stomped on Chopper, who guarded the attack easily with no problems. Rookie threw one of his poison swords at Chopper like a boomerang, but since he guarded it, it couldn't hit Mallow.

"All right, let's get back to business! Time to freeze!" Chopper shot an ice ball at Rookie, and it froze him. Mallow used his new move Shocker, which made a lightning bolt come down on Rookie. It did 10 damage unlike his Thunderbolt.

Popple simply stole something from Chopper. He took an Ultra Shroom from him, which definitely made him happy.

"I'll be taking that, see?" he sneered.

"Let's hope we can finish Rookie off before they both heal," Chopper used his Power Bounce on Rookie to stomp on him ten times, and Mallow finished him off with Shocker. "Well, that was quite shocking, wasn't it?"

"Oh, god..." Koopla groaned. "When will you EVER shut up with the puns! ?"

Rookie became unfrozen and simply flipped over on the water. "I'm beat. Sorry, Boss. They're too tough."

"Uh oh… That's not good! Gah!" Popple whacked Chopper with his sack, forgetting to use the Ultra Shroom he stole. However, he recovered 5 HP from the water.

"OK, time to get that Ultra Shroom back," Chopper stomped on Popple twice, which made him drop the Ultra Shroom. Chopper got it, and he put it away before anyone could get their hands on it. "All right, go for it, Mallow!"

Mallow nodded, and he used his Falling Cloud attack on Popple, leaving him to gape.

"This isn't good… I gotta hide!" Popple dove deep into the water, trying to avoid any attack they could hit him with.

"He really thinks he can escape so easily? Mallow, do your thing!" Chopper suggested with a snap of his finger.

Mallow used his Thunderbolt, which went into the water and electrocuted Popple, making him come back up to the surface.

"How did you…" Popple got interrupted by being stomped on Chopper, which made things more painful.

"Man, Popple is seriously getting hurt here. I almost feel kind of bad for him..." Chopper trailed.

Popple reached into his sack, and he grabbed a flamethrower. He used it to scorch Chopper, which he failed to guard. After he shook the soot off of himself, he used a Power Bounce on Popple and stomped on him eight times. Mallow came after him and used his Falling Cloud on Popple, which left him with 8 HP left.

"This isn't over yet!" Popple jumped onto Chopper after getting out of the water, but he simply got hurt by Chopper's ice ball.

"You said it isn't over. Well, it seems over now." Mallow declared as he used his Falling Cloud attack on Popple, defeating him and leaving 29 Star Points for Chopper and his friends. Both Popple and Rookie were left dazed, dropping the coins they stole in the process. Mallow quickly got them before they could do anything else.

"Got it!" Mallow smiled. "Oh man, I thought I wouldn't have gotten these coins back! Chopper, thank you so much!"

"You're welcome," Chopper nodded as he gave him a thumbs up. "All we need to do is go to Frog Swamp to get that Power Star. You still coming with us?"

"Sure! I gotta go back to Grandpa anyway! He's the one who has what you need. I'm sure he'll give it to you too. Grandpa's a wise frog and knows many things. I can show you the way to him."

They followed Mallow out of the Midas Bowl back onto the path going to Frog Forest. There was still that huge gap, and over to the other side was a white and red stripe parasol a Parasol Koopa was holding, who had a red and white shell.

Chopper saw some dirt by the gap, and he remembered about the seed he found. He took out the seed and placed it in the dirt and covered it up with soil.

"What did you just do, Chopper?" Bow asked.

"I am going to plant something. I just need some rain, that's all." Chopper replied. Mallow nodded and made it rain over the spot where the dirt was, and after that, the sun made it grow into a vine that could be used to cross over the gap.

"Oh, that's neat," Bruce commented. "We can use this to get over there, right?"

"I guess so," Koopla shrugged.

"Although I find it weird that the seed grew so quickly..." Parakarry trailed.

Chopper jumped on the vine and began to grind on it to the other side. He inhaled the Parasol Koopa, and he too had a parasol like the Koopa's. With this parasol in his hands, he's known as Parasol Chopper.

He looked down below to see that there was a waterfall, and down below that was a river. He gulped when he saw how high it was from there.

"Wow… This is…high." Chopper gawked. He saw a forest up ahead through the river. They knew they had to take that way…but he had a feeling it wouldn't exactly be...fun.

"Oh, I almost forgot about this. I remember taking a secret path to get down there. It's a secret cave that'll help us." Mallow informed before C-2 Choppor sensed something.

"Danger! Something is…" C-2 Choppor was cut off when he got pushed off the cliff by Rookie, making him fall without warning.

"Oh no! Choppor! What just happened? !" Mallow exclaimed.

Chopper was going to say something, but he got pushed off the cliff by Popple.

"And THAT'S for taking us down, see?" Popple growled.

"Boss, we didn't get the cloud! He's the one that's been attacking us!" Rookie barked.

"Oh, right! How about we…" Popple noticed that Chopper's other partners escaped using the secret cave path through a hole. "Crud… He escaped. Well, nothing else we can do, right? Let's just leave, 'cause there's no way that those two we pushed off will still be alive."

Popple and Rookie left the place without any notice. The only thing they felt in them was satisfaction? Why? Because they pushed two people off a cliff. Two people they don't like.


	50. Over Midas River and Into Frog Forest

The sky was a clear blue color, and the sun could be seen. After the rain Mallow made, there was also a rainbow, which looked absolutely beautiful. However, Chopper couldn't enjoy the rainbow when he was plummeting to his doom after being pushed off a cliff by Popple. Oh, and C-2 Choppor was pushed off as well.

Thankfully, with his parasol out, it began to make him float down. Chopper felt afraid at first, but once he opened his eyes and saw, he actually felt better, making him sigh in looked at the waterfall's crystal clear water, unlike Yoshi's Island's water, which wasn't really that great, due to Bloopink polluting the waters. This water just looked nice. Nice enough to take a drink from it. To him, it looked like the greatest water he could possibly drink from the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Oh man… I'm so glad this parasol is helping me down." Chopper sighed as he noticed some coins as he was floating down. Eldstar suddenly appeared beside him.

"Chopper, this is the Midas River course. Do you want a crash course on it?" Eldstar asked.

"No, but what do I do right now? I can see coins around here, and I can't find Choppor anywhere. Just explain what to do."

"All you need to do is float down to the river, and then use a log down there to go into Frog Forest. It's plain and simple. Unfortunately, that's all I can do for now, except that the bigger coins equal 10 coins."

"OK... Thanks anyway for...whatever's going on."

Eldstar disappeared, and Chopper knew he had to float down to the river with his parasol if he wanted to land safely. He was also collecting all the coins that he could see. He tried to grab the big coins so his coin count would be bigger.

Chopper was halfway down to the river, but he noticed someone else collecting coins. He saw C-2 Choppor trying to get them while hovering down with his jetpack.

"Choppor? I was wondering where you were. What happened?" Chopper asked. C-2 Choppor noticed Chopper, and he hovered down to him.

"It's nice to see you again," C-2 Choppor said. "I just used my jetpack to get down to the river. I was going to go over to the others so I can be back with you guys, but since you're floating down, I might as well stay here. That and they're not around right now."

"Yeah, that's what I was wondering. Where did they go? Oh well… Let's just collect the coins and get going."

They kept floating down to Midas River in order to land on the logs. Behind a bush by the river, there were two logs. One of them belonged to the Koopa Bros.

"All right, guys! Now we got what we need to make sure that Chopper doesn't get that Power Star, and to destroy him once and for all!" Red declared. "Check this thing out!"

He took out the time bomb that was in Bowser's Castle.

"Ooh! That looks cool!" Yellow cheered. "So we're going to blow him up with that! Excellent!"

"Yellow, take this time bomb and put it on the log. I'll get things ready."

Chopper and C-2 Choppor landed on a log, and they began to use it like a boat. Once they took off, the Koopa Bros. chased after them on their log.

"Ha! Now that bomb will get them! We'll even tell them just for the heck of it! Ha ha HA!" Red cackled until he heard beeping sounds. "Wait a minute… Beeping sounds…" he turned to the back, and he saw that the time bomb was on THEIR boat. At this point, his eyes widened.

"Yaaaagh! Holy… Yellow! What the heck did you do? !"

"You said to put the time bomb on the log, Red," Yellow replied.

"Not in our log, you idiot! _Oh… This is bad…_" the timer on the bomb went off, and it blew up.

"_**Agggggggghhhhhhh!**_" the Koopa Bros. were sent flying out of the forest and was thrown somewhere deeper in the swamp area.

"Hey, did you hear an explosion, Choppor?" Chopper asked.

"Negative. Just keep rolling." they were both rolling on the log, trying to jump for some coins over the river.

"Make sure you grab the big ones, Choppor! They're worth a lot!" Chopper cried as he tried to keep his balance on the log. They actually found a good place to get off, since they were getting to the end, and they jumped off. A Toad was apparently right by where they jumped off and hopped over to them when they got up.

"Oh, you were riding on that log? Huh…" the Toad trailed. "It seems you've gotten 53 coins! That was pretty good! Here, take this for a prize!"

The Toad gave Chopper a Koopa Shell that he could use as an item. It could hit all the enemies on the ground and does 8 damage to them.

"Well this should be pretty helpful," Chopper thanked as he put it away. "But, we can't find the others... All we can do now is just keep going."

Chopper and C-2 Choppor moved on to the next area, where they could see a lot of trees around and also some frogs hopping hopping around. There were Shy Guys holding spears, and some Koopas with spears as well. Not only that, but there were also Spear Goombas trying to torture some frogs.

C-2 Choppor aimed at the enemies torturing the frogs. He used his scanner to scan the target and fired at them. The frogs then hopped away in fear of C-2 Choppor.

"I think those frogs are scared of you, Choppor. We gotta try something that doesn't scare them." Chopper suggested.

"Yes, that's true," C-2 Choppor lowered his gun. "I could've done something else…but it was too late. I suggest we keep exploring around."

Chopper began to look around, whacking at trees to see if anything would come down. A frog came out of one tree.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing? I was in the middle of a nap, and you ruined it!" the Frog growled. "…Well, I had something I didn't need, so maybe you can take it."

The frog gave Chopper a Forest Fruit, which could recover 10 HP and 10 FP. "I don't want it, so I'll let you have it. Eat it if you're hungry. Now, don't disturb me ever again!" And after turning away, it jumped back into the tree.

"Meh, let's keep going," Chopper began to head to the next area, and C-2 Choppor followed. They saw some water below them, but two vines were by them and since they were over the water, they used the vines to grind around the place and to the other side to go to the next area, where they found a loop, which Chopper ran through with his speed. C-2 Choppor flew over the loop to follow him. They found themselves on a high ledge, and down below, their friends were there.

"Hey! Everyone's down there!" Chopper gasped. "Oh, man! I'm so glad we found them!"

"I can't believe we can't find Chopper OR that robot that was with us," Mallow sighed. "Man, I wonder what happened to them…"

"I hope he's still alive. Because I would not feel like a good Boo if he dies." Bow said worriedly.

Chopper shrugged and jumped down to meet them, as well as C-2 Choppor. Everyone looked excited to see them.

"Chopper! Choppor!"

"Oh, good! I thought you were DEAD." Bow said as she squeezed Chopper. "But, at least you're fine."

"Let...go of me! Can't...breathe!" Chopper cried as the ghost girl let go of him.

"What on earth happened to you?" Mallow asked. "I mean, you fell down a waterfall thanks to those thieves! We thought it was all over! I thought I wouldn't be able to go to Grandpa to tell him you need the Power Star."

"Luckily, this parasol helped me float down safely," Chopper explained, holding up his parasol. "Choppor and I found ourselves going through Midas River on a log, and then we jumped off because of a dead end. Trust us, we've been through a lot."

"We also found a lot of vines and loops here," C-2 Choppor added. "It seems there are a lot of obstacles to go through in this forest."

"Obstacles! That sounds like fun!" Kayzee cheered.

"Did you find any ladies that wanted to be with someone hot like me?" Yosho asked. "'Cause I'm ready fer business right now. All night."

Bow smacked Yosho in order to shut him up.

"Yeah, I would've done the same thing," Koopla agreed. "Especially when you keep talking about women all the time."

"Well now that everything's fine right now, we should keep going! We just gotta go through more of Frog Forest, and then we'll be in Frog Swamp, where Tadpole Pond is!" Mallow informed. "Come on, guys! Let's go!"

Chopper nodded, and he and his friends began to explore and go deeper into Frog Forest to get to Frog Swamp.

* * *

**Some time later-**

Mallow was at the front, since he was trying to show them the way to get to his grandpa's place at Tadpole Pond. Chopper was right behind Mallow and was whacking away some Goombas with his hammer. Bow smacked away some with her fan as well, while C-2 Choppor shot at some Shy Guys that were trying to attack.

"So, you guys like this place? It looks pretty nice now, isn't it?" Mallow smiled.

"Yeah, I do like it here. Reminds me of my home." Chopper recalled. "I live in a huge jungle where a lot of things are giant. Even the animals there are huge! It's just awesome. It also has a desert, beach, poison forest, snowy area, mountains, the clouds, and even a lava area. Yeah, it's kind of intense."

"You have a huge jungle on your planet? Oh, you must be so lucky! I wish I could go there, because frogs love the jungle, and so do I!"

"You don't look like someone to enjoy the jungle…" Koopla trailed.

"…Yeah, you're right," Mallow frowned. "Honestly, I don't really like the jungle. I just don't seem to fit here, even if I was raised here all my life... Sometimes, I just don't seem happy here…"

"Oh, that's so sad... I never knew you didn't actually enjoy being here." Parakarry frowned. "It must be hard for you."

"Not being able to jump around like a frog I am is a shame. That and I'm kind of lonely. The only person who looks up to me is Grandpa. He found me in Tadpole Pond and took care of me."

"How exactly did you get to Tadpole Pond though?" Bow asked. "I don't really understand that at all. Could you explain?"

"I just don't know... I don't remember being someplace else. I guess I was born from an egg or something. But, at least you guys are here. I mean, Chopper… You're kind of like my only friend here. Same with you guys!"

"You don't need to worry about being alone, Mallow," Kayzee assured. "I can definitely be a great friend of yours! I like making new friends! I even liked making friends with Chopper too!"

"Mallow, maybe you can come with us on our journey," Bruce suggested. "You want to be with people who are nice to you, right?"

"Of course, but I don't think Grandpa would want me to," Mallow sighed. "Sometimes he might get a little worried if I'm gone for too long. He might even be worried now. Oh man! We better go to Tadpole Pond fast!"

Mallow began to run through the forest, going into the next area. Chopper followed him with his speed, and he saw Mallow looking at a vine.

"Umm… What do I do here?" he wonder until he felt Chopper pick him up and saw him grind on the vine all the way across the pond. Of course, Mallow wasn't a good swimmer.

Bruce tried to see if he could grind on the vine, but he ultimately failed to do so. Thankfully, C-2 Choppor helped him get over to the other side, while Yosho was able to use the vine easily, as well as Koopla.

They proceeded onto the next area, which had some puddles of water around the area and some Goombas and Koopas were there. Some Forest Paratroopas were even in the area too. According to C-2 Choppor, there weren't any hidden blocks. Chopper walked around in the puddles, and when he saw a round puddle, he tried his Tornado Jump. It ended up bringing him under the water in some pit. He found a Super Shroom in there, to his surprise.

He swam back up to the surface and got out of that pit. There really wasn't much around, but once they went into the next area, they saw a pond that had some spider creatures called Striders floating on top of the water.

"Uh oh… There's water! I can't really swim though…" Mallow frowned. He seemed to notice a frog on a lily pad with a map. "Hey, frog!" he waved to the frog, and the frog put his map down to see Mallow and his friends on land.

"Huh? Oh, you're just Mallow." the frog sighed in relief. "I thought it would be someone dangerous coming here. Oh, whatever. What is it that you want?"

"We need to get to my grandpa…and for some reason, I can't exactly remember the way to Frog Swamp. You know which way Frog Swamp is, fellow frog?"

"Of course. Just keep going the way you're going! ...Oh! You should take this map too. There's some kind of maze you need to go through to get to the swamp, and this map can probably give you a hand. Take it."

The frog threw it to Chopper, who caught it.

"Thanks!" Chopper smiled as he put the map away.

"You're welcome! Now let me relax already! _Man, that Mallow is a weird frog. In fact, he doesn't even look like one! It's so weird…_"

They all crossed over the pond and headed into the next area. Little did they know that the Koopa Bros. were watching them on a lily pad - after an explosion from a time bomb. They were covered in a little soot from the aftermath.

"All right, this time we get it right!" Red declared. "We just…made a little mistake with our plans back then. This time we'll get Chopper!"

"How are we going to get him this time? It's Yellow's fault that he didn't put the bomb on the right log…" Green grumbled.

"Yes, that's true. But I got something that'll work for sure! I got a little something that will take them to someplace dangerous!"

Red took out a map, and he showed it to the other three. However, not everyone was pleased with it.

"It's a map. Big deal." Black groaned. "It's just a normal map with nothing really on it."

"That's because everything's on the other side," Red flipped it over, and they all took a look at it. He also has another map that was similar to Chopper's map.

"Ooh! So this'll take them to the Piranha Pits!" Yellow gaped. "Now we're really gonna kill him! This'll be AWESOME!"

"Shut up, Yellow!" Red snapped as he punch Yellow. "You don't want everyone to hear you, right?"

"No… But…"

"Then stay quiet! You take this map and switch it with the map Chopper's got, all right?" Red gave the map to Yellow, and he put it away. "Now, forge onward, Koopa Bros.!"

The Koopa Bros. jumped…but they forgot that were in a pond and fell over. The frog thought he heard something, but he shrugged and continued to sit in silence.

* * *

**Next area-**

Chopper was grinding down another vine going down, and he seemed to be enjoying it. After getting off the vine, he ran down a slope with his speed and went through a corkscrew. Yeah, he was enjoying it.

"Man, how does he DO that?" Koopla gawked. "I mean, that's one of the most difficult things I could do, going through a corkscrew. Where'd he learn this stuff?"

"Maybe off of a video or something. I don't know really." Parakarry shrugged as he was flying over the corkscrew. Chopper stopped at a plant that needed to grow. Kayzee was helping Mallow get over to Chopper, and once he saw the sprout on the ground, he made it rain so the sprout could grow into an orange.

"You wanna kick it down to get rid of obstacles around here?" Chopper asked.

"Sure, I'll do that!" Mallow kicked the orange, and it began to roll down, squishing the Goombas and Koopas in the way, clearing a path to the next area, which had some mushrooms as platforms, which seemed to lead to an Upgrade Block. The mushrooms, however, kept moving up and down.

"There's an Upgrade Block for you! We should go get it so you can be fully upgraded!" Chopper declared as he began to jump onto the mushrooms, but he saw Mallow couldn't jump on them due to his poor jumping. He sighed and jumped back down to pick up Mallow.

"I wish I could jump high like you," Mallow frowned. "But I don't think I'll ever get a chance to do that. It really stinks."

"Don't worry about it. These shoes I'm wearing give me some cool abilities. I like wearing them anyway. I can really stomp my foes when I get in some fights with them."

Once they got to the top mushroom, Chopper jumped under it and Mallow began to feel some power surging into him. His attacks could do 7 damage now, and he learned the new move Snowy, which would allow him to summon a giant snowman and do a ton of damage to enemies. He could even freeze them, which would be good against water enemies and anything else weak to ice attacks.

"I can feel some kind of power in me, kind of like before!" Mallow gaped. "But this one seems a lot stronger than the other. I really like this!"

They both jumped down, and they fought some of the enemies in the area. The next area had a slide with some water going down. It seemed to lead into the swamp. Chopper took a look at the map and nodded.

"Yup, this is the way we need to go. We gotta slide." he said as he slid down the water slide, with Mallow following up.

"I don't really need to use this slide. I don't have any legs." Bow assured as she followed Chopper by floating. Koopla, Bruce, and Yosho went down the slide though. It was actually kind of fun for them.

When the slide ended, they all went to the next area. At this part, they could see three ways to go. Up, down, or to the right. It looked rather confusing. Also, the plants were beginning to get a little darker.

"Whoa, I didn't expect the swamp to be this dark! I think there might be something wrong here…" Mallow trailed. The sky looked a little darker, and it felt kind of scary.

"Hmm… I actually like it here. Kind of gloomy, but it fits my tastes." Bow smirked. "Though, it doesn't look exactly safe here..."

Chopper took out the map again, and when he looked at the area they were here, he saw some frog symbols. The first one showed a frog diving, then one hopping to the right, and then one hopping up.

"I don't get these symbols on the map," Chopper frowned. "They don't make much sense. Can someone explain what to do here?"

"Hmmm…" Mallow took a look at the map himself. "We gotta go down first. The frog diving shows that you gotta go down. The one going to the right means go to the right. The hopping one means to go up. It's just plain simple…well, for a frog like me."

"OK, thanks!" Chopper began to go the way he needed to go according to the map. They went down, right, up, right, right, up, right, and down. At the end, they found a Save Block and a Heart Block

"There we go! We made it through that place! Finally! But… It's still kind of spooky here." Chopper shivered as he hit the Heart Block and Save Block.

"Don't worry about it. We were able to go through Forever Forest and Bowser's Castle." Koopla assured. "I'm sure we can take this place on."

"Well we BARELY made it through those places! They were pretty scary!" Bruce cried.

"Let's not talk about spooky things! It kind of makes me feel scared…" Kayzee shuddered.

Chopper began to check what would be up ahead, and he turned back to the others after coming back. "There's nothing dangerous around. We're fine. Let's go!"

Hoping that there wasn't anything dangerous, he led his group to the pathway up ahead.


	51. Into the Dark Swamp

In a different area of the swamp, the Koopa Bros. were walking through a trail, trying to find their way to their destination. Red seemed preoccupied with the map, while Black and Green were looking around carefully. Yellow, on the other hand, was being cowardly by staying back.

All of the leaves were a dark green color instead of a light green, and the ground was also a dark green color. Red told Yellow to switch maps with Chopper's so they would go to the Piranha Pits.

"Wait… Hold on a second…" Red looked up and noticed they were right by a pit. "Uhhhh..."

"What's wrong, Red? Did something go horribly wrong?" Black asked.

"For some reason, this doesn't seem like we're in the right place," Green realized. "It doesn't look THIS spooky… Can't really tell what's wrong."

Red saw a sign right by them, which read, _"DANGER! Piranha Pits are right here! Do NOT go into the pits!"_

"Oh fudge!" exclaimed Red. "Yellow! This is the map to the Piranha Pits! What the heck's wrong with you!"

"Why sure it is, Red!" Yellow nodded.

"I told you to switch this with the map Chopper had!"

"No, you told me to switch the map! So I switched it!"

"I told you to switch it with CHOPPER'S MAP!"

"No you didn't..." Yellow trailed. "...Did you?"

"Yellooooooooooow!" Suddenly, Red heard a voice, and he saw a Piranha Plant come out of the cave.

"WHO IS DISTURBING OUR REST? WE ARE TRYING TO SLEEP HERE!" the Piranha Plant bellowed. "WAIT! TARGET IDENTIFIED AS…FOOD!"

"Run for it, guys!" Red, Black, Green, and Yellow began to flee from the Piranha Plant as it tried to grab them. Thankfully, they were able to escape, but it didn't take long for Red to scold Yellow when they were safe.

* * *

**First area of the swamp-**

Chopper kept walking on through the swamp, noticing all the dark areas around him. Mallow felt a little nervous, despite being here before.

"I have no idea what's going on…" Mallow shivered. "What happened to Frog Swamp? In fact, where are all the frogs and tadpoles?"

Chopper found a floating platform in the murky water and jumped on it, then he crossed over to the other side by going on a log. He looked at all the reeds floating in the water. No frogs or tadpoles in sight.

"Where did the tadpoles and frogs go?" Chopper wondered. "They could've gone SOMEWHERE… But I don't see 'em at all! Can anyone explain where they could've gone to? And has this water always been like this?"

"I have no idea. But, I think they could've gone somewhere safe, away from all of this madness that appears to be going on here." Bow assured.

"Then I should go check the water myself," Chopper was about to jump in, but Parakarry and Mallow noticed the reeds move, which made their eyes widen in fear.

"Don't!" Both Parakarry and Mallow pulled Chopper away from the water, who gawked at the two.

"What's wrong with you two? Are you afraid of something?"

"There's something huge under there!" Parakarry cried. "Plus, I don't think the water's safe. Swamps always have dangerous waters!"

"We can't go in that water," Mallow informed. "It used to look nice, but now look at it. Muddy and murky… Not the kind of water to go swimming in. Also, whatever's under there might go after you!"

"It's probably best not to even go in there. I don't think it's actually safe either." Koopla agreed.

Suddenly, a purple Toxic Piranha appeared spotted them. "TARGET IDENTIFIED AS CHOPPER! ALERT! ALERT! SENDING IN REINFORCEMENTS!"

"Uh… What was that?" Chopper asked as the Toxic Piranha disappeared.

"A Toxic Piranha," Mallow confirmed. "I don't know where they came from, but they must be the reason for all of this madness!"

"We better move on now. It's not safe here…" Bruce trailed. "And if that huge thing in the water comes here, then I wouldn't recommend staying here."

They all headed into the next area, which didn't have water around, but there were some short towers with a drum on the ground that could be used as a spring. There were also candles by a door to the north. It looked like some kind of house, according to C-2 Choppor. To the right, there was a big gap with some dirt by the edge.

"Let's go check what's over at the house," Chopper suggested as he shot two fireballs at the two candles, making the door open up. They went inside and saw a frog sitting on a chair in an old house, watching TV.

"Hey, there's still a frog around here!" Mallow gasped. "I thought every single frog wouldn't be around in Frog Swamp anymore!"

"Huh?" the frog turned off the TV and hopped over to Chopper and the others. "Who're you guys? I never seen you people in my life! …Hold on, is that you, Mallow?"

"Yeah, it's me! What happened to all of the frogs here? I thought this place was kind of peaceful…"

"It was…until a punch of Piranha Plants showed up. Yep, King Bowser sent some Piranha Plants to attack this place. Apparently, the Piranha Plant leader, Poison Piranha, managed to make it to Tadpole Pond and make it his own home! It's terrible, I tell you! Your grandfather… He…"

"He's…gone?" Mallow gasped as his eyes began to water.

"No, he's fine. He disappeared, that's all. Even then, Tadpole Pond is a big mess! All of the tadpoles there are hiding, and it's impossible to find anyone around! All of the frogs went missing too!"

"Wait, what about the Power Star? Is it safe?" Chopper asked.

"Power Star? You mean a glittering yellow star that **Frogfucius** found?"

"Who's Frogfucius?"

"He's my grandpa!" Mallow answered.

"You see, he found it one day, and he decided to hold onto it until the one person that had the Star Rod could come and take it," the frog explained. "As a wise man, he knows many things, especially the Star Rod.

"I got the Star Rod right here!" Chopper announced as he held up the Star Rod.

"You have the Star Rod?" the frog gaped. "Well… I never expected someone like you to be holding onto that. I think you might have what it takes to take on Poison Piranha. Be careful, he can poison you, and that poison will be there for a while. Don't think of him as a normal Piranha Plant, because that's not what he is. But, I am sure you can do it. Take this with you."

The frog took out a seed and gave Chopper it. "That seed will grow into a vine. You can use it to keep going. Be careful of the Piranhas though."

Chopper nodded and left the house with his friends. He planted the seed in the dirt near the edge, and Mallow made it rain so it could grow into a vine.

"All right, now I can grind on this thing!" Chopper jumped on the vine, and he began to grind through a vine loop and then to the next area, which had a loop when he got off the vine. Everyone else followed him, but they didn't use the loop like Chopper. They kind of flew over the loop to follow him.

"All right, this place seems kind of dangerous still. But I don't see much around here except Piranha Plants." Chopper saw there wasn't much around the area, so he hit some trees around, but nothing came down.

After defeating the Piranha Plants, they went to the next area, where there was a vine to swing across the murky water to the other side.

"Oh, this is it? I thought it would be something else. Meh, at least we can do something here." Chopper shrugged as he grabbed the vine and swung to the other side.

"Hey, that sounds kinda fun! I think I'm gonna go for it too!" Yosho declared as he jumped and swung across the vine, with Koopla and Mallow following up. The rest simply flew over the vine, since they didn't need to use the vine. Bruce, however, was carried across by Parakarry.

The next area had a big pool, but with some platforms and logs to cross over to the other side. However, there were reeds around, and they noticed they were still moving.

"I can see the reeds moving!" Parakarry shrieked. "Oh, man… I hope something bad isn't going to happen here. What's IN there?"

"Danger! There is something rising up from the waters!" C-2 Choppor alerted. "I suggest we stay back now, and keep away from the water!"

As the reeds lowered down, a monster with no eyes began to rise up. It looked big, but not as big as the whole pool. It has a dark green head and white polka dots, with sharp teeth and white lips and thorns all over its stem. After realizing what it was, Chopper, Koopla, Bow, and Yosho didn't feel as scared.

"Wait a minute… So this thing's a giant Piranha Plant? Ya gotta be kiddin' me!" Yosho face palmed. "I fought things worse than these guys! And this one's BIG! Yeah, REAL scary…"

"This is it? A Giant Piranha Plant? I was expecting something a little…scarier. This definitely doesn't scare me at all." Chopper commented while Koopla and Bow agreed. It simply felt like a Piranha Plant, but at a bigger size.

"A Giant Piranha Plant? Oh man… This definitely is a bad thing." Mallow gulped. Piranha Plants are dangerous, and they'll take a bite out of everyone! We're in big trouble now!"

The Giant Piranha Plant roared, and Chopper was ready to shoot a fireball. "Then if he wants something to eat, then he's going to get something to eat! Here, Piranha Plant! Eat THIS!"

Chopper shot a fireball right into the Giant Piranha Plant's mouth. It began to choke on it a little, and it seemed to burn it. This made the Giant Piranha Plant sink down into the water - hopefully, being dead this time.

"See? Nothing to be scared about! Just some dumb Piranha Plant just like the other ones! This was a piece of…"

The Giant Piranha Plant came back up from the water, and its head looked redder now. From what they could tell, it was fuming.

"I think you angered it, and everyone knows that angry Piranha Plants are dangerous," Bow gulped. "We can't just sit here now."

"You're right. Guys, we better start running before we become this Giant Piranha Plant's lunch!" Chopper jumped onto a log and he began to run from the Giant Piranha Plant. Everyone else began to follow him.

Mallow used his Thunderbolt to stop the monster, but it didn't do much. All Mallow could do was run away by using his stretchy arms to get to the logs and platforms. Chopper began to grind on a vine that brought him a little higher up in the area. He was going around a tall tree, and he was shooting fireballs and ice balls at the Giant Piranha Plant.

"Come on… How do I beat this thing?" Chopper muttered. "There's not much around here to help! I know this Giant Piranha Plant's in water, so maybe if he's all wet, lightning can take it out! Wait… Mallow can do that!"

Chopper went back down the vine, and he picked up Mallow, who looked confused.

"Chopper, what are you doing?"

"You'll see. Let's just get to the top of this tree." Chopper said as he went all the way up the tree on the vine. The Giant Piranha Plant tried to take a bite out of Chopper, but he kept jumping when it tried to do that. Once they got to the top of the tree, the Giant Piranha Plant couldn't reach them, but it turned its attention down to the others.

"Gulp… I'm not going to like being eaten…" Parakarry squeaked.

Bow immediately made everyone transparent so the Giant Piranha Plant couldn't get them. Chopper told Mallow to make it rain, and he did that, making the Giant Piranha Plant wet.

"Err?" the Giant Piranha Plant could feel itself getting wet, and then Mallow fired a Thunderbolt down on the it, making it get electrocuted and blowing it up. With that Giant Piranha Plant gone, everyone sighed in relief.

"Although I wonder... How come it didn't get harmed as much when I used my Thunderbolt of it before?" Mallow wondered.

"Maybe because it wasn't entirely wet," Chopper shrugged. "Beats me. Maybe they dry easily?"

"Hmmmm... Well, we won't know that yet..."

* * *

**Next area-**

After getting out of there, they were back in an area with no murky water, but tress instead and also Toxic Piranha Plants. They had about 14 HP, 7 Attack, and 0 Defense. They fought two of them just to get some Star Points. Afterward, Chopper wanted to see if there were any hidden blocks around here, so he had C-2 Choppor look for some.

"There is one block, but it's up on the top of that tree in the middle." C-2 Choppor informed. "That vine should help you get up there."

"All right, then!" Chopper jumped on the vine and he began to grind around it. He could see the yellow ? block C-2 Choppor told him about, and he used his Tornado Jump to get it. A Frog Fruit was in there, so he took it. Jumping back down, they went into the next area. However, this one seemed to be a little darker than before. It must be because there were rain clouds covering the swamp in this area. That explains why it's raining as well.

"Whoa, it's raining here. That's not really a good thing…" Koopla trailed.

"Mallow, are you crying again?" Bruce asked.

"I'm not crying! Honest!" Mallow objected. "I'm not the cause of rain _all_ the time!"

"Let's hope there are frogs around here for me to get!" Yosho noted. "By that, I mean to score with. Not to catch them."

"Yes, we know that Yosho," Bruce sighed. "You always want to score with someone. It's your thing. We can understand that."

"If the swamp is getting darker, then that means we're getting closer to Grandpa," Mallow realized. "Although, we're going to have to find our way out of this swamp in order to reach the pond. But it doesn't really help when it's too dark..."

"I have an idea!" Chopper declared. "Choppor! Turn on your light visors!"

"Light visors turning on," C-2 Choppor turned them on, and they could see everything around. They started by going down a log that was near them. To the left, they could see a red ? block, but only Parakarry could help reach it.

"Don't worry. I got this one," Parakarry carried Chopper over to the platform, and he hit the block. Chopper found a Poison Shield Badge. This Badge could not only prevent Chopper from getting poisoned, but it also lets him take less damage against poison.

"Oh! This'll do just fine!" Chopper smiled. "With something like this, I bet that Poison Piranha won't stand a chance against me with this! I'll put it on right now!"

Chopper equipped the badge, and Parakarry helped him get back to the other side. They continued their way through the area, jumping on some platforms. If Chopper fell in the water, there was something at the beginning of the area to give him a hand.

Going into the next area, they saw some Sentinels floating around. These kind were an orange color instead of yellow. From that point, Bow was sighing.

"They're back again? I thought we'd never see them again." Bow face palmed. "I guess the ones in Bubba Blubba's Castle weren't the only ones. Looks like you'll need me here, Chopper."

"All right, but don't get spotted in the searchlights," Chopper warned. "They seem to have them, and getting caught won't be good. C-2 Choppor, turn off the light visors so they don't see uh, OK?"

"Of course. Light visors turning off now." C-2 Choppor turned them off as they noticed some of the platforms in the water were moving around.

Once Chopper got on a platform, it began to move toward a Sentinel. Bow made him invisible so when the searchlight flashed on him, he wouldn't get spotted. It actually worked, and he managed to get past the Sentinels.

Bow also helped Chopper's partners get past the Sentinels. After that, they went up north on a log and began to keep moving into the next area.

The next area has some vines Chopper would have to use to swing over to places. There was also a platform for each vine to swing to, so C-2 Choppor turned his light visors back on, and they began to swing from vine to vine. Yosho had to help Bruce get over by using his tongue to get him in his mouth.

_"I wonder when I get to stop doin' this," _Yosho thought.

The last dark area had some vines going around in a circle. In the center, there was a seed that needed to be grown, and the rain wasn't helping either.

"I'll take care of this!" Mallow made it rain harder, and then made it stop after a couple of seconds. The vine grew, and this one went all the way to a ledge up ahead. After grinding on the vines and getting across, there was no other pathway.

"Hold on, I think I remember something here. Oh yeah!" Mallow walked over to some bushes and revealed a path.

"We can get out of this dark swampy area by taking this way! Come on, let's go!" Chopper and his friends followed Mallow through the path and found themselves in a new area, that wasn't as dark, but also there was a Save Block and Heart Block. To the left was a sign.

Chopper hit both blocks, and walked over to the sign. He decided to give it a quick read.

_To Tadpole Pond_

"Hey! We're here guys! Tadpole Pond is just up ahead!" Chopper smiled.

"I'll finally be able to get back to the pond!" Mallow cheered. "But that frog said that Grandpa is in big trouble. I don't know what we can do though..."

"Don't worry about it Mallow. We can get there and hopefully stop whatever madness is going on." Koopla assured. "It won't be that bad, so let's stop messing around and keep going!"

"Yes, we must go." Chopper was about to move on, but a Toxic Piranha Plant appeared right in front of him, which made him stop.

"TARGET IDENTIFIED AS CHOPPER! ALERT! ALERT! REPORT TO BOSS IMMEDIATELY!" the Toxic Piranha Plant roared as it burrowed back into the ground.

"Strange… Those Piranha Plants were acting just like the ones in Mt. Lavalava. It's so weird…" Bow trailed. "Are they…related to them by any chance?"

"Maybe we'll find out once we get going," Chopper hoped as he walked toward the path to Tadpole Pond with his friends following him. Mallow began to feel worried that Frogfucius might be hurt or in big trouble.

Hopefully they weren't too late.

* * *

**Boss chapter's up next! I wouldn't say Chapter 9's my favorite chapter...but it's not too bad. I'm sure some of you like Chapter 9, but if not...then oh well. My favorites are probably Chapters 11+ in my opinion. Chapter 7 and 8 were also cool too.  
**

**I'm sure you guys know who the boss is, so I don't need to bother telling you. :P  
**


	52. Poison Piranha: The Poison Ruler

After going to the path to the left, they saw that it wasn't exactly as swampy as it was before. No longer did they see dark plants, but now they saw lighter plants, sort of like Frog Forest. The grass felt smooth, despite most of the area being covered in water, which looked a little murky due to some purple, poisonous clouds.

The biggest problem was that there were no tadpoles in sight. Nor was Frogfucius around.

"Guys? Grandpa? Are you all there? I'm back!" Mallow cried, trying to get a response. Sadly, he got nothing.

"Oh great… This isn't good. I thought they would be here for sure!" Chopper frowned as he walked over to the pond that was just up ahead. He noticed a couple of bubbles coming out of the pond.

"Hey, could those be the tadpoles?" Mallow wondered when he walked closer to the pond. "I know when they rise, there are bubbles coming up from the pond."

"Wait… Those aren't tadpole bubbles!" Chopper pulled Mallow back, and a big Piranha rose up. It wasn't as big as the other one they fought, but it certainly looked more threatening. It had a light purple head, white lips, and its stem had thorns on it. It even had two Poison Buds like Lava Piranha had Lava Buds. This Piranha Plant…was rather different than the others with its poison clouds and its poisonous breath.

"BLECK HYUCK HYUCK HYUCK! I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, CHOPPER!" Poison Piranha cackled. "YOU COME TO FIND FROG AND TADPOLES IN POND! WE DON'T LET THAT HAPPEN! NO! KING BOWSER ORDERED ME TO STAY HERE AND WAIT FOR YOUR ARRIVAL!"

"You talk really weird, you know… Stop yelling, all right?" Chopper groaned. "Have the sense to talk in a calm way!"

"Where is my grandpa, you stupid plant?" Mallow asked, clenching his fists.

"FROG WITH WHITE BEARD? HE RAN FROM US! AND HE STAYS LIKE THAT! POND BELONGS TO US NOW! THE POWER STAR IS NOWHERE FOR YOU TO FIND! WE MAKE THINGS POISONOUS FOR YOU, CHOPPER!"

"Oh yeah? Well I'll show you what I can do!" Chopper shouted as he got in his fighting stance

**Tattle: **_That's Poison Piranha. He's the leader of all these Piranha Plants in Frog Swamp. Max HP: 90, Attack Power: 9, Defense Power: 0. His Poison Buds have 10 HP, and can do 4 damage to you. Try to do attacks like Mallow's Thunderbolt to attack them all. Poison Piranha will spew out some poison breath to poison you. But, if you got anything that isn't poisonous, you should be fine. But… He might do some dangerous moves, especially his Poison Buds._

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce attack on Poison Piranha. Since he had zero defense, it was pretty easy to attack him. After six stomps, Chopper stopped. Since Mallow was great to have for this fight, Mallow used his Thunderbolt to attack the Poison Buds and Poison Piranha, taking away 7 from them all.

The Poison Buds shot some poison at Chopper, but both of them only did 2 damage, due to his Poison Shield Badge. Not even Poison Piranha really hurt him. Well, it did 7 damage to him, which was less threatening than 9 damage. But it's not as much as they all thought.

Chopper could really only stomp on him or use any of his Elemental Hand attacks due to being too high for his hammer, so he shot a fireball at Poison Piranha.

"Those Poison Buds will almost be gone!" Mallow informed as he zapped Poison Piranha and his buds with another Thunderbolt, making the buds stop attacking. Poison Piranha tried to take a bite from Chopper, but he was able to guard its attack. Since it wasn't a poison attack, it only did 8 damage. With that, Chopper shot an ice ball at Poison Piranha to deal 6.

"So this thing has no defense, huh? Well, I can certainly make an attack." Bow smirked as she appeared in front of Poison Piranha and smacked it six times. Afterward, it spewed out poison on Chopper, which he was able to guard easily and take only 6 damage.

"OK, I might as well get back to stomping," Chopper stomped on Poison Piranha twice, and Mallow made a cloud fall on it. Poison Piranha's buds came back, but they couldn't do anything that turn. Poison Piranha spewed out poison on Chopper, which he guarded again.

"You know, I don't find this fight really hard," Chopper shrugged. "We're doing some serious damage to him. Plus, Poison Piranha can't heal his own HP. So we can probably do this!"

"I know! This doesn't seem so bad at all." Mallow agreed.

Chopper stomped on Poison Piranha, and Mallow used his Thunderbolt to attack all three targets. Poison Piranha had only 23 HP left, from what they could see.

"BLECK HYUCK HYUCK! NOT BAD! YOU ALL WILL PERISH WITH THESE!" Poison Piranha's buds spat out a poison bomb. It could do A LOT of damage. 11 damage to be exact.

"We can't let those bombs hit us. If they do, expect to take a lot of damage, Chopper." C-2 Choppor warned.

Chopper shot an ice ball at Poison Piranha, and he let Mallow use his Thunderbolt. He got rid of the bombs, and the Poison Buds stopped moving. Poison Piranha even got hurt too. It spewed out some poison on Chopper, which only did 7 damage,

"All right, let's finish this up, Mallow! He's only got 10 HP left!" Chopper jumped up onto Poison Piranha and stomped on him twice. "The honor's all yours."

Chopper stood aside, and Mallow summoned a cloud to make it come down on Poison Piranha. It made Poison Piranha fall down in front on Mallow, dropping 32 Star Points for Chopper. Afterward, its body exploded, and the light purple mist in the water went away. The pond began to look beautiful than ever.

"Hey, look at the water! It looks so…nice!" Bruce gasped.

A large tadpole rose up from the surface and noticed Poison Piranha was gone.

"Huh? That plant is gone?" the tadpole gasped. "Did you do something about it?"

"Yeah, everything's just fine!" Mallow nodded.

"Oh, great! Thanks so much! Hey everybody! It's safe to come up now!" More tadpoles came up and saw everything was back to normal.

"Ah, Mallow! You've come back!" the sound of the old voice made the tadpole dive back underwater. "I was starting to get a little worried about you."

"Grandpa!" Mallow cheered. "I know it's been a while. Chopper here's been helping me!"

"I know, child. That rainstorm we had before…that was YOU wasn't it?"

"Yes…" Mallow slowly nodded, recalling when he cried back in Toad Town. But what made Chopper's antennas twitch was the muttering he could hear.

"_Ouch! Watch it, up there! You're SUPPOSED to make me look like I'm FLOATING, OK?_"

Frogfucius floated over the water's edge. He was just like every other frog, except he had a large white beard and a red hat. Apparently, a Lakitu was holding a piece of string attached to him, trying to make it look like Frogfucius was floating. Chopper could easily tell he's not ACTUALLY floating.

"Welcome! So you are Chopper, yes?" the old frog asked. "I am Frogfucius. You have come to seek the Power Star from me, have you not? I've been waiting for you! Yes, 'Old Wise People' can often give good advice… But how rude of me! Let's get more comfortable. Come along and we'll talk. _Clear! Full reverse!_"

"Uhhh... Are you really floating?" Chopper asked.

"Of course! No need to ask me questions about that!" he assured as the Lakitu moved Frogfucius back. "Tadpoles! Don't just FLOAT there! Make yourselves useful! Form a bridge for Chopper and his friends."

The tadpoles rose up, and Chopper and his friends began to jump on them to get over to a small island with a small wooden table. Apparently, Frogfucius was there, drinking some tea.

"So this is where he lives, huh? Not bad I suppose…" Koopla trailed.

"Yes, come into my sanctuary and partake my wisdom, my child," Frogfucius said as Chopper walked over to the table, with Mallow following. "Let's see… From what I recall, Bowser and Maquano were defeated back at Bowser's Castle. Chopper, you still have the Star Rod, yes?"

"Yeah, right here," Chopper nodded as he pulled out the Star Rod.

"Mmm… Yes… The power in this thing is empty. If only you knew that Bowser and Maquano have made up a new plan of their own…that has to do with taking you down!"

"Hold on… Bowser and Maquano still aren't giving up and actually want to kill me? ! Well, I can see why Maquano would, but BOWSER? !"

"Patience, young one. Let me explain. Here is what happened… Bowser's Castle wasn't exactly destroyed. It fell right into Forever Forest, as well as those villains."

"Forever Forest? There?" Bow gasped.

"Yes, something like that," Frogfucius nodded as he jumped in the air and landed. "But Maquano was able to take Bowser's Castle and them to his own world. You must take care of them and handle Staris as well. While Maquano still has control over him, Staris seems to grow stronger each second. Chances are he could become so strong that he could destroy not only the Mushroom Kingdom, but the world. It's quite a situation we have on our hands, isn't it?"

"Yeah, it sure is…" Chopper nodded.

"Wow, everything sounds so dire and serious. I mean, Bowser and your archenemy Maquano want to get rid of you before Bowser can take Peach again..." Mallow trailed as he turned away.

"Mallow, you speak as if these things do not concern you. You will accompany Chopper on his adventure, too." declared Frogfucuius.

"Grandpa! What are you talking about?!" he gasped as he turned back to his grandfather. "I'm only a simply tadpole! This adventure isn't for me!"

"Mallow, my boy, I've kept this from you until now, but you're…"

...

...

...

...

"Not a tadpole!"

"Say WHAT?!" Mallow gasped, as well as the tadpoles and Lakitu.

"This... This isn't even surprising." Koopla face palmed. "Of course you're not a tadpole!"_  
_

"I was sitting here one rainy day, enjoying a snack of crickets…" Frogfucius began. "When I happened to see a basket floating down from the falls. I peeked inside, and saw a little baby staring right back at me! The name 'Mallow' was written on his belt. I felt sorry for the little bundle of puff and took him in to raise as my own grandchild. He had powerful magic, and I knew he was more than a piece of fluff. I thought, 'Surely, this child must be from some far off land.'"

"Grandpa… You mean, I'm not…a tadpole?" Mallow frowned as he shed some tears, making the place drizzle. "_Sniffle…sniffle…sniffle…_"

Frogfucius stomped the ground again, scaring away the tadpoles and the Lakitu.

"Mallow! Now is not the time to cry! Go with Chopper on his adventure and find your real family. Your real mother and father are out there, somewhere."

"Yeah, don't let yourself down!" Parakarry suggested.

"It's not good at all!" Kayzee agreed. "You have us to help you too!"

"Really?" Mallow questioned as he looked up at his friends,

"_Psst, Chopper,_" Chopper jumped up a little when he heard Frogfucius whispering to him. "_The boy's magic is sure to come in handy on your adventure. You'll take him along, yes?_"

"Of course I will..." Chopper nodded.

"Grandpa! I won't cry anymore." Mallow declared as the rain stopped. "I'll go on this adventure with Chopper and find my real family!"

"Then it is settled," Frogfucius declared. "You must embark on your adventure immediately. First, you will need to go to Ghost Town, a place that is near Forever Forest."

"Forever Forest? That shouldn't be a problem!" Bow assured. "I know that place by heart. And you say there are ghosts there?"

"Yes, many kinds of ghosts. Not like the Boos, though. You'll find out when you get there. Now, Chopper… You wish to take the Power Star, yes?"

"Of course! We need that to restore the Star Rod's power!" Chopper nodded.

"Yes, you definitely do need it. Without the Star Rod, all of the Stars may die out soon without its power. Here, take it!"

Frogfucius gave Chopper the Power Star, and as he held it up, he saw the Power Star go into the Star Rod, getting rid of a little bit of its dullness.

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_And so, Chopper had gotten the first Power Star from the wise frog Frogfucius. After finding out Mallow was indeed not a tadpole, he knew he had to go find his real parents, so he joined Chopper on his quest to find the last six Power Stars. With the Star Rod's power partly back, Chopper and his friends began to leave Tadpole Pond to head to Ghost Town, a world filled with many ghosts. But after hearing the news, Chopper knew he was in grave danger. What will become of our hero?_

However, as they made their way back, a pink wisp appeared in front of Kayzee.

"Ooh! What is this thing?"

Her question was never answered when her sight went blank.

* * *

**?-**

When her vision was no longer blinded, she found herself in Star Haven. She saw some buildings around with a couple of Stars talking. Unfortunately, this only left her confused.

"Where am I? All I can see here are cute Stars." Kayzee began to float around to see anyone important around. She did notice the young Mamar talking to a Hellspawn, who looked angry.

"Look, you will tell us about the Star Rod, or else I'll obliterate you!" the Hellspawn snarled as it aimed its assault rifle at Mamar.

"I'm telling you, I don't have anything to say to you!" Mamar snapped. "Is greed all you Hellspawns care about? You should be ashamed of yourselves!"

"We don't care about what you Stars think of us! We want to know EVERYTHING about the Star Rod! Ignoring me isn't going to work! I might even have to call in Lord Maquano about this!"

"You wouldn't DARE!"

"Oh, I would…" the Hellspawn took out a communicator and turned it on. "Lord Maquano, we got an issue here. This Star Spirit refuses to tell us about the Star Rod. Requesting orders for you right now."

"What? Oh, this is bad! I better go teach that Hellspawn a lesson he'll never forget!" Kayzee flew toward the Hellspawn, ready to give him a big powerful punch from her fist in anger. But she stopped for a moment. If she were to attack that Hellspawn, she might mess up time itself. Even if this was most likely a vision, it felt like she went back in time somehow.

"No… I can't attack. If I did that, I might mess up time! …Wait! If I looked at a Star, or hugged one, I'd mess up time too! Oh, why do I always have to be sweet sometimes? It makes me feel like I'm not exactly tough! …Yeah, I think Tayzee needs to shut up about that."

"Hey! Come back here you!" the Hellspawn growled as Mamar flew away. It attempted to go after her, but its wings weren't fast enough to keep up with the Star Spirit.

Kayzee's vision of Star Haven began to fade away, and everything went white again. She recalled Koopla discussing something about this vision. At first, she didn't believe this, but now she knew she wasn't lying.

* * *

**Some of you might be wondering why Chopper hasn't seen this vision yet. Well... That won't be important as of right. But, what is important is that Mallow's following Chopper on his quest. Mallow's cool, right? I think so.**

**We'll get to see how much of a douchebag Bob is in the next chapter.**


	53. Chapter 9 Interlude

**I feel excited about this chapter for some reason. It's probably because it's one of my favorite interludes. How exactly is this my favorite one? Just read and you'll find out.**

* * *

In Maquano's Castle, the front door was open, revealing an assembly, despite it not being an auditorium. Maquano was up on some stage with a stand and a microphone. Camikon was right beside him on his broomstick, while Bowser was at the back of the stage, with Kammy with him. It seemed like Maquano was making a big speech.

"My fellow Hellspawns…" he began "It has come to my attention that some of you have been playing around with our dragons out of their cages. You must listen well… Those dragons can only be out of their cages when we're in BATTLE! I don't care if you want to play fetch with them or fly around on them. They're for battles ONLY! Second of all… Ther-"

Before Maquano could say anything else, someone appeared to be revving their motorcycle outside. Because of the front door being open, it could be heard in the castle. Maquano knew who it was, but he tried his best to ignore it. Once the revving stopped, he was able to continue.

"Second of all, there's been a shortage in our food lately. Somebody has been eating our rations for any wars we are in. Hellspawns, that food is to only be eaten in emergencies during a war! ...All right, now to get to the important stuff. We have a…"

Unfortunately, more revving was heard outside of the castle.

"What's going on out there?" Bowser asked. "Why am I hearing a motorcycle revving? In fact, who is making that?"

"I am not so sure, your Curiousness," Kammy shrugged.

Once the revving stopped, Maquano got back to speaking. "After Chopper got the Star Rod back, we have changed plans. No, we're not going to get Princess Peach again. This time, we're planning to kill Chopper for good, and we'll make sure he'll never…"

When the revving got worse, Maquano couldn't take it anymore.

"Excuse me for a second…" he got off the stage and he walked out of the castle. Outside, he saw Bob on his motorcycle, who was revving it for no reason. "Bob… What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"Doing what? I'm just revving my motorcycle." Bob answered. "What's the big problem with that?"

"I'm in the middle of making a big speech, you idiot! Why do you HAVE to do this while I'm giving out a big speech?"

"Well, I just felt like revving my motorcycle. I went out into the city to do things, but I couldn't. It was fun doing things to make you angry, so I came here during your speech and revved my motorcycle."

The only thing Bob received was a punch to the face.

"Hey! Why'd you do that?!"

"Because I hate you, and wish that you were never born. Now quit revving your motorcycle and get out of here!"

Maquano headed back into the castle and got back onto the stand. "Ahem… Sorry about that. I just had to go to the bathroom. Now… To get Peach back, we'll have to…"

He heard Bob's motorcycle revving again, and this time, instead of going to Bob to tell him to stop, he fired some dark magic that blasted Bob and his motorcycle away.

"All right, now we can get back to the stuff. The Star Rod's power has been drained, and now its power has become seven Power Stars. I had one of them, and I threw it up into space so Chopper could NEVER get his hands on it. He hasn't gotten any yet… But we'll surely…"

He was interrupted yet again. This time, but Camikon.

"Ugh... WHAT?!" Maquano heard Camikon's mutter and gasped. "Wait… He's gotten the first one already?"

"Wait, Chopper already got the first Power Star that fast?" Bowser gaped. "How did he defeat Poison Piranha so easily?"

"Your Angriness, Poison Piranha wasn't such a strong minion," Kammy informed. "Well, he was stronger than Lava Piranha, but I think there was something to help Chopper against him…"

"Yeah, but Poison Piranha's old now. If Chopper's planning on getting the next Power Star in **Ghost Yards**, then he must think he's brave. There are a TON of ghosts in there! And there are some pretty dang evil ones too! Especially **Hauntost**, he's one of the scariest ghosts in the Mushroom Kingdom! I know he lives in **Ghost Tower** in the Ghost Yards. Chopper will be scared for his LIFE! Gwaa ha ha ha!"

"Ah, yes, you wanted Hauntost to hold onto the Power Star there. Even though he's a scary ghost to a lot of people, he keeps on making pranks and jokes around on some people when they go into the tower. Then again, he's pretty tough. Chopper's attacks can't really hurt a ghost's…unless he became one himself. But, that's impossible."

"Lord Maquano, he does have a ghost on his side, though," Camikon informed. "Wouldn't that be a little bit of a problem?"

"You mean that green ghost? Oh, I forgot about that." Maquano realized. "Dang… That could be a problem. But Hauntost could probably scare her. He's very good at scaring Boos and other ghosts. I bet that little girl would be scared!"

"Gwaa ha ha ha ha! Oh, yeah! They'll be scared for sure!" Bowser cackled. "Chopper will be history for sure! And if that doesn't work, I'll go ahead and burn him!"

The villains began to cackle as they left the meeting, leaving the Hellspawns confused.

"...So where's the free food?"

* * *

**Midas River-**

The Koopa Bros., now on a log in the Midas River, looked up at the sky. They had a bunch of bite marks on their arms and were roughed up a little. Unfortunately, despite their escapes, some Piranha Plants caught them and attacked them. Red was the one who got attacked the most. His gloves were ripped a little, and so was his bandanna.

"Guys, maybe it's time we just gave up and took a break," Red sighed. I mean, look at ourselves. Those Piranha Plants really got us back there. …Wait! Hold on a minute! Yellow, this is all your fault!"

"Well you told me to switch the map, so I did it," Yellow grumbled. "I'm just following your orders, that's all, Red!"

"Shut up…Yellow…" Red groaned as he closed his eyes, but he suddenly heard some voices from the distance. He remembered that voice, and it sounded like Chopper and his friends were walking toward the waterfall. They had to get out of the swamp, which was a lot easier than before thanks to the Piranha Plants being gone. Chopper knew they had to go to Forever Forest and find the way to Ghost Town.

"Seriously, I saw something change my vision," Kayzee explained. "It's like something happened with magic or something!"

"Wait, you saw it too?" Koopla gaped. "At least Choppor and I aren't the only ones now. It just felt so…weird!"

"I still don't know about this," Chopper pondered. "I would've seen this wisp if it got to Kayzee. Maybe you're just seeing things. That's all."

"No, I wasn't seeing things! It was real!" Kayzee yelled, making everyone cover their ears (or antennas, in Chopper's case).

"Kayzee! Calm down!" Parakarry shouted. "There's no reason to yell! You gotta talk in a calm way rather than a loud one!"

"But I DO have a reason to yell! Just believe me right now already!" the Koopa Bros. were woken up by the screams and ended up falling into the water when startled, making them get carried away by the river.

"_**Yaaaaaaaaaaah!**_"

"Gah! You can't be a loudmouth so much!" Chopper groaned. "It's just too much for all of us!"

"Whoooooooooa!"

"But hearing that voice is...twice too much!"

They all saw Jr. Troopa coming down from the waterfall and fall into Midas River.

"Ahhhhhhhh!" Jr. Troopa swam over to Chopper so he wouldn't be carried by the current. He then jumped out, and was panting while soaking wet. "Huff huff huff… Finally… I've got you this time, Chopper!"

"If you were paid to annoy me, I'd say you're doing a good job..."

"Who's this person? Is he someone you know?" Mallow asked as Chopper nodded.

"This time, I'm going to pummel you, and you'll see how YOU'LL like it when I throw you into that river! Ahhhhhhhhh!" Jr. Troopa let out a battle cry as he charged.

"Fine, we'll fight you…_again_." Chopper sighed.

"Ever since you beat me down in those sewers, I thought of something new! Take a look at THIS!" Jr. Troopa pulled out a spear and grinned. "Whether I put this up or to the side, you won't have a chance at hitting me now! Wa ha ha ha!"

**Tattle: **_Hey, look! Jr. Troopa seems to have gotten himself a spear! I guess he likes to play with it, huh? Max HP: 70, Attack Power: 9, Defense Power: 1. He'll only attack you with that spear, and it can hurt. Pay attention to where Jr. Troopa has his spear. If it's pointed up, don't jump on him. If it's to the side, don't use your Hammer on him. It's not tough, but watch out when he attacks._

Chopper saw Jr. Troopa's spear was pointed up, so he used his D-Down Pound on Jr. Troopa to ignore his defense.

"Hmmm… I might as well attack." Mallow, who was now better, used his Falling Cloud to hit Jr. Troopa.

"Yeeeouch! How is he doing that? This isn't over yet, though!" Jr. Troopa ran toward Chopper and used his spear to attack him. When he stepped back, his spear was pointed up, but Chopper was able to shoot an ice ball at him, making him shiver. And, being in that water, he definitely felt cold.

Mallow used his Falling Cloud on him again, since a Thunderbolt wouldn't really be much on him. Jr. Troopa turned his spear to the side, and he charged at Chopper. Luckily, he guarded his attack and took less damage. Now that he was vulnerable to stomps, Chopper used his Power Bounce on Jr. Troopa and stomped on him nine times.

"I should try my Shocker on him. It'll do some good damage on him." Mallow suggested as he used his Shocker on Jr. Troopa to dish 8 out of him.

Jr. Troopa charged at Chopper with his spear again, but once again, Chopper guarded it to take less damage.

"Shoooooot! What am I doing wrong here?" Jr. Troopa cried. "I thought this spear would help me! Gah!"

Chopper shot a fireball at Jr. Troopa, and then C-2 Choppor shot a blast at him, which left him with 18 HP. Jr. Troopa threw his spear at Chopper, but he ended up missing, and he had to go grab his spear. Chopper smiled when he got a Lucky there.

"All right, he's almost done!" Chopper shot an ice ball at Jr. Troopa first, and then Yosho used his Ground Pound on him. Jr. Troopa attacked Chopper with his spear, and he was lucky Chopper didn't guard it. When he brought his spear up, Chopper knew he was finished, so he whacked him with his hammer, and then Mallow finished it up with a Falling Cloud on him. This made Jr. Troopa fall to the ground in defeat and give Chopper 28 Star Points.

"Ooooooooog…" Jr. Troopa moaned as he lay on the ground. They really couldn't do anything else, so they left him there, considering that he could handle nearly anything.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

Upon returning to Toad Town, Chopper heard his communicator going off. "Huh? Toadsmeth is calling me now? It's been a while…"

Chopper turned on his communicator to listen to Toadsmeth. _"Good news, Chopper! I heard that you defeated Bowser and rescued the princess! Good job, Chopper! I knew you could do it! You should come to my lab to celebrate!"_

"It's not over yet," Chopper explained. "The Star Rod's power isn't back. I got one of the Power Stars already. It looks like it has little power in it right now."

"_It's not over yet? Oh… And you say you need to get the Power Stars? Well, I know there's one in Ghost Yard, which you can get there by going to Forever Forest. It's right by the entrance of Gusty Gulch. You know how to get there, right?"_

"Of course. And don't worry about any ghosts. I'm not afraid of any at all!" he assured as he put his communicator away. "Bow, it looks like we're going back to Forever Forest - though we're going into Ghost Yard this time."

"Ghost Yard? I see…" Bow trailed. "There are many different kind of ghosts there, but I'd be careful there if I were you. You can't really attack a ghost."

"Really? That stinks… Well, we should just get going."

"So we're going to Bow's place? Sweet!" Yosho grinned. "So I finally get to see where she lives!"

"You know my appearance isn't exactly your age..."

"Well... You can always revert to one that's around mine."

"Nice try. I like how I look anyway."

"Dang."

* * *

**Forever Forest-**

Back in Forever Forest, they passed by the mansion to where the gate to Gusty Gulch was. Yosho was about to say something, but Bow cut him off and warned him she would smack him.

Behind two bushes, another path was revealed. Once they headed through the path, they saw that the sky looked as if it were nighttime, and the ground was a blue color. It felt kind of creepy around here.

"Whoa… This place…feels kind of creepy." Bruce shivered.

"Don't try to get afraid of this place," Chopper suggested. "There aren't any ghosts around here. Let's just take the path ahead."

They kept going through the path to Ghost Yard. But… This seemed more than really a yard, because some of this place looked barren. Unfortunately, they didn't notice a purple ghost with no body but a head with some spikes on the sides and having floating hands sneak behind them cackling.

"So he has come! Ooh hoo hoo hoo hoo!" it cackled. "I'm sure he wants to get that Power Star that's being held by Hauntost! Yes… And he's also got a lovely ghost friend too! What a great time to come!"

With that, the ghost faded away without a trace.

* * *

**Yes, the next chapter DOES have ghosts. I wouldn't say they're scary, but we'll see what's there. Although, Chapter 10 would be one of my least favorite chapters... But that's just me. It may not be your least favorite, but we'll see.  
**


	54. The Haunting Yard

**CHAPTER 10**

**-Spooks and Scares in Ghost Yard-**

Once they all made it to the next area, they saw that there was nothing barren, hilly landscape didn't make anything better. They could see some rocks too, and it seemed like there were no enemies either. They were all thinking that it would be kind of safe, but Kayzee didn't feel comfortable here. She felt a little scared, as well as Mallow. The only ones who didn't seem afraid were Koopla, Bow, and C-2 Choppor. Yosho tried to act cool, but he wasn't succeeding.

"Man, it feels so empty here. I don't see any enemies or obstacles around here! What's going on?" Chopper asked. "I don't like this atmosphere either..."

"There's nothin' around here. I don't think we should really be scared. It's just…barren landscape." Yosho gawked as he looked around. "Seriously... This is uninterestin'!"

"You know, it isn't that bad," Kayzee realized. "Sure, the sky is kind of dark, and you can see the moon, but nothing bad is going to come around here, right?"

A round ghost that was black and had dark purple gas around it appeared behind Kayzee. Chopper noticed the ghost and gasped.

"Kayzee, behind you!" But when Kayzee turned around, the ghost disappeared, leaving Chopper to gawk.

"I don't see anything. Are you sure there was something behind me?"

"Yeah, I'm sure," a purple ghost with disembodied hands appeared behind Mallow and tapped his shoulder.

"Yosho, why are you tapping me by the shoulder?" Mallow asked. "Do you want something from me?"

"Mallow… I'm over here." Mallow saw Yosho was a little further up ahead. C-2 Choppor began to scan for anything important.

"My scanners aren't detecting anything," C-2 Choppor informed. "I don't think they can find ghosts. There's nothing around here, I'm afraid."

"Oh, man! That stinks! Sometimes, I hate it when there's nothing really around." Chopper sighed. "Let's just keep going, I suppose."

Chopper began to move on ahead using his Speed Dash with his friends following him to the next area, where they found a sign. When Chopper touched the sign, his finger phased through it. Chances were this was a ghost sign.

"Whoa, your finger just went through the sign. Now THAT is kind of creepy…" Koopla gaped.

"Let me see…" When Bow touched the sign, her hand didn't go through the sign. To her surprise, she could actually touch it. "Maybe it's because I'm a ghost..."

"I don't understand what this thing says. It's written in some…ghost language or something. Is it ghost language?" Chopper asked.

"It says, 'To reach Ghost Town, you must walk through Ghost Pass. If you're not a ghost, then you must beware of them! They may come out to get you! …They could even be behind you!' That's what it reads."

"Wee hee hee hee hee! Yes… There may even be a ghost behind you!" Koopla turned around, and she saw the ghost with the disembodied hands. She got whacked in the head with a mallet that it took out of nowhere.

"Haw haw haw haw haw!" the ghost clapped while cackling as Koopla got up and growled.

"Oh, now you're in for it!" Koopla got in her shell, and she began to attack the ghost. Unfortunately, she only phased through the ghost, making it laugh again.

"Silly Koopa! Your attacks can't really harm me! Haw haw haw! I'm not actually trying to hurt you guys. We've actually been waiting for you! …Well, everyone in Ghost Town has…"

"What do you mean you were waiting for us?" Bow gawked. "How exactly do you know? Answer me now, or I WILL smack you. And I'm pretty sure I'm able to hit you."

"Relax! We saw a Power Star come down here, but it was taken by the scariest ghost of them all. Getting to him isn't easy either. He's even got ghosts of his own to take care of you guys. You can't hurt him though, because he's a ghost. But, you know the old saying, 'Only a Ghost can defeat another Ghost.' If you were a ghost, you could take care of him!

"I can inhale a ghost and copy their ability," Chopper informed. "Is that something I can do to defeat this scary ghost?"

"Yeah, go ahead!" the ghost suggested. "But you gotta pass through Ghost Pass, and it ain't easy. But, if you can, you'll be taken to Ghost Yard, and you can go from there to Ghost Town. Be careful, there are ghosts that might prank you! Haw haw haw!"

With it cackling, it faded out of their sight.

"OK… So we gotta go through Ghost Pass in order to make it to Ghost Yard, huh? Sounds easy… I think. But, there are nine of us. I'm sure we can handle it."

"I hope we do. This place looks scary to me." Mallow shivered. "I know some of the ghosts are…weird, but their pranks could probably scare us. I think we need to be careful here."

They looked around in this area, not finding anything. They kept going on ahead to the next area, where they saw some parts of the ground were being eaten away by two ghosts that look like skulls. There were three red ! switches that needed to be hit.

"Whoa… What the heck are those things?" Bruce questioned. "They're really weird ghosts. Are they eating the ground?"

"It seems that the floor will come back after three seconds," Parakarry noticed. "It's kind of like being a ghost if you go through the ground. So… We gotta stay away from them. I think we need to hit the three switches, though."

"Yeah, that's true. Let me try to get them." Chopper was about to go get the switches, but Bow stopped him.

"No, it's not a good idea. If you can't fly around, you're bound to fall. It's best to stay here. I'll go take care of the ghosts." Bow suggested as she floated over to the ghosts and smacked them away with her fan. This made C-2 Choppor scan all three switches and fire a yellow blast at all three, making the path open up.

"Oh, cool! We can keep going now!" Chopper moved on, but he found himself going down a slide without paying attention. He could even see the full moon up. "Guys, have you ever heard about werewolves coming out during a full moon? In fact, are there werewolves around here?"

"No, not at all. There wouldn't be such a thing here." Bow assured as she followed him down the slide, while those who couldn't fly slid down the hill.

Some Skull Ghosts appeared to be eating their way up the slide. Chopper's eyes widened, and he got out of the way. Mallow used his powers to sit on a cloud rather than go down the slide.

"I guess these powers explain why I am not really a tadpole," he sighed. "I just hope I'll find my real parents, though."

"I'm sure you will," Chopper assured. "Maybe one of the Power Stars will lead us to them! If it does, then that's great! You're lucky you're not me."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well… Maybe we can talk about this during the future. I mean, at a good time where we're not in a situation with Skull Ghosts that want to eat us."

"OK, I can wait for that," Mallow nodded as Chopper felt like his butt was on fire. Thankfully, it wasn't on fire, or else he would be screaming.

"We're almost there! I think this'll lead us to Ghost Yard or somethin'." Yosho realized while they saw the ghost that resembled Gastly appear in front of them.

"Oh, it's another ghost. Let's hope it doesn't try to scare us…or carry any heavy mallets to hit me with." Koopla hoped as she cracked her knuckles. "Stupid ghosts..."

"It has no hands, Koopla," Bruce informed. "I don't think it could really hit you, you know…"

"We'll be waiting for you at Ghost Town," the ghost bellowed. "This will take you to Ghost Yard. And if you refuse to come to us, we'll haunt you for the rest of your lives!"

The ghost floated down onto the slide and opened its mouth. Chopper tried to stop, but once he went into the ghost's mouth, he phased through him like any other ghost.

"Whoa… That was weird." Chopper gawked as the ghost disappeared. Wherever they were going, they were hoping it wouldn't be anything like Ghost Pass.

* * *

**Ghost Yard-**

Once the slide ended, they got up and saw some dark blue grass with dark blue dirt as well. The full moon shined down on some of the dead trees around them, which actually looked like a nice sight. But, far away, they could see a big tower. Not much further was the Ghost Town.

"Wow… I actually like this place a lot better than Ghost Pass," Bow smiled. "It actually has more things around here. I don't understand why it was so barren back there, being near Forever Forest."

"That's true," Chopper agreed. "I don't get how the Boos even noticed a path being hidden by the bushes. I just don't understand it. Couldn't they have seen them?"

"You know, being in a place like this reminds me of the time when we first saw Bow. Man, I remembered her being hot…" Bruce recalled.

"Bruce, I'm still here you know. Wait, so you don't think I'm 'hot' to you anymore?" Bow asked, hoping he would say yes.

"What? You will always be hot!" he retorted as hearts appeared in his eyes.

"Ugh... Great."

"I'm not kidding! Now it just reminds me how hot you look right now!"

"Oh, boy… Here we go again with this." Koopla groaned. "Bruce, it's not going to work. You can just go back to being yourself again."

"I just can't help it… She's just so…beautiful…" Bruce's eyes seemed to sparkle until Parakarry hit him. "OK, sorry! Man, what's with me today? I'm just going all uh…weird and stuff. I honestly don't know..."

"Err… I don't get what's different about this place. Everythin's the same color, except that there's some grass an' trees this time." Yosho commented. "OK, it's not barren, but there's gotta be somethin' else here too!"

Kayzee flew up to see if there would be anything else around. Sadly, she didn't find anything at all, so she flew back down.

"I don't see anything up in the sky. It's just a full moon…" Kayzee trailed. "Hee hee! A full moon!"

"Yeah, I know there's a full moon up there. What's so funny about a full moon?" Chopper asked. This made Kayzee laugh, while Mallow and Bruce laughed slightly. Yosho, on the other hand, was snickering like an idiot.

"A full moon? Searching results for 'full moon'… " C-2 Choppor stated. "Yeah, how funny of you to say that. Why are you joking around when it's dark and scary out?"

"Because it's just funny!" Kayzee cried. "Yeah, I know it's not real mature, but you gotta admit that it can make you giggle, little robot!"

"Does not compute."

"I wonder if I could help those trees by giving them water," Mallow wondered after he stopped laughing. He made a rain cloud appear over one of the trees and made it rain. Unfortunately, it didn't do anything. For some reason, the trees were ghosts too!

"Hold on a minute… This tree is a Ghost Tree." Bow realized. "Be careful... I think Ghost Yard has some pretty nasty ghosts here."

"Oh, that's bad. I wish we had another ghost with us to help get through this ghost place." Chopper sighed. "I mean, at least you're here, Bow. I wish I could even fight some of these evil ghosts."

He sighed and began to walk up ahead. Chopper kicked a rock, but his foot went through the rock, which didn't really surprise him. What's next? The floor is a ghost too?

"Come on, guys. Let's get going."

Kayzee flew close to the ground, while C-2 Choppor followed Chopper and kept his scanners on for any ghosts.

"I have no readings on my scanners still," C-2 Choppor informed until a ghost appeared right in front of him. "Wait a minute… I have readings on a ghost! But… How is this possible?" the ghost was a black color, and it had spikes on its back and yellow eyes

"Wee hee hee hee hee…" the ghost stuck its tongue out at C-2 Choppor, who was aiming his gun at it.

"This ghost won't go away. He seems to be going after me." C-2 Choppor kept firing, but it did nothing. Bow eventually attacked it with her Smack, which made it gape in pain from the smack.

"A Boo? Here?" the ghost gasped. "Well, at least that boy made a good choice by bringing a Boo… Maybe I'll go attack!"

The ghost came after Chopper with its tongue out, ready to make a lick attack, which could poison or paralyze Chopper. Bow got rid of it using her fan, to her luck.

"These things just won't go away," Bow sighed. "Chopper, don't worry about the ghosts. We just need to keep going. If any ghosts appear, I'll take care of them."

"OK, good idea," Chopper continued on ahead, and when they went to the next area, they some similar stuff. This time, there were ghost enemies in some trees as well. Bow hit the trees with her fan, but nothing came down. The bushes were even ghost-like as well. A ghost saw Chopper and floated over to him. However, it didn't make an attack.

Yet.

"Uh oh, Chopper… There's a ghost right in front on you!" Parakarry gasped. "Are you even going to do anything about it?"

"Hold on a minute… I got something." Chopper stared at the ghost, and it did the same thing, being the pranksters they were. Chopper's face looked like he was constipated for some reason, while the ghost mimicked his face. He tried to intimidate it, which didn't seem to work, considering he didn't look intimidating to the slightest.

Suddenly, Chopper made a funny face at the ghost. The ghost looked surprised at this, though, even though it was trying to scare him or trick him.

"Haw haw haw haw haw!" the ghost cackled as Chopper smirked and inhaled the ghost. Once he swallowed it, his whole body looked transparent, and he seemed to be floating. He was levitating in mid-air as well.

"Whoa... This is weird." Chopper gaped.

"You're Ghost Chopper? Huh… That's kind of interesting." Bruce commented.

"You definitely make a cute ghost," Bow smiled, giving him a flirty look.

"...No comment."

"I saw that comin'," Yosho declared.

"Hey, now that I'm a ghost, I can do this." Chopper floated over to Bruce and stuck his tongue out and his eyes looked bugged out, making a funny, yet not-so-scary face at Bruce, which made him fall back in fear.

"Ack! Chopper! What do you think you're doing? Don't scare me like that!" Bruce cried as he got up.

"That didn't look scary to the slightest," Parakarry commented. "How could you get scared by that?"

"His 'scary' faces look more 'cute' than scary," Bow giggled. "But I'm perfectly fine with that!"

"I'm sorry, but I couldn't resist. But, now that I'm a ghost, I can attack some of the other ghosts here!" Chopper cheered. "...And don't insult me again, guys."

"Don't be so annoying then," Koopla muttered.

"Huh?"

"Oh, nothing really..."

Chopper floated to a ghost and punched it, sending it flying away. He was able to float to the next area, which was actually pretty close to Ghost Town. There were trees that Chopper could finally hit, so he whacked them with his hammer and a Ghost Fruit came down. He took the fruit and put it away.

"All right, now let's get going!" he was about to move on, but a bigger ghost than the others rose from the shadows. It was a dark purple color with pink eyes, two fangs, and arms and legs. It had some big hands and spikes on its shoulders. Needless to say, this wasn't a friendly-looking ghost.

"Who are you people? Are you the ones that have come for the Power Star?" the ghost asked.

"Yeah, that's what we're here for…" Chopper nodded.

"Gah ha ha ha ha! Of course you area! Hauntost wanted me to wait for someone named Chopper to come! Obviously, you're him! I'm here to not only scare you, but also to destroy you! You better be ready now, because ghosts can't be hit so easily!"

**Tattle: **_They call this ghost Ghosgar. He's a strong ghost who works for Hauntost. Max HP: 70, Attack Power: 8, Defense Power: 0. Only ghosts can attack this ghost. If you have that ghost ability on, then you might have a chance defeating him. Keep Bow out so she can also attack, because Ghosgar can be hurt by Bow. He'll try to paralyze you and poison you, so you better be careful._

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce on Ghosgar. He managed to stomp on it nine times, and he managed to do 12 damage.

"Let's see how you like a good smack," Bow smirked as she appeared by Ghosgar and began to smack Ghosgar six times, leaving it to be angry.

"Oh, not you're in for it!" Ghosgar hurled a shadow ball at Chopper, who was able to guard his attack.

Chopper performed another Power Bounce on the evil ghost, and this time he stomped on it seven times, while Bow took out her fan and used her Fan Smack attack on Ghosgar to leave it with 42 HP left.

Ghosgar threw one of the spikes at Chopper like a boomerang. The pale green boy cringed in pain while guarding as the evil ghost caught his spike. However, Chopper managed to punch Ghosgar with his Ghost Punch and knock it down. Before Ghosgar could get back up, it got smacked by Bow and left the ghost with bruises. Needless to say, Ghosgar was almost done for.

"Who ever thought that smacking would really hurt? But, getting smacked around by a hot ghost is a good thing, right? Oh, whatever… I'll still attack the other one! Bleah heh heh!"

Ghosgar hurled another shadow ball at Chopper. He tried to guard the attack, but he ultimately failed to do so. Luckily, the ghost only had 20 HP left, so Chopper punched Ghosgar again with his fist and added a little ice to it, making the ghost become frozen.

"Hey, that did something! He can't attack us now!" Chopper smiled. However, once Bow smacked Ghosgar, the ice shattered.

"I thought that would work…" Bow sighed as Chopper defended himself against another spike hurled by Ghosgar. He was lucky he guarded it this time, because it could've hit Bow if he wasn't careful.

"OK, let's finish this up." Chopper punched Ghosgar with a Fire Punch, and Bow smacked it to finish the ghost off, leaving them 27 Star Points. Chopper even leveled up as well.

"Sweet! I leveled up! Hmmm… I got 50 HP, 45 FP, and 27 BP. I guess I'll upgrade by FP this time." Chopper chose FP, and he now had 50 FP. He reminded himself that he would upgrade BP next.

"Blech! You're too much for me!" Ghosgar cried. "I thought I would've made a good prank or something! Wait… Hold on a minute…"

Ghosgar took out a white fan, and when another ghost floated by, it whacked the ghost once with the fan. After that, Ghosgar sunk back into the shadows to escape. Chopper, meanwhile, got rid of the other ghost and moved on ahead. They saw a sign at the end of the area, so they went over to read it.

"Hey, I can read what the sign says! That's great! Now… Let's see what's here." Chopper pondered as he read the sign.

_Go to the right to reach Ghost Town. If you weren't invited, then SCRAM! …Or we'll haunt you! Haw haw haw!_

"Whoa… So they'll haunt anyone who comes here? Good thing we were invited to come here. At least those ghosts won't be able to scare me, too!"

They all knew they had to go, so they headed on through to make it to Ghost Town. However, Chopper stopped and pondered.

"I wonder if it's empty like a real ghost town..." Chopper wondered before getting dragged into town by his friends.


	55. Ghoster and Nightmare Road

When they made it into town, they saw that it had some fog around, which made seeing the moon difficult. Chopper and his friends could see some houses that were like old houses, and then there was this one big place that many of the ghosts like to go to and hang out. To their surprise, it looked like a nice building.

"So this is Ghost Town, huh? I thought this place would be empty. Of course, this is a place filled with GHOSTS and not cowboys…" Chopper trailed. "And haven't I mentioned something like that at the end of the previous chapter?"

"Yeah, that's true. There are no cowboys here." Parakarry agreed. "Nobody has seen any cowboys in ages, so there's no chance we'd be seeing them. Though there could be cowboy ghosts here… And what do you mean by 'previous chapter' anyway?"

"Uh... Nothing special."

"Well this place does look rather…old," Bow commented. "Those houses look like they're going to collapse. Whoever thought of the buildings here does NOT know how to make a town. Of course, these could've been made many years ago, which sounds more fitting."

"Huh… So they're ghosts here? If they're the good ones, then that's awesome. If not…then that's bad." Yosho said as he was busy cleaning his sunglasses. After putting them back on, he grinned and had both thumbs up. "All right, now it's time fer me to get myself a ghost lady! Oh yeah… That's much better than a frog, since most of the female ghosts are usually hot."

"...That's gettin' old, Yosho," Koopla muttered.

"It'll never be old fer me!"

"Are you sure it's safe here?" Mallow asked. "Ghosts like to pull pranks and even scare people, which is most likely that they'll do that to us. ...Hold on, I'm not afraid of them!"

"Don't worry about it. I'm a ghost, and I can even fight them." Chopper assured. "Ghosts can attack other ghosts. That's how it is. I can even pull a prank on some of the ghosts, too!"

Kayzee used her powers to see anything invisible, but she couldn't find any ghosts.

"I can't see the ghosts anywhere. It's like they're being hidden or something... I honestly have no idea what's going on."

"Ghosts are usually in some kind of vapor form," Bow explained. "You can't see them so easily. They're smarter than you think."

"Hmmm… Hold on a second. If a ghost can hit another ghost, then surely a ghost can SEE another ghost…" Chopper deduced. "I think I might be able to see them!"

He flew around the middle of the town and his eyes turned to a yellow color. Everything around him looked a little different. The houses looked a lot better, and he could see a lot of ghosts everywhere. Some actually had a body, but no feet. There were even ghosts of Goombas and Koopas too. This looked more interesting than what he originally saw.

"Whoa… I can see all of the ghosts here! They don't seem like they're doing anything, though. They're just moving around and doing nothing..."

"Let me take a look," Bow used her Ghost Sight as well, and she could see all of the ghosts. The others, however, looked confused.

"Wait… You're saying you can see ALL of the ghosts?" Koopla gawked. "Oh, man! That ain't good for us, not seeing any."

A Koopa Ghost appeared behind Parakarry and tapped him on the shoulder. "Mallow, you don't need to tap my shoulder. Everything's OK."

"But I'm not tapping on your shoulder… It's…a ghost!" Mallow alarmed. Parakarry turned around, but he saw no ghost.

"You must be seeing things. I don't see a ghost around here…" Once Parakarry turned around, he saw the Koopa Ghost in front of him. It made a face at Parakarry, with its eyes sticking out and its tongue sticking out at him.

"_**Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!**_" Parakarry screamed as he tried to whack the ghost with his mailbag, but was ultimately failing.

"Parakarry, you cannot hit a ghost," C-2 Choppor informed. "They can hit you…but you can't hurt them. It's a tough thing for people like us."

The Koopa Ghost began to laugh, but he got punched by Chopper, who can see the ghost. "Leave my friends alone, you stupid Koopa Ghost!"

"Ow! OK! I will! Hold on a minute…" the ghost cried before taking a look at Chopper. "Hey, you're Chopper, aren't you? We've definitely been waiting for you… Well, our leader has been DYING to meet you."

"Your leader? Who is he?" Bow asked. "Explain to us who he is, and make sure to make it quick. We don't have much time to stay here."

"Of course, little lady. The name of our leader is **Ghoster**. He's a rather odd ghost who does love pranks and scaring. But, of course, he knows a lot about you, Chopper. When he saw a Power Star go to Ghost Tower, he knew that you would come, and he would tell everyone to make sure you would come as well. He's right in the Ghost Hall. Come with me."

"What about our friends?" Chopper asked. "They can't really see anybody inside. How on earth will it be possible for them to see all the ghosts?"

"Well uh… They'll have to try something else. Sorry, but the rules are rules. Nothing I can do about it, I'm afraid."

Everyone followed the Koopa Ghost into the big building. Inside, they saw a party going on with a ghost DJ and a ghost with an afro perfoming some disco moves. Basically, they were just having some fun.

"This sure is some hall here. I thought it would be a meeting." Chopper gawked. "Aren't those what halls are?"

"An' how come we can't see a thing!? It ain't fair!" Yosho cried. "I wanted to get with some of the ladies here! That's my goal in life!"

"We can't see anything around here. It feels so empty." Kayzee frowned as she looked up. "But I can see a disco ball hanging from the ceiling. It looks like there's something cool here! I know what to do!"

Kayzee flew over to the disco area and began to try out some disco moves. Bruce decided he would go over and dance too. The ghosts, on the other hand, looked a little confused.

"Hey, who are those two non-ghosts dancing here?" the ghost with disembodied hands asked.

"Those are the ones that are traveling with Chopper, I think," the round black ghost answered. "But, since Chopper's a ghost right now, it's best not to make any pranks on 'em. Not a good idea at all."

"So… Where's this Ghoster guy you wanted me to go to?" Chopper asked. The Koopa Ghost told him to follow him, and he did just that. The only ones that stayed with Chopper were Bow, C-2 Choppor, and Mallow.

They were taken to a light blue ghost with antennas like Chopper, violet red eyes with some two white glitters. He was shaped a little more like an oval, but he had a tail like most ghosts. He also had two disembodied hands with three fingers and one thumb. While he doesn't have a mouth, he can speak somehow, which surprised them when they heard him speak.

"Huh? Koopost, what do you want?" Ghoster asked. "I'm having a sip of this DEEEELICIOUS soda here! This better be important, or else I'm really going to make you wet your pants. ...Hold on, you don't have any pants."

Ghoster did a sucker punch on the Koopa ghost, making him get slapped two times in the face, making him laugh stupidly.

"Ghoster… The one that you call, 'Chopper of Planet Clara' is here." Koopost informed as Ghoster was taking another sip. He spat his drink out and gasped.

"SAY WHAAAAAAT!? He IS?! Holy… Bring him over here right now! Get his friends too. No, wait. I'll take care of that." Ghoster's eyes turned to a bright blue, and the rest of Chopper's friends had a blue glow around them and were taken to Ghoster. Luckily, they were able to see the ghost.

"Hold on a minute… You have antennas just like…me…and C-2 Choppor." Chopper gaped. "What is the meaning on this?!"

"Relax, I'm not here to harm you," Ghoster assured. "I've been waiting for THE Chopper to arrive. I heard about you defeating Bowser. Unfortunately, I also heard he and that Maquano haven't given up and gave the Power Stars that belong in the Star Rod to some of Bowser's other minions. Not only that, but that Star God is still around, which is incredibly dangerous when Maquano is trying to help him become stronger."

"Yeah, we're trying to get all the Power Stars. We already got one, so that should be something good, right?"

"Of course. But, you still got six more. That's not even CLOSE! ...Hold on, I forgot to introduce myself. My name's Ghoster!" Ghoster brought his floating hand out to shake Chopper's. Both of their hands seemed to be the same size. "How 'bout a handshake, just for the heck of it?"

"Sure, I guess…" Chopper shrugged as he grabbed his hand. Ghoster smirked as Chopper felt a shock surge through him. When he let go, he began to laugh hysterically.

"Haw haw haw! Oh, I couldn't resist doing that! I mean, that's probably the oldest trick in the book! What an idiot!" Ghoster cackled before noticing Bow. "...Oh, and who's this cute little ghost girl that's with you?"

"My name is Bow," Bow introduced. "And don't try to flirt with me. I already made my decision on who I like..."

"ME!" Yosho declared.

"No..."

"Oh… Well, don't worry about that." Ghoster apologized, realizing who she meant. "Anyway, we all need a quiet place to talk. Let's go to my house, because it's not noisy there."

Ghoster used his power to change the background to a background of his house. It was like they suddenly traveled to his house without even moving. It looked like a normal house, with a bed, a desk, and even a door.

"Welcome to my house!" he welcomed. "This is where I usually spend some 'me' time. Now… Let's get to everything, shall we?"

"I don't understand how exactly there's another person with the antennas..." C-2 Choppor trailed. "I was built kind of like Chopper, and this ghost has antennas too. This is rather confusing…"

"Yes, I do find it weird. But let's cut to the chase. Now, Hauntost is up in Ghost Tower. You may think it's not so big. But, it is. They try to trick you with these switches. It'll make everything go upside down. BUT… They can be used to your advantage. There are some grind rails too that you can use. You're a good grinder, right?"

"Of course I am. I managed to get through a forest and swamp by grinding on the vines." Chopper gloated. "It was awesome."

"He speaks the truth," Mallow agreed. "I wish I could do things like that, honestly. I can't really jump. Chopper, you sure are lucky to be able to run fast and make good jumps."

"Come on, Mallow... You defeated the Poison Piranha and saved Tadpole Pond! You deserve a lot more credit than you think!"

"Really? Well thanks!"

"So, anyway, what do you want us to do, Ghoster?"

"We need to go into Ghost Tower, and find Hauntost. That's what we need to do." Ghoster explained. "If we don't do it, then we're doomed or dead."

"Which one is worse?" Parakarry asked.

"Hard to say... He's good with pranks, so he may have set up some traps in there. Getting through will be pretty tough. Even if you're a ghost, it's not easy!"

"Hold on a second… Did you just say 'we'?" Chopper blinked.

"Of course. I'm gonna come along with you. I think it's necessary for me to do this. I'm really the only one that can actually help you with Ghost Tower. Also, I can help you with my Ghost Vision to see any ghost paths to take that not even your Ghost Vision can see. Don't worry, I'll be helpful!"

"I suppose you can. Besides, another ghost means that two people can help me fight against ghosts! Yes, I'll take you with us."

"Great! Then it seems like I need to get to know everyone well. Don't worry, no pranks will be done on you. I swear."

**Ghoster joined your party! Press (v) to make Ghoster use his Ghost Vision to see anything that can't be seen, such as doors and hidden paths. While in battle, he can use his Ghost Fist on an enemy that might even confuse them or make them dizzy or use Psychic on all enemies around him to make them take damage!**

"So, you all ready? Because I'm ready to take anything on right now!" Ghoster declared as they all left Ghoster's house and went to the right, which had a closed gate. "Don't worry. I'll take care of this." he used his psychic ability to make the gate open up, which led to another spooky area. They could even see up in the sky some ghosts with spooky faces.

"It doesn't look so nice through that gate…" Parakarry trailed nervously.

"Relax, it's just evil ghosts. I can handle them no problem anyway." Ghoster assured. "I've got some psychic abilities! They can help with MANY things. Just be careful that you don't think of any nightmares. Because those nightmares might actually appear. It's like it's called **Nightmare Road**, actually."

"Don't think of anything scary? Oh… That might not be such an easy thing for me…" Kayzee trailed. "I have a lot of nightmares in my sleep."

"Then don't listen to 'em or think about 'em! It'll just make things worse! Just think about better things! I know! Flowers and rainbows! You like them, right?"

"I also love animals! Is that something?"

"Yeah, that'll work. Just. Be. Careful. OK? It's a dangerous road, and I don't want you all getting scared. You can handle it, right Chopper?"

"Of course I can. With my ghost ability on, nothing will hurt me!" Chopper declared.

"I don't think it'll work as good as it does in Ghost Yard and Ghost Town. Nightmare Road is MUCH worse than those other places. The ghosts will freakin' annihilate you! …But, you say you can do it, so I guess you can handle it."

"OK... Then let's go!"

* * *

**Nightmare Road-**

After passing through the gate, all ten people saw the gate close behind them, startling some of them. When they looked at the sky, it seemed a little strange. It looked like the sky was watery. though, it really wasn't. The moon could still be seen, and the ground was stone. It was like they traveled to another dimension or something. What made it worse was the ghosts floating above them.

"Whoa… This place suddenly changed a lot." Chopper blinked, shaking a bit. "Ghoster, is this how Nightmare Path always looked like? …Because this actually looks a lot scarier than I thought. ...Wait, I'm not scared! I'm just a little curious, that's all!"

"I warned you that this place would be kind of creepy. This _is _Nightmare Road, after all." Ghoster reminded. "Remember… Don't think of scary things. They will come to life and get you. I'm not kidding about this. I've seen it before, and it wasn't pretty."

Chopper could see some other ghosts around. Some of them were white, and some of them look like Goombas, Koopas, and even Lakitus. They seemed to be on Hauntost's side, though, and that certainly wasn't a good thing.

"I don't think this place should be a big problem for me. A Boo such as myself is never afraid of any ghosts. It's like an immunity." Bow said with a smug look.

"Uh… I don't know about you guys…but maybe we should've stayed back in Ghost Town, where it's not all like this..." Bruce trailed while sweating.

"Ghoster told us not to think of anything scary, Bruce! Calm down and don't get scared!" Parakarry cried as he shook Bruce.

"Whoa… I never knew you could act like that, Parakarry." Koopla gawked. "Does that happen all the time? Or is it something you do whenever you see someone get scared."

"I honestly have no idea... It really depends on what mood I'm in. Of course, I'm not scared, if that's what you mean." he assured until Ghoster suddenly used his psychic powers to make Parakarry's mailbag come off of him and float away from him. "Hey! Come back, mailbag! I still need to deliver some letters!"

Parakarry attempted to grab the mailbag, but it whacked him across the face, leaving him dazed.

"Haw haw haw haw! Oh, that was just GREAT!" Ghoster cackled as he clapped. "I'm sorry, Parakarry, but I love to make pranks, and I just had to do something like that. I can do other things too."

"That laugh is starting to get irritating..."

"Who wants to watch me pull my eyes out?"

"No, Ghoster. Don't try to pull your eyes out." Chopper grumbled. "I know you're a prankster, but you can't scare anyone right now. It'll give people nightmares."

"Oh, fine. I wasn't going to do that anyway." Ghoster sighed as he released Parakarry's mailbag, which he managed to grab back. "But, you know us ghosts, right? We love to scare and prank people."

"How on earth did you get psychic abilities anyway?" Mallow asked. "Not many people have them, you know. What did you used to be before you uh…died?"

"Oh, that? Honestly, I was actually born a ghost! Yeah, I'm not kidding. It's weird, but it's true. I was even born with psychic abilities as well. I was able to do something like this." Ghoster used his psychic abilities, and he made C-2 Choppor dance by doing the robot. Some of them couldn't help but find that funny.

"Whoa… You can use psychic abilities to control people too? That's pretty cool!"

"Yep, I do love 'em! I can pull pranks with these powers as well! But, I won't pull pranks that much on you, Chopper buddy. I think you're a cool guy. C-2 Choppor seems like cool guy too."

"If you think I'm cool, then why did you make me do that horrible dance?" C-2 Choppor asked as Ghoster made him stop dancing. "I'm not your little toy…"

"Sorry, Choppor. I just wanted to show everyone my psychic abilities. I can also use them to fight enemies. Yep, they can all take a hit from it. They can also work on ghosts, too."

"Y'know… If ya said that nightmares come to life…then what about makin' a lady appear to come fer me. Oh, yeah… That would be great." Yosho snickered as he pondered.

"What? Yosho, I told you, do NOT think of anything! No nightmares, or ladies, you fool! If you do, I'm going to make you wish you regretted it!" Ghoster growled as he grew a little bigger and glared angrily at Yosho.

"Eeeek! Ghoster, you're too late for that!" Kayzee gasped as she hid behind Chopper. A shadowy ghost lady appeared right in front of everyone. She even looked hotter than Bow (You decide what she looks like!). Yosho's mouth dropped to the ground.

"Whoa… She is HOT!" Yosho gasped as his eyes had hearts in them.

"_Yosho, I've come for you! Are you ready to be with me?" _the ghost asked.

"Oh, HECK YEAH!" Yosho shouted as he grabbed the ghost lady's hand and began to carry her away.

"Yosho! Don't go at all! Get back here, you idiot!" Chopper shouted, but it was too late. Yosho was already off with his new ghost girlfriend.

"Wow, he is really stupid to believe he can go out with a ghost," Koopla face palmed. "It took him THAT much to get someone to go out with him…"

"That FOOL! I told him NOT to do that! I'm going to get him back!" Ghoster roared as he used his psychic to get him back, but it didn't work. "What the... I think that nightmare's too strong..."

"What's wrong? Is there a big problem?" Kayzee asked.

"Big time. Yosho already got the nightmare with him. There's no way I'm gonna get him back. When we see him, we're going to HIT him big time! Bow, that means you can smack him as hard as you can with your fan!"

"Oh, I would love to do that! Perfect…" Bow grinned as Chopper saw an Upgrade Block near them, so he hit it to upgrade Ghoster.

Ghoster became upgraded, and he was now Super-Ranked. His attacks were able to do 5 damage last time, but now they could do 6. Also, he learned the new move Prankster, which can make him pull a prank to paralyze, confuse, or even make an enemy dizzy.

"We better go follow Yosho now," Ghoster suggested. "That idiot just won't stop thinking about being with the ladies. How stupid of him to just go away from us to be with a GHOST…"

Of course, Bow glared at him without him noticing as he took off. Everyone else kept following the path to go after Yosho. There wasn't anything invisible, so they just kept going, fighting some ghosts around. Chopper used his ghost moves to take out some of the ghosts, and Ghoster used his Ghost Fist on them to send them flying away.

"We're not going any faster!" Chopper cried. "I should just use my Speed Dash to make things quicker. This REALLY isn't working. That ghost is probably too fast for us anyway."

His feet changed to a wheel, which was usually what happens when he uses a Speed Dash. Ghoster followed him, and so did Bow and C-2 Choppor, who was right by Chopper's side, while Ghoster was on the other. The others tried to keep up as well.

"You know, I think those three will probably get along well," Koopla pondered. "They seem to be a little similar to each other, and they have their own abilities that they can use to work together. I think it's pretty interesting."

"True, but let's hope nothing bad will happen to Yosho," Bruce said worriedly. "But seriously, that was pretty stupid of him just to do that."

"Now I'm feeling a little worried…" Kayzee trailed, feeling nervous. "What if something tries to go after us?"

"Kayzee! Don't try to think of anything scary! Who knows what will happen?!" Mallow cried. "We can't let another nightmare appear!"

"I know, but I just can't stop thinking of scary things!" she began to fly up ahead. But, they noticed part of the ground around them was missing. They down the cliff a bottomless pit.

"Hold on, my Ghost Vision will give us a hand," Ghoster declared as he used his vision, and everyone could see what his was like. They saw a path to take, so they began to slowly go on that path to move on ahead. The next was kind of like a maze, so Ghoster used his Ghost Vision yet again to help them through. Luckily, they didn't run into any enemies. They heard a voice up ahead.

"Let's go! Yosho must be there!" Chopper shouted as he got out of the maze and began to keep going. He saw that the Ghost Tower wasn't too far ahead, and Yosho and the ghost were going there.

_"What do you say we go into the Ghost Tower and make out?"_ the ghost asked. _"Would you like that?" _

"Aw yeah!" Yosho grinned as he took out breath spray. "So, what do we need to do? 'Cause I'm all prepared fer somethin' like this!"

_"Well, ghosts usually drain the souls of live people so they too can become ghosts. Yup, that's how it works."_

"Yeah! That's going to be so... Wait… What? But I wanna stay alive! That's how I'm gonna stay a man!"

_"That's how a ghost does it! Now hold still and pucker up!" _Before the ghost could kiss Yosho on the lips, she got whacked away by something else…it was some kind of tentacle?

"Oh no… Could it really be?" Chopper gaped as he saw Staris land onto the ground and completely destroy the ghost.

"Aw, come on! The only lady I find ends up gettin' destroyed by somethin' made out of..."

_**SMACK!**_

The powerful smack from Staris was able to send Yosho flying back to the group, but they were too busy gawking over Staris.

"What's HE doing here?" Bow gasped.

"Who is this thing?" Mallow asked. "Is this the Star God you've been talking about, Chopper?"

"That IS Staris… Yes, it's pretty bad now, isn't it?" Chopper sighed as Staris turned to him and his friends. Thankfully, he didn't transform into anything new.

Yet.

Staris took out a TV screen set. Maquano appeared on it. From what Chopper could tell, they were not happy to see him alive.

_"Yes… You really think Staris would be defeated so easily?"_ Maquano barked._ "It'll be over when he's got all seven Star Spirit's powers! Once he's invincible, this world is done for! Now, Staris... Why don't you get a Star Spirit for yourself?"_

Staris nodded and used his power to summon one of the Star Spirits. It was none other than Muskular, the Star Spirit saved from the Mechanical Box.

"Wait... What's going on?!" the Star Spirit turned around and noticed Staris. "Staris? No… You still won't give up?"

It was too late for Muskular. Staris grabbed him, and suddenly, he began to absorb his powers, creating a flash.

"Whoa... What's going on?!" Ghoster gaped.

"He's transforming again!" Chopper gasped.

After the big flash, Staris's tentacles were gone, and his tail was much longer, like a Raptor's tail. His arms looked more muscular, and his claws were curved more to make them deadlier and giving him an additional finger, making him have three fingers and a thumb. Staris also has some curved spikes on his back, too, by his shoulders. Now that Muskular was no longer in Staris's grasps, he was able to fly away before getting caught in more trouble.

_"Ah, yes! Staris has gotten four Star Spirits! He is more than halfway invincible!"_ Maquano cackled._ "There is absolutely no way you can beat him when he has fully transformed. None will defeat him!"_

"Oh, yeah? I'll take on Staris right now!" Chopper declared. "We'll all take him on! How does THAT sound? OK? All right, then! We'll take him!"

"Wait, WHAT? What about the Ghost Tower?" Ghoster asked.

"This guy's in our way. We gotta beat him first, and then we can go to the Ghost Tower. I hate it when we have these guys in our way…"

**Tattle: **_That's Staris. Oh my gosh… He's gotten to his fourth transformation already! That's bad news, Chopper! Max HP: 90, Attack Power: 9, Defense Power: 2. He doesn't have those tentacles, but he's got those deadly claws he could use to destroy you! He's not going to heal like before, but he'll surely attack with other methods. Be careful with that tail fin he's got. That looks threatening...  
_

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce on Staris. After about ten stomps, he stopped, and needed to relax.

"Wow… He's still got two defense points. That's pretty bad for us…" Chopper sighed.

"At least my attacks can harm him," C-2 Choppor assured as he aimed at Staris and fired at him, which made him explode, but he rose back up again as usual. Staris spun around, his fists stretching out, and coming toward Chopper. He began to guard the attacks coming at him, and he only took 3 damage, to his relief.

Chopper walked over to Staris 4 and used his D-Down Pound. It didn't do that much, but once Mallow used his Thunderbolt on Staris, it thankfully did more damage. Staris simply whacked Chopper using his new tail and knocked away Chopper's Ghost ability.

"Aw, man! He got my ghost ability!" Chopper cried. "Well, he's not a ghost, so I shouldn't be too worried about this fight."

Chopper walked over to Staris and used his Mega Smash to take away 8 from him.

"All right, time I made an attack!" Ghoster punched Staris with his Ghost Fist. However, it wasn't as deadly as Mallow's Thunderbolt, which wasn't too surprising. "Aw, man! I was hoping I would be able to do more. Maybe if he had something, I could use it against him."

Staris fired a Star Beam directly at Chopper, who guarded the attack, only taking 10 damage. Chopper went back to using his Power Bounce on Staris 4 and stomped on him thirteen times.

"Wow, did I do that many Power Bounces? Man, it's like I'm on fire today!" Chopper smiled.

"And it's time I blew this Star God up!" Bruce walked over to Staris and used his Bomb on him to explode, leaving the Star God with 30 HP. That's when Staris turned into three water balls and attacked Chopper. Each did 3 damage, but he guarded one of them, luckily.

"Staris sure isn't going easy on us like before," Chopper frowned. "I mean, he's really attacking us here! I never knew he'd be this threatening!"

Chopper walked over to Staris 4 and he used his D-Down Pound on him, and then Yosho came down on him with his Ground Pound. Staris stretched his arm out to punch Chopper, but he ended up hitting Yosho instead, because Chopper ducked down.

"Well, he deserved to get hit like that after what he did…" Ghoster shrugged.

"Ehhhh... I don't know about that." Chopper frowned. "Not everyone deserves pain..."

Chopper shot an ice ball at Staris, and then C-2 Choppor attacked with his yellow blast attack, leaving Staris with only 10 HP. This made Staris shoot another Star Beam at Chopper like in Bowser's Castle. Luckily, he guarded this one too, but, he still took 10 damage.

"Now let's finish this up!" Chopper brought his hammer out, and he used his D-Down Pound to hit him.

"How about I do the job!" Ghoster flew toward Staris and attacked him with his Ghost Fist. Once his fist hit Staris, he exploded, giving Chopper 34 Star Points.

* * *

**Yeah, not the best way to end this part, but oh well. I can't really say much, considering that I'm not a huge fan of Chapter 10. :P  
**

**Next time, we explore Ghost Tower and see where Hauntost is lurking!**


	56. What's in Ghost Tower Stays There

"Yeah! We did it!" Chopper cheered as he gave a thumbs up.

"And it was all thanks to me!" Ghoster declared. "Awesome!"

_"Hm? So you defeated Staris? Not bad…"_ Maquano trailed. _ "He is rather strong when he's transformed like that. I guess you are improving in skill, I'll give you that." _

"You and Bowser are still at it again? Seriously… It's all over for you." Chopper stated. "You should just stop now and leave me alone already. Peach is already saved, and you can't become invincible like before."

_"Look, Bowser and I are planning right now. Plus, the only way that we could get Peach is by destroying you! No, I have no plans for Peach, but Bowser does. So he can have her. I just want to destroy you and all mankind here. After that, I'll destroy the universe! That would be a good goal for me…despite the fact that many villains do that."_

Staris began to rise up from his puddle, making Chopper shoot an ice ball at him, but he brought his arm up, and his hand seemed to grab the ice ball and give him a new power.

"Wait a minute… Since when can Staris absorb powers like that? He didn't do that before…"

_"Oh, yes… His fourth transformation also lets him absorb any power that you inflict onto him. I thank you for giving him that ice. Now he's grown even stronger! However, because you already won the fight, I'll let you go. Perhaps next time he'll use that new power!"  
_

Staris grabbed the TV screen and closed it. He sunk down into a puddle and disappeared out of their sight, like he evaporated or something.

"Whoa… Did you see that? That Star God just absorbed some of Chopper's Elemental Hand abilities!" Mallow gaped.

"Staris can be tough sometimes, but if we have a way to beat him, then we'll use that method on him," Koopla pondered. "It's not really hard to hurt him anyway. Just use any attack you want on him. Fire may not do much, though."

"Yep, he is indeed kind of threatening. But, now that THAT'S over…" Chopper turned to Yosho with a glare. "Yosho, don't just abandon us! You would seriously go with some ghost lady you don't know over people that you DO know?"

"What? You know me. I'm a lady's man." Yosho declared. "I gotta do what I gotta do!"

Ghoster face palmed used his psychic abilities to make him hit himself. "Ow! Eee! Oof! Ah! Gah! What! The! Heck! Is! Goin'! On!?"

"That's what happens when you screw things up. I'm sorry, but you deserved to have that coming after that incident."

"Maybe we should not be harsh on him," Kayzee suggested. "That's how he is, and just doing things like that to him is so mean… What if someone did that to you?"

"I don't actually want to hurt him," Chopper explained. "I was kind of scolding him for what he did, that's all. I wouldn't hurt a friend..."

"Yeah, listen to Kayzee. I'm the cool guy, and I think yer all bein' a little too harsh on me." Yosho agreed.

"Don't worry about it," Chopper assured he as jumped onto Yosho's back. "Let's just go. There's a big wall in our way anyway, so only you can jump that."

"Oh, all right," Yosho jumped over the wall that was blocking the way to Ghost Tower. Chopper got off Yosho after landing and read the sign that was by the next pathway.

_To Ghost Tower. None are allowed in here! So scram!_

"That Hauntost really thinks we can't go on through, huh? Well, that's not stopping us!" Chopper walked toward the path, but he bumped into something invisible. "What the… I can feel something here. What the heck is this? It's so…weird!" he began to kick and punch it, but nothing happened. Ghoster used his Ghost Vision to see if anything was hidden. Apparently, there was another hidden wall.

"Ah, I see the problem. Gotta go through this wall." Ghoster noticed. "Hauntost isn't as dumb as you think he is."

With that, Bow grabbed Chopper and made him invisible and took him through the invisible wall. She helped the others through as well. There, they all saw a tall tower right by them. There wasn't much around, but there surely must be something in there.

"So… Now that we're out of Nightmare Road, how about we go into this tower already?" Chopper suggested as he walked over to the door and opened it. Through the door was a portal, which surprised everyone.

"What IS that?" Bruce gawked before he tripped, making him and Chopper fall right into the tower. What was weird was that they felt like they were in two dimensions when they fell.

"Danger… We must follow them in there." C-2 Choppor suggested as he went into the tower, with Bow following. Ghoster grabbed Yosho and they went in, followed by the rest of the group.

"Well, I guess this is going to be fun..." Parakarry trailed.

* * *

**Inside Ghost Tower-**

Once they came out, they saw the background was a black color, and the moon had changed to a dark yellow color. There was also some dark red in the sky and some dark white clouds. It seemed like it was like a castle inside. They were even on some kind of weird path with loops around.

"Hold on a minute… THIS is the Ghost Tower?" Chopper blinked. "But this whole place doesn't look like a tower at all!"

"I never expected it to be like this," Ghoster shrugged. "Maybe Hauntost is someplace around these parts. We would have to take a good look around here if we want to find him, thought."

"Good idea. Let's go check around here." Chopper started off by walking around the pathway. They could see a door up ahead with some ghost enemies that could paralyze them with their tongue, but Ghoster and Bow managed to take care of them. Afterward, Chopper opened the door, and he found some Metal Blocks surrounding a green ! switch. After smashing them, he jumped on the green ! switch.

"Huh…?" Everything went white for a second, and all ten of them landed on the ground. However, something didn't seem right...

"Wait a minute… What just happened?" Chopper gawked.

Mallow looked up, and he saw the green ! switch on the ceiling. "Chopper… I think this whole place went upside down! Even look up to see for yourself!"

Everyone else looked up, and they also saw the switch.

"Whoa… Everything DID change…" Ghoster gaped. "How come I never knew about this? !"

Chopper saw up ahead they had to jump up onto a high ledge, so he got on Yosho to jump up to the ledge to another area, which had a dark green ground.

"Hold on a minute. I need my Ghost Vision for this." Ghoster used his Ghost Vision, and he could see a loop going into another castle area. Everyone could see it as well.

"A loop? Oh, this is just my lucky day…" Chopper smiled as he began to run through the loop and to another castle room where the loop led into through a window. Everyone followed him into the window, and when they landed in the small round room, they saw nothing around. But, once Ghoster used his Ghost Vision, he saw a green ! switch in the room.

"Ah! Here it is!" Ghoster hit the switch, and everything began to blank out for a second. Everyone began land on the ground again, but unlike before, they were standing on a brown ground.

"Whoa… That was interesting." Chopper blinked. "Everything flipped upside down for a second, and now everything's back to normal. I actually like this place!"

"Yes, it's cool. But be careful for anything around here. My Ghost Vision can help you find anything Hauntost laid down for us to be fooled. Look at your surroundings, and be very VERY careful. They can be ANYWHERE…"

"There's another loop thing? Man, when do I get to get a part?" Yosho asked until he realized something. "Wait… I DID have my part just a little earlier. Let's hope the rest of the place won't have many ghosts to scare us."

"Don't worry about it. We haven't had any surprise us in a while." Chopper began to walk out of the castle building, and a ghost appeared right in front on him. This ghost was a gray color, and it had black eyes, and it kind of looked like a Boo.

Ghoster used his psychic to get rid of the ghost by making it explode. "All right, we can keep going now."

Chopper nodded, and he began to run down the slope that led to the loop he went around. There was a ramp he used to jump off to help him. Everyone else followed, not taking the loop with the exception of C-2 Choppor and Kayzee. They all jumped off the ramp with Chopper, ready to find out what would be up ahead.

Once they all landed on the ground, they found a door up ahead. Apparently, it had a lock on it, so there was no way to get through. Some ghosts were around, but they couldn't find a secret path. C-2 Choppor began to scan the area, looking for anything hidden. Sadly, he did not get any readings on his scanner.

"There are no hidden things around here I'm afraid. Hauntost must be fooling us." C-2 Choppor informed.

"What makes you think that he's tryin' to fool us? I don't really see anythin' around here." Yosho frowned until he noticed a coin lying on the ground. "He-Hey! Look who's lucky now!"

He walked over to the coin and tried to pick it up. Sadly, the coin was stuck to the ground, which made it difficult for Yosho to grab. He tried so hard to pick it up, and he was failing miserably.

"Come on, you stupid coin! Let me pick you up already!" Yosho growled as he used he tongue to get it off, but he couldn't. Once he noticed the coin was floating, his tongue went back into his mouth and gulped.

"What in the…" the coin began to float away from him toward the cliff. Yosho began to go after the coin, but he fell through the ground.

"GyaaaAAAahhhhhh!" they could all hear a big thud and some moaning. "Don't worry! I'm all right!"

"I hope he is. In fact, how did he fall through the floor in the first place?" Chopper wondered as Ghoster changed to his Ghost Vision and saw a hole through the ground.

"Whoa, I think Yosho discovered something. This is pretty interesting." Ghoster gasped as he went down the hole with everyone else. They saw in the balcony of that castle room another green ! switch.

"There's that switch again…" Chopper sighed. "Should we hit it? Or should we just leave it like before." Everyone else agreed that they should hit it, so Chopper whacked it with his hammer, making everything change again.

Kayzee was floating by the ground due to her floating, and she saw Chopper go up onto the ceiling, who happened to land on a rail that appeared to be under the loop. C-2 Choppor landed on that too. Mallow, on the other hand, was shaking in fear.

"Whoa! I'm not liking this at all!" Mallow cried as he ended up landing on the rail and got off of it, due to not knowing how to grind on the rail. Only Chopper and C-2 Choppor were grinding on it. They rest passed through the loop without using the rail, to their relief, especially people like Kayzee and Parakarry, who could fly.

They were able to go on one of the big castle pillars, and some ghosts appeared on them. Luckily, everyone got there, and Bow and Ghoster attacked them with their abilities. After that, a platform came toward them, so they all got on it to be taken all the way to another pillar. Unfortunately, they didn't see anything else around.

"Man, why isn't there anything around here?" Chopper wondered. "Do we need to keep using your Ghost Vision, Ghoster?"

"I'm afraid so. Let me use it right now." Ghoster saw a corkscrew when using his Ghost Vision. Everyone else could see it too, so Chopper went through the corkscrew using his speed and landed in a room he couldn't get out of. He could see there was no ceiling, but there's a Tower Key and also a green ! switch. Once everyone else came in, Chopper took the key, and then Kayzee punched the green ! switch, which made everything go go right side up. It seemed that they were back in the area where Yosho got pranked.

"What the… How did we get back to this place? I don't get this one bit…" Yosho trailed as he began to scratch his head in confusion. Chopper remembered about the key, so he walked over to the door and unlocked it with his key.

"All right, now the door's open. We can go in there now." Chopper declared as they all went through the door and found themselves in a hallway. Ghosts could be seen around going through walls. Some were even making pranks on each other.

"Ghosts makes pranks on each other?" Mallow gawked.

"That doesn't make sense..." Bruce trailed.

"Or are they just playing?" Kayzee wondered.

But the one thing that they saw that got their attention was a rope and a little note. Chopper saw this and walked over to it.

"Hmmm… I just don't trust this rope." Chopper frowned. "If we pull it, I bet something might happen!"

_Pull the lever for a prize!_

"Oh no… I'm not falling for a trick like that. Hauntost can't fool me." Chopper declared as he stepped back. "Guys, I don't recommend pulling this. I bet it's a prank!"

"Well if we're all standing back, I bet we can find out what it does with my psychic abilities," Ghoster used his psychic abilities to make the rope pull down, and an anvil fell on Yosho.

"Oh my god! Is he all right?" Koopla gaped.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Yosho winced. "Just a little…nose problem, that's all. I'm still workin' fine fer the ladies…"

Kayzee moved the anvil aside and picked Yosho up. "Why are you always being targeted? That's just mean!"

With that, they kept on walking through the hall until they got to the door. Once Chopper opened it, they proceeded on. When they came out of the door, they found an Upgrade Block, so Chopper hit the block and upgraded Ghoster to Ultra-Rank. Now he could do 7 damage, and also use the move Ghost Ball, which allows him to hurl a ball of ghost energy at an enemy, lowering their defense.

"Yeah! Ultra Rank for me!" Ghoster declared. "Nice!"

They found a path going down up ahead, so Chopper began to run down it. He began to see a grind rail as he turned to the north and then to the left. He decided to go down it, which seemed to be going down some sort of circle. To everyone, it felt confusing.

"Hmmm… Not much there. But I might as well go down too." C-2 Choppor shrugged as he took the rail down, with Ghoster following from behind.

"This is a pretty annoying place, you know," Bruce groaned. "This place has a lot of stuff, but it's so confusing!"

"I wouldn't worry much on this place, Bruce," assured Parakarry. "We can probably get through here. I'm just confused on why it's like this."

Chopper managed to find another green ! switch right by a very long castle way down. Once he hit it, he found himself going down the exterior of one of the towers. C-2 Choppor followed beside him to the right thanks to his jetpack, and Ghoster followed to the left. Everyone else ended up falling.

"Whoa, this is pretty weird," Chopper gaped. "We're going down a castle tower of some sort. Although, I'll admit this is actually pretty cool!"

"Look over there! I see a portal up ahead. I wonder where that leads to." Ghoster wondered as Chopper ran down at a greater speed, catching up to the others that were falling.

"Well, I gotta admit. I never suspected a place like this. But, that portal must mean we're getting rather close to getting out of here. I'm pleased with that." Bow sighed.

"Yep, it's awesome. I can actually get out of here!" Yosho grinned began to dive down into the portal, as well as Kayzee, who was diving much faster with her flying. Chopper ran in next, and then C-2 Choppor and Ghoster did as well.

"Looks like it's my turn to go in," Bow declared as she flew right in, followed by Mallow. Bruce was the last one to go into the portal, unfortunately, due to him being a little lighter. Thankfully, the portal closed before any ghosts could get in, who noticed them escape into the portal.

"Hold on a minute… Did they…just make it out of this place?" a ghost gaped. "Uh oh… If Hauntost finds out they made it through there, then it's all over! He's got the Power Star that they need, and they'll take it from him!"

"Wait, they DID?! Oh, crud… That's not good." another ghost gulped. "They actually MADE it into the tower for real this time. Yeah, they thought that the tower has all of this and it's not real at all. They'll be wrong once they come out of there… Hauntost really needs to be careful now."

"But Hauntost is tough! I think he can take 'em on!"

"Yeah, let's hope..."

* * *

**Yup, beware of Hauntost's pranks. Speaking of that...next chapter is boss chapter! Be prepared for some action...and then another funny interlude involving Bob.**


	57. Hauntost: Battle of the Pranksters

Another portal opened up in a dark room, and out came Chopper and his friends. The portal closed afterward, so there was no turning back now. The tower looked pretty old, which explained why there was a table being covered by a white sheet. Since it was dark, no one could see what was going on. Thankfully, C-2 Choppor used his light visors to see everything around. They couldn't tell what the colors of the walls were, but the darkness showed that it was gray.

"Hmmm… It seems there's a spiral staircase," C-2 Choppor noticed. "We're getting near, everyone. So we better get ready."

Chopper hit the Heart Block and the Save Block, and he began to go up the tower. After climbing up to the top, they could see a locked door. Apparently, there was a key on a brick block. None of them could get it, unfortunately.

"Hold on a minute," Chopper changed to his Yo-yo ability and used it to reach the Tower Key. Afterward, he removed his power. "All right, let's go in."

Chopper unlocked the door, and they all went in, where they found themselves in an old room with spider webs on the corners of the ceilings. The ground was made of wood, and there were some boxes around. It looks like an abandoned haunted house.

"Whoa… Would you look at this place... This sure has a lot for an old place." Koopla gawked. "It even has a couch, a mirror, and even a television. This Hauntost sure does love these kinds of things."

"I think we better be careful here. It doesn't seem so…safe." Mallow said worriedly before the door immediately shut behind them. "I jinxed that!"

"Oh, I don't like the sound of that. Did the door just close on us?" Yosho frowned. "Man, that's cold!"

"Let me see if I can find anything around here," Kayzee began to use her vision that allows her to see through things, kind of like X-ray vision. Unfortunately, she didn't see a single enemy around.

"X-ray vision's not going to help. My Ghost Vision can help us." Ghoster assured as he began to use his Ghost Vision, and once he did that, they could see a dark purple ghost with curved spikes on his head, a tail like other ghosts, two fangs, disembodied hands with three fingers and one thumb and yellow eyes.

"Hee hee hee hee hee hee… Welcome to my Ghost Tower!" Hauntost snickered. "I'm quite impressed that you've made it all the way here! My name is Hauntost, and I'm the scariest ghost in this entire place! Haw haw!"

"You don't scare me at all," Bow scoffed. "What kind of ghost tries to be scary when he doesn't look scary at all?"

"Yeah, Bow's right. You're not scary. But, enough of that. We need that Power Star right away! So give it to us!" Chopper declared as he had his hand out, waiting for the Power Star.

"Oh, OK! Here you go!" Hauntost gave Chopper a yellow star. Once Chopper looked at it, he shook his head, realizing there was some kind of trick.

"Hey, mind if you hold onto this for a second? I need to get something out. Just for a quick second."

"All right, if you insist," Hauntost smiled as he received the star back from Chopper, but then he opened his eyes after realizing what he did before there was an explosion.

"You honestly think I would be fooled so easily? We want the REAL one!" Chopper declared, getting in a fighting stance with his friends.

"There's no way I'd give the Power Star to you!" Hauntost growled. "King Bowser ordered me to hold onto it, and if he said you showed up, I'd take care of you! Of course, you're here now. So it looks like I have my chance of fighting you! Don't think you can hurt me, because ghosts can't be hit by anything living! Haw haw haw!"

"Then let's just do this!"

**Tattle: **_That's Hauntost. He's the leader of the evil ghosts, as well as a minion of Bowser's and likes to joke around, apparently. Max HP: 100, Attack Power: 10. Defense Power: 1. He'll use a lot of nasty traps on you, and he might even try to put you to sleep. Be careful if you become asleep. Why? Because if you do, he'll eat your dreams to recover his own HP. You don't want that now, do you? He may also try to scare your partners. Since he's a ghost, your attacks may not do much. Use your Ghost ability and have Ghoster out. That'll make things easier for you!_

Chopper became Ghost Chopper and used his Power Bounce on him. After about seven times, he stopped, and he let Ghoster attack with his Ghost Fist, leaving Hauntost shocked.

"Wha… Whaaaat? How the heck are you able to hurt me?!" Hauntost gaped. "Oh, dang… Ghost ability! Well, I can still hurt you. But… That's still bad news for me…"

Hauntost made a rope appear and pulled it. An anvil came down on Chopper, but he was lucky enough to guard the attack.

"You're going to need to try more than that to hit me!" Chopper scoffed as he punched Hauntost with his Ghost Punch attack, knocking Hauntost away a little.

"Oof! Not bad… You seem to know how to fight against a ghost. I'll give you that." Hauntost cringed as he also got hit by Ghoster's Ghost Fist. "Hmmm… Let me think who you are. You're Ghoster, right? I heard about you. Man, you think you can top me, huh? Too bad you WON'T."

"I think I can! Try anything!" Ghoster declared as Hauntost tried to punch him, but he was able to dodge the attack easily.

"Thanks for dodging that, Ghoster!" Chopper smiled as he shot an ice ball at Hauntost, which could hit him since it's also a ghost attack with his ability on. Ghoster made his attack as well, and he hit Hauntost, who decided to punch Chopper with his fists and succeeded.

Chopper jumped right back onto Hauntost, and he began to perform his Power Bounce once again. Successfully stomping on him eight times, he had his thumbs up.

"Ah, good! Hauntost is coming down smoothly! Good work, Chopper!" Parakarry commented. Sadly, only Ghoster was the one who could help help in this fight, but then again… Ghoster had his Ghost Ball.

"I think I should make this easier," Ghoster stated as he charged up a ball of ghost energy and fired it at Hauntost, which did a good 8 damage and lowered his defense, leaving him wide open for Bow's Smack or Fan Smack.

"Grrr! This is unbelievable!" Hauntost growled as he appeared right in front of Chopper and began to use his Hypnosis on him. Luckily, Chopper guarded it and didn't fall asleep.

"Oh, good. You didn't fall asleep." Ghoster sighed. "If you did, he'd try to heal himself by eating your dreams. Yes, it's pretty scary, actually."

"Oh, good thing I didn't fall asleep," Chopper sighed in relief as he shot a fireball at Hauntost, and since his defense was lowered to 0, Bow got ready to attack.

"Now I can actually become useful here," Bow grinned as she took her fan out and smacked the heck out of Hauntost five times with her Fan Smack ability.

"Whoa… That did a lot to me." Hauntost gulped. "Hold on a minute. There's no way I'm letting them win so easily!"

He attacked Chopper with his fists, which he failed to guard, so Chopper jumped on Hauntost with a simple Jump attack. Ghoster also attacked, and he used his Ghost Fist to give him a good punch, leaving him with only 18 HP.

Hauntost pulled the rope again, and this time a fireball came down on Chopper. He was able to guard this attack like before. Unfortunately, Hauntost's defense went back to normal, but it didn't stop Chopper from punching him with his Ghost Punch, while Ghoster attacked with his Ghost Fist.

"You guys are actually doing a good job!" Bruce complimented. "He's not too far from being defeated!"

Hauntost began to pant, but he tried to make Chopper fall asleep. He failed once again, making it feel like it was over.

"Fine! Go ahead and do it!" Hauntost growled. "You want that Power Star so badly? Then finish me off!"

"OK..." Chopper shrugged as he shot an ice ball at Hauntost, while Ghoster finished him off with his Ghost Fist. With that, Chopper got 39 Star Points and leveled up. He chose to upgrade his BP to 30.

"_**GAAAAAAH!**_" Hauntost screamed as he began to fade away. The only thing that was left behind was the Power Star.

"Well now… We certainly took care of him, huh?" Ghoster sighed. "You know, it was fun going with you, Chopper. You mind if I travel along with you? You and me? Good pals?"

"OK, we could sure use some help along the way. Go right ahead." Chopper nodded.

"Good! Now… Let's get what you need and get out of here pronto!" Chopper agreed to his ghost friend and picked up the Power Star. The Star Rod came out, and the Power Star went into the Star Rod, giving the Star Rod some more power and also making its color become less dully.

**You got the second Power Star! Only five more remain…**

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_With Hauntost out of the picture, Chopper was able to get the second Power Star from him. Not only that, but he also made a new friend, Ghoster, another ghost friend that is more than happy to travel along with Chopper. With nine party members, this couldn't get any better for our hero. But, Bowser and Maquano still watch over to see what he's doing, and are most likely angry. But, they might have other plans… What exactly could they have opened for Chopper?_

While Chopper put away the Star Rod, Bow noticed a pink wisp that was getting in her face.

"Shoo!" Bow shouted as she tried to swat it away. Sadly, her efforts failed and made everything in her sight fade away.

* * *

**Star Haven, past-**

Once her vision went back to normal, she noticed that she was in Star Haven. Up ahead over a bridge was the place C-2 Choppor had seen before with all the Star Kids playing in the water.

"What's this now? I don't know where I am, but I better go find out right now." Bow pondered as she floated over the bridge while looking at all the things around her. Up the stairs, she could hear a voice.

"Hmmm…" she turned invisible and floated up the stairs to see a familiar Star Spirit she had seen before.

"Ah, it just feels so great to be here," Skolar sighed, looking up at a yellow watery ball at the top of the shrine. "Star God, I just hope that these Star Kids will forever stay happy, and you will care for them deeply."

Bow looked shocked to see green eyes appear, but the scariest part was that it seemed like the eyes were looking at her.

_"Could that actually be Staris?"_ Bow thought._ "What's he doing here? In fact, where are all of my friends? Where is Chopper?"_

"Huh? Someone else is here?" Skolar turned around, who happened to see Bow invisible. "Hello there, what are you doing here?"

"Well… I just heard a voice, and I came up here to see you were here. Who is in that core?" Bow asked as she became visible.

"Why, it's the guardian of all the Stars! You can only see his eyes here. He's all around you, to tell you the truth."

"I'm also confused… How are you able to see me? Is this Star Haven?"

"Of course you're in Star Haven! And how can I see you? Well, you're right there… What kind of question is that, though?"

"I'm not fully sure. But, this place is just interesting…" Bow smiled until she noticed her vision began to fade away again. "_**NOO!**_"

She tried to fight back, but in the end, her efforts failed.

* * *

**Not necessarily a long chapter, but it's something at least. Guess there's only ONE prankster this time. Yes Ghoster, you got your spot back for pranking. So, congratulations.**

**So far, only C-2 Choppor, Koopla, Kayze, and Bow have seen this kind of vision. I wonder who might be next...but we'll get to that later. Next chapter contains Bob doing more stupid stuff to Maquano.**


	58. Chapter 10 Interlude

Up in Maquano's Castle, Maquano was leaning back on a chair and asleep. It seemed to be his own private room where he would think of plans. Bowser was in the room next door, having some delicious food, and Kammy and Camikon were having a magic duel against each other because they want to practice. It was definitely a glorious day in the castle.

However, someone opened Maquano's door, but he didn't really notice because he was sleeping. Bob came in with a big speaker and a radio.

"Man, this is going to be the BEST!" Bob cackled as he made sure the volume was turned all the way up and played the song. Loud, death metal music began to play out.

"GAAAAH!" Maquano screamed as he got up before noticing Bob with the radio. "Bob! How did you get in here?! And why do you have that thing on?!"

"WHAT?" Bob shouted, due to the speakers being at full volume. Maquano simply fired dark energy at the radio and destroyed it.

"Now, WHY are you in my castle?!"

"I was bored, so I wanted to use my radio to wake someone up," Bob shrugged. "I thought maybe I could use it while you were asleep. Maybe it's for trashing my bike…which is thankfully fixed."

"You were revving your motorcycle when I was giving a big speech. I had to do something about it, you idiot."

"I loved that motorcycle, and you trashed it! I'm glad I got that thing fixed. While I was heading here, I drove through the city and made so much noise! Yup, me and my buds are gonna be going out again to make some noise."

Bob began to make motorcycle sounds at Maquano's face until Bowser stormed in and punched Bob out the window.

"_**NOOOOOOOO!**_" Bob cried as he fell out the window, which was at a high floor.

"THANK YOU for getting rid of him!"

"Gah ha ha ha ha! Oh, I do enjoy a good punch!" Bowser cackled. "Do you really care if I used your brother as a punching bag?"

"I don't mind at all. I hate him and wish to get rid of him one day. Then I can finally in peace when making my evil plans."

"Your Wretchedness! Terrible news!" Kammy cried as she came into the room.

"What is it, Kammy?" Bowser asked. "You better say something important. I'm kind of busy right now."

"Hauntost has been defeated, and Chopper has gotten the second Power Star!"

"What?! Say it ain't so! Chopper's got his second Power Star? Gah! I thought that ghost would be able to do it! Dang!"

"BUT… We found out where the next Power Star is." she mentioned. "It's in a place called **Star Forest**, where it's said some shooting stars go to. Outside the forest is a place called **Star Hill**. We don't know where the Power Star is, but it's said it's somewhere there."

Maquano suddenly remembered something. There was a robot he remembered seeing in the City of Flowersville. He remembered him holding a star and using its power. For some reason, he felt like he actually sent him somewhere there, considering Bowser never knew about Star Forest or Star Hill.

"Gah… I know who might have it, but he's no longer on our side," Maquano realized. "But, no matter. It might be best to send in some minions to get Chopper. Star Hill does have a forest maze, and it's not easy to get out. But… I know that I sent a robot that attacked the City of Flowersville there. I didn't INTEND to do that, but it ended up happening."

"So you're saying that a robot that once belonged to you is in that forest?" Bowser pondered. "Well, if he's going after Chopper, then let him."

"You don't understand. He left me saying that he could do better than me. All of those years…or rather two years, he tried to go after Chopper himself. He did pretty bad all those times and usually got beaten. I mean, I've been a lot better than him those years! If he SOMEHOW manages to destroy Chopper, that's bad for us. He could become the strongest robot in the universe..."

"Show me this robot that you had. I wanna see what he looks like." Maquano led Bowser out of the room and went through the hallway to a big door, which opened up on its own. Camikon was in the room as well, working on a few things. This room had a big terminal up on the wall.

"Lord Maquano! What on earth are you doing here?" Camikon squawked. "I thought you were sleeping right now..."

"Camikon, get the terminal to Project MC," Maquano ordered.

"What? But you said we'd never look back at that project! You know what happened before, right?"

"I said do it!" Maquano's intimidating look made Camikon go to Project M.C. When Bowser got a good glimpse at the project, he was surprised.

"Whoa… You're telling me THAT'S the robot you were talking about? He's got the third Power Star?" Bowser gaped.

"I'm afraid so. But, I'd actually like to see Chopper beat him down. It would be nice to see how he reacts when he's defeated. Heh heh heh… What do you say we just watch what's going on with them right now?"

"Gwa ha ha ha! Are you kidding? Of course I'd like to see what Chopper's up to! Maybe that thing can show what Mario's up to also! Man, he's been at the Beanbean Kingdom for a while! Oh well… Makes it all the better for me!"

"Excellent," Maquano had Camikon go to the button where they could see what Chopper was up to. Now they could get a good look at what he was planning on doing next.

* * *

**Ghost Pass-**

Everyone ran as fast as they could out of Ghost Pass, attempting to escape as quickly as possible. However, Bow recalled seeing a vision before and wished to tell Chopper.

"Chopper, I felt like I saw something after you got the Power Star," she recalled. "It seemed like what Koopla and Kayzee were talking about, actually."

"This again?" Chopper sighed. "Man, you three girls sure have seen something weird. Maybe it was some kind of dream? I don't know, but that's what it sounds like..."

"I'm not kidding. This actually happened. A wisp floated to me, and it took me to Star Haven. I even saw Skolar and Staris there!"

"You saw it too?" Koopla gawked. "It's like only us girls saw this. I don't know why we only saw it, but I think it's kind of weird. Hold on, didn't C-2 Choppor see it?"

"I remember seeing an evil fiery monster threatening a Star Spirit about the Star Spirit," Kayzee recalled. "It was a terrible sight, and I knew I couldn't do anything about it."

"Uh… How about we just get out of here and see what it's like around where you guys travel." Ghoster suggested. "I'm pretty curious to see what it would be like."

"Right! We gotta go back to Toad Town! Let's go!" Chopper declared as he began to speed out of Ghost Pass with his friends.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

After a while, they made it back to Toad Town. But the weird thing was that everyone was paralyzed. By a house near Merlon's house, they saw a female Toad that wasn't paralyzed like the others.

"What the… All of the Toads aren't moving! Something's not right…" Mallow trailed.

"I'm surprised you all aren't all frozen like this," the female Toad noticed. "Since the day a shooting star fell into the forest by Shooting Star Summit, arrows have been showering our town!"

Unfortunately, she ended up getting hit by an arrow as well.

"Whoa, we gotta be careful! Guys… Into that house!" Chopper cried as he opened the door and went in with everyone to a room with a brown floor and brown walls. They all saw small Toad known as Gaz playing with a couple of figures. He had a Mario, a Bowser, and a Princess Peach doll.

"Mario, HELP!" Gaz cried as he tried to imitate the voices. He picked up the Bowser one. "Mwa ha ha…hey Mario! I'll be taking care of Princess Peach now."

"Boing, boing… SUPER JUMP ATTACK!" he cried as he made the Mario doll jump over to Bowser, but the Bowser figure knocked the Mario one away by the stairs, making Chopper face palm.

"Guwa ha! You think you can hurt me with your childish pranks? Attention, Peach! You're comin' with ME! Don't think you're getting out of this!"

"HELP! HAAALP! Somebody, please HELP me! HAAAAL…" Gaz paused as he turned around and saw Chopper and his friends. "Oh my gosh! Umm… Did you hear all of that? Wait a minute! You're the kid from before! I can't believe you actually stopped Bowser! Mom! Look!"

"Yes, dear, I hear you…" Gaz's mother replied as she walked over to her son. "Hello th…ere… Why…aren't you Chopper! The one who saved Peach from the sky?"

"Yep, that's me," Chopper nodded.

"Hey, maybe you can play with me," Gaz suggested. "I'm an only child and all, and I think you have a little time to play!"

"OK, sure!"

"He's really going to play with this kid?" Ghoster whispered.

"I suppose so…" C-2 Choppor trailed.

"So um…you can be Bowser…" Gaz trailed. "I'll be **Geno**, okay?"

"Wait... _Geno?_"

"Ready? Let's play from where I left off! All set?" Chopper nodded as he made the Bowser doll jump up, making some roaring sounds.

"Ooh, scary! But just watch ME!" Gaz went behind the counter and he took out a familiar doll some of them recognized. Chopper could see that it was brown and had a blue hat and cloak.

"Better watch out, Bowser, 'cause Geno's gonna blow you away! TAKE THIS!" Gaz charged and rammed into the Bowser doll with the Geno doll, which made Chopper hit the wall as well. "Your turn, Bowser!"

Chopper shrugged and let the Bowser doll ram into the Geno doll.

"Owwww… Oh no, if he keeps this up, I'm finished! All right, you asked for it! The super duper… Custom, patented, one and only… SHOOTING STAR SHOT!"

The doll shot a star, which accidentally hit Chopper instead of the Bowser doll, making him hit the wall.

"Ow!"

"Ooh! That's gotta hurt… Wait, how did it do that?" Parakarry gawked.

"Oops… I…uh…I think I…missed." Gaz gulped as Chopper fell over on the ground, dazed.

"What the… Chopper! Are you all right?" Bow asked, flying over to him worriedly.

Chopper's vision began to blur before slowly closing his eyes. A boy who defeated a demon knight. Beaten by a doll.

* * *

**A couple of hours later-**

During the night, all four dolls were lying on the ground in silence. However, a small little star came into the house and looked around the room. What seemed to catch its attention were the dolls on the ground. It was thinking about choosing the Mario doll, but when it noticed the Geno doll, it shot itself straight into it. The eyes of Geno began to brighten as it grew to a normal size.

"The time has come… I knew it would be around this time. Thankfully, I believe I'll be able to get in contact with the hero thanks to this new form." Geno began to walk around, but he ended up crashing into something.

"Oof! I need to get used to my walking," he moaned as he saw a back door and opened it. Geno saw that it led into a forest. One called Star Forest, that is.

"He must come into the forest to get the Power Star. Yes, now is the time..." Geno trailed as he began to walk into the forest, leaving a trail of star dust behind.

* * *

**In the morning-**

A timer went off, and upstairs, Chopper woke up, who was now lying in a bed. He quickly opened his eyes ande saw his partners were in the room too.

"Chopper! You're finally awake!" Bow cheered as she floated over to Chopper and kissed him right on the cheek, which made Chopper's cheeks turn red in disgust.

"Man we were worried about ya!" Yosho added. "You were out cold after that Shootin' Star attack from that Geno doll. Say, I wonder what that doll's like anyway."

"Let's go downstairs…" Chopper suggested as the redness on his cheek faded away and walked down the stairs. He could hear Gaz apparently talking to his mother.

"Mom! You'll never believe what I just saw… It was amazing, Mom!" Gaz explained. "I just saw Geno walk into Star Forest in the backyard! Neat, huh?"

"Yes, dear. That's nice, dear…" Gaz's mom replied. "And isn't Geno the one who broke my lamp the other day?"

"Awww, ma, that was just, well, you know… Now THIS WAS REAL! I SWEAR, Mom, REALLY! It's true! I SAW HIM outside!"

"All right, Gaz, let's hear it! What are you trying to get out of this time, hmmm?" she asked as she dragged him over to the stairs.

"Mom, I didn't DO anything. I really, TRULY saw Geno walking into the forest!"

The two Toads didn't notice it, but there appeared to be star dust leading to the back door, which caught Chopper's attention.

"Hey, guys. Do you see that?" Chopper gasped. "There's star dust right over there!"

"What? Star dust?" Bruce gawked, who apparently saw it. They all walked out into the backyard and saw a trail leading into Star Forest. To their surprise, it was actually close to Shooting Star Summit.

"Whoa, a forest? Didn't we just go into a forest, though?" Koopla wondered. "Frog Forest to be exact?"

"Yeah, I know. But, I noticed the Geno doll's gone, and that Toad said he saw Geno walking into the forest. Maybe we oughta go into the forest and see what's going on." Chopper suggested.

"I suppose it's a good idea," Ghoster agreed. "It may not be so bad, honestly. If we find anyone in there, then that'll be fine by me!"

"OK, let's go into the forest!" Chopper walked toward the entrance of Star Forest with everyone else following him. Knowing about the news, they were rather curious as to how this Geno managed to come back to life.

* * *

**Yeah, I know some fanboys/fangirls are probably happy to see him, but isn't it obvious after seeing Mallow? I mean, really!  
**

**Anyway, Chapter 11, in my opinion, is much better. Actually, I kind of like Chapter 11+. That's where I believe the good stuff starts to begin. ;)  
**


	59. Beware of the Forest Mushrooms

**CHAPTER 11**

**-A Star to Make a Wish-**

Chopper took a glimpse at the forest and could see that there were many light purple leaves around. This must be because they were by Shooting Star Summit. The ground was a nice, purplish color, which fit the forest very well.

"So this is Star Forest, huh? It's pretty interesting from the looks of it." Chopper commented as he walked to one of the trees to whack at it with his hammer. A Star Fruit came down, which could recover 20 HP.

"Let's see what we got in the bushes," Koopla searched through the bushes, but she only found a Dried Shroom in there. "Meh, I'll eat it."

She ate the Dried Shroom herself, leaving some of the others in disgust. But what was surprising to some of them was that she wasn't in disgust from devouring it.

"You seriously ate a Dried Shroom?" Bow gagged. "Those are usually disgusting! That's why I stay away from those."

"A Dried Shroom? What are those exactly?" Chopper asked. "They don't sound so bad… Let me try one!"

"Trust me, Chopper. You wouldn't like it. But, I suppose you can at least try it. Koopla, is there any more Dried Shrooms in there?"

"There's one," Koopla grabbed one and tossed it to Chopper, who inhaled it and recovered 1 HP.

"Well? How do you like that disgusting Mushroom?" Kayzee asked as Chopper pondered.

"It's not too bad. I guess it's all right, but I've had worse than this, to tell you the truth." Chopper concluded. "Yep, there are a lot more disgusting things than this."

"You have such weird tastes..." Bow trailed.

"Let me scan this forest," C-2 Choppor declared as began to use his scanner to look at the entire forest.

"Found anything on your radar, Choppor?" Ghoster asked.

"Negative. And it's called a scanner, not a radar. Try to remember that from now on, Ghoster. I'm not sure why you consider Chopper and I your buddies."

"It's because you, Chopper, and I have these awesome antennas and also that we look cool together. Yeah, that's how we fit." Ghoster put his arm on C-2 Choppor and Chopper's shoulder, who put Ghoster's hand off of him.

"I don't think that's necessary. I mean, really. I want to take a look around here." Chopper said as he walked around the area and could see a tree stump with a hole going down as if it were a pipe. He saw a Wiggler come out and immediately stepped back, but when he jumped on it, he began to bounce off of it.

"Whoa, he's just bouncing off of the Wiggler? That's kind of strange…" Mallow gawked as he stretched his arm to attack the Wiggler. Defeating it wasn't quite easy. They had to use A LOT of attacks on it. These things had 14 HP, and Attack of 9, and a Defense of 0, which isn't something to laugh at.

After defeating the Wiggler, they went down the tree stump and underground with some evil Mushrooms and bees. After landing on a spring to help them land, C-2 Choppor used his scanner and discovered something in the area. Chopper walked over to the yellow ? block, but a Poison Shroom came out. These things could make you lose 10 HP and also poison you, so Chopper stayed away from it.

"A Poison Shroom? Those things are pretty dangerous." Bruce recalled. "I've seen them before, and many people had to go see the doctor. Sadly, the doctor's not in the house in the Mushroom Kingdom at this moment."

"You guys have a doctor?" Chopper gawked. "What's his name? I haven't heard about a doctor being in this place."

"I think his name's Dr. Mario. Yep, he's not only a hero, but also a doctor! It's kind of cool, but being on vacation isn't really the best idea for anyone that's sick."

"I hope I get to mail something to the Beanbean Kingdom. Sadly, I haven't gotten anything..." Parakarry frowned. "Then again, they probably have a postman there. It would be nice to see Mario, though."

Chopper took down a bee with his fireball and Mallow finished off a Mushroom with his Falling Cloud. It seemed like Chopper went back to fighting after getting tired of listening.

"Lemme help ya with the fight!" Yosho suggested. "I want to take down those enemies! You probably need my help anyway! They're goin' to taste the power of my butt!" he fluttered on top of a bee and used his Ground Pound to squish it. The other bee saw this and tried to sting him. However, Ghoster made it explode with his psychic abilities before moving on.

"Man, I wonder what we'll find in this forest. It's kind of weird. Sort of…" Chopper trailed. They found a spring leading back out, so they used it to go outside to a different area, where they could see a bunch of Wigglers sleeping. There was another tree stump by one of the Wigglers.

"I think if we made loud noises, they would wake up an attack," Parakarry deduced. "They're probably not heavy sleepers..."

"Well, this doesn't seem like it's safe, that's for sure. But, I guess we have no other choice..." Chopper began to tiptoe past the Wigglers while everyone else did the same thing. Yosho stopped at a female wiggler and smirked.

"Heh heh… Hello there…" However, Ghoster used his psychic powers to pull him over to the tree stump and drop him down.

"Was that necessary?" Chopper asked.

"Of course! He was going to flirt with a caterpillar!"

"...Yeah, I do feel this is getting a little overboard," he sighed as he and the rest of the group jumped down the stump. When they landed underground, C-2 Choppor used his scanner and discovered a yellow ? block.

"My scanners show a block in here! Chopper, go ahead and hit it. I'm sure there's something good in there." C-2 Choppor assured.

"OK!" Chopper jumped under the yellow ? block, but nothing came out. However, a word came out of the block, saying "You missed!"

Chopper fell over on the ground anime style, but he got back up, and after seeing nothing else in the cave, they all went back to where the sleeping Wigglers were. After sneaking past them, they reached an area with a hill going down. Thankfully, they didn't have to worry about that, since there was something that could be grown nearby.

"Mallow, try to make that plant grow!" Chopper suggested. Mallow nodded, and he made it rain, which made the plant grew into a big orange, which went down, crashing through a mechanical gate at the bottom of the hill.

"What the… There's some kind of mechanical gate here?" Bruce gaped. "I thought this place doesn't have anything like that! It's called Star Forest, not Mechanical Forest!"

"I don't understand this. First we hear about a wooden doll walking off into the forest, and then we see some mechanical stuff in the forest!" Koopla gawked. "I don't understand this at all, dang it!"

"You know what this mechanical stuff reminds me of? It reminds me of that mysterious robot that we saw at the City of Flowersville, since that thing's mechanical." Kayzee pondered. "I have no idea why that robot came to my city… It's just so strange…"

"That robot was going after me. I have no idea who that was, but let's hope we find out sooner or later. Though, he somehow disappeared. I remember him having some yellow star that…" However, Chopper soon realized something as his antennas sprung him. "Guys, I think that robot might have the Power Star! But… I have no idea where he is. Right now, we should try to find this Geno character."

They headed into the next area, which had some small puddles around. They could even see the blue sky and stars above, making it feel a little like Shooting Star Summit. However, Chopper noticed some star dust on the ground, and it seemed like it was trying to tell him something.

"Umm… Guys? For some reason, this star dust seems like it's telling me something. Something…up ahead." Chopper deduced.

"What? It's tellin' you somethin'? Is it sayin' somethin'?" Yosho asked while scratching the back of his head.

"It's saying… 'Chopper, you must follow Geno's path through the Forest Maze. Only then you will find him, and discover where the Power Star is.' That's what it seems to be telling me for some reason."

"Oh, then that's pretty cool!" Mallow smiled. "If the star dust is telling you something, then that means we can follow where it goes!"

"Hold on a minute… Let me see if I can see this star dust." Ghoster used his Ghost Vision, but sadly, he couldn't see it. "Dang... Well, I can't see it."

"My scanners do not show star dust around here," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "I suppose you may know where to go, Chopper. I suggest we be careful."

"You might as well lead the way, Chopper," Bow said as she got ready to follow Chopper, who shrugged and began to walk on through to the next area of Star Forest. While they did that, above the forest, something was going on.

* * *

**Above the forest-**

A Hellspawn and a Koopatrol with a gun on its right arm like C-2 Choppor's right arm were hovering over the forest. The Koopatrol was on top of the Hellspawn, trying to look down at the forest for anything.

"Hmmm… I don't see them anywhere." the Koopatrol nodded. "You sure King Bowser and Lord Maquano told us that they're here?"

"Yes, they even told me," the Hellspawn confirmed. "But for some reason, I can see a Forest Maze, and through there, I can see some kind of mechanical building with a capsule in there. I don't know what it is, but it doesn't matter. We gotta find Chopper."

"I agree there. We should focus on finding Chopper." the Koopatrol noticed a wooden doll walking through the forest, leaving off some star dust. "Hold on a minute… Is that a wooden doll MOVING? What the heck…? Hold on a second…"

"What is it?" the Hellspawn asked as the Koopatrol took a good look at the doll with its blue eyes.

"For some reason, there's some kind of power in it! If Chopper finds that doll, then we might be in trouble. Perhaps we should also check out the facility in this place as well..."

"That sounds like a good idea. We better get ourselves ready for this. It may not be much, but we can find things in the facility that might help us stop Chopper. Yes… It sounds good."

With that, the Hellspawn began to fly down to the facility.

* * *

**Forest Maze-**

Once the heroes went into the next area, they found themselves in a bigger area of the forest. There were three ways to take. One to the north, one to the right, and another to the south. There was also a sign right by where they all are. While walking to the sign, Chopper could see a lot of enemies around such as bees and mushrooms. Not only that, but there were spiders too, which could poison Chopper and even trap his partners in a web.

"Whoa… Check out the enemies. There's A LOT of 'em!" Yosho gaped. "Man, I think my butt will be pretty useful! These bugs are big, and sittin' on 'em will do just fine! Everyone knows that sittin' on 'em's the best option!"

"Really?" Bruce gawked. "I never really thought of that..."

"Scanning area…" C-2 Choppor announced as he began to scan the Forest Maze. "Error in scanning. The Forest Maze is too confusing to scan. I'm afraid my scans will not help you here, Chopper."

"Let me see if there's anything else," Ghoster declared as he used his Ghost Vision to check for anything around them. Sadly, he got nothing either. "Well this sucks. My Ghost Vision isn't going to help us here. I don't think any of us can do anything here, I'm afraid."

"Oh, that's a bummer," Koopla said as she bit her lip. "Well, might as well see if I can get through here..."

Koopla went to the north and ended up becoming confused, seeing everything looked the same. Once she went to the path to the left, it took her back to the start before the maze. She ended up returning to the others, panting a little bit.

"What the heck?! I ended up here? ...Well, I guess this place IS confusing."

"That's why they call this place the Forest Maze. This sign has some things to say anyway." Chopper said as he read the sign.

_Take the right way through, and you'll be out. Take the wrong way, and you'll be lost in here forever._

"That sounds just like Forever Forest. What's with that?" Bow gawked. "It's like all these forests have to copy what Forever Forest has. That forest is supposed to get you lost. Then again, forests sometimes make you become lost."

"Exactly. I don't know which way to go, but I'm hoping things turn out right. Now… Let's see which way to go." Chopper pondered for a moment, but he stopped for a moment when he saw a familiar wooden doll walking toward the right, leaving star dust behind.

"Geno went to the right! C'mon, guys! I think we can catch him if we move fast!" he cried as he and his friends took the way to the right and found another similar area. Of course, the Forest Maze always had the same area.

Geno appeared to be walking to the north, and once Chopper saw the star dust on the ground leading that way, he followed Geno that way, while everyone else followed him from behind.

"I wonder where that wooden doll is going," Parakarry wondered. "Geno must have a reason for going into the forest."

"Whatever it is, it must be pretty dang important if you ask me," Yosho shrugged.

Following Geno to the next area, they saw him go to the right again, but when they got to the next area, they didn't see him around.

"Ummm… Where did Geno go? I swear he should be around here…" Ghoster trailed.

"He may have noticed us, so he just ran to another area," Mallow predicted. "Maybe Chopper can see the star dust. You can, right?"

Chopper began to take a look at the paths. He first smashed a bee with his hammer before seeing star dust going south.

"Aha! I found the star dust! This way everyone!" Chopper announced as he walked to the next area with his partners. Geno walked through the exit of the Forest Maze, falling asleep for a split second and then kept moving. Chopper and his friends followed the path he took going to the right, but once they got to where he supposedly was, they noticed he wasn't around.

They couldn't see much around, but they could see a path up ahead that seemed to lead to a facility. The Hellspawn and the light blue armored Koopatrol landed right by the path going to the facility.

"So this is the facility, huh?" the Hellspawn mumbled. "We may haven not found Chopper yet, but we can find some good stuff in that facility!"

"Oh, yes. That is true." the Koopatrol nodded. "Now to destroy this blocked path." it aimed its arm gun at the rubble in the way and blasted it.

"Whoa, a Koopatrol with an arm gun!" Chopper gaped. "Did Bowser get this idea from the C Units like you, Choppor?"

"No information available. I'm sorry, but I don't exactly know why the Koopatrol has that arm gun." C-2 Choppor responded.

"Well, how about we give them a good beating!" Chopper suggested as got his fists ready and was going to go attack, but Mallow stretched his arm and pulled Chopper away.

"Chopper! Hold on a minute!" Mallow cried. "We can't just go out and attack! You're not The Master!"

"Let's not waste any time here. We better go into the facility pronto!" the Hellspawn suggested.

"Stop!" the wooden doll Geno landed in front of the Hellspawn and Koopatrol, leading the two to aim their weapons at him.

"What're you supposed to be, you stupid doll?" the Koopatrol barked. "Get outta the way or else we'll blast you!"

"I wouldn't do that if I were you... If you try to blast me, you might end up blasting the facility you want to go in. And that's not good for either of us."

"He's right," the Hellspawn agreed. "If we tried that, the facility might blow up. We gotta try something else that doesn't involve blowing stuff up."

"But, you didn't answer our question. Who're you and where are you from?" the Koopatrol asked.

"I serve…a higher authority…" Geno trailed. "That facility has something important that I need. You can't go in there."

"Is that so, huh? Well, there's no way we're letting you through! And if you think you can pass by us, just try!" the Hellspawn grinned, readying its weapon.

"Very well…" Geno's right arm changed to a star gun and fired a light blue beam at the two.

"Wow, would you look at that? That was pretty impressive…" Chopper gaped, amazed at the wooden doll's attack.

"We better go in there and help him," Koopla suggested.

"Good idea," Chopper began to run toward to the three. When the Hellspawn was about to attack with its claws, it got attacked by Chopper's ice ball.

"Gah! What in the…" the Hellspawn cringed as it got struck by Chopper's hammer. "YOU! Oh… We've been looking for you, Chopper…"

"Chopper? So, you're Chopper?" Geno asked as Chopper nodded to him. "Ah, good! You see, WE know about you…"

"'We'? What do you mean?"

"You see, we... Well, never mind that right now. We need to take care of these guys first."

"OK," Chopper nodded as he started off by whacking the Hellspawn again with his hammer, while Geno attacked with his ability called the Geno Beam. The Hellspawn fired a green laser at Chopper, which he was able to guard. The Koopatrol also fired a laser, but as a light blue color instead.

Chopper moved quickly and attacked both the Hellspawn and the Koopatrol using his speed. He was able to shoot ice balls rapidly at them, which made them freeze. However, the Hellspawn unfroze, and it melted the ice around the Koopatrol.

"Hmph! Not bad, Chopper! You're quite strong!" the Koopatrol commented as Geno fired a Geno Beam at them, making them cringe in pain. However, the two villains fired a beam at each other, which deflected toward Chopper. Thankfully, Geno fired his Geno Beam to counter the two beams.

"Whoa! I can't believe you're doing this!" Chopper gaped. "But… The question is, why?"

"Urgh… Let's just...save this…after the fight! _**HI-YA!**_" Geno fired a bigger blast, and it knocked both enemies away, making them fall over on the ground. Geno folded his arms and he slowly nodded.

"Well that takes care of that," he declared as the Hellspawn and Koopatrol got back up, now exhausted.

"Curses! Beaten by…some kind of wooden doll!" the Hellspawn groaned. "Oh, Lord Maquano's surely going to be angry at me for this…"

"I'm sure King Bowser is going to get angry at me too," the Koopatrol added. "We were sent here to destroy Chopper, and we get our butts handed to some doll! Chopper, you'll regret this! Same goes to you, you doll!"

The Hellspawn flew away, with the Koopatrol grabbing onto its leg. Chopper's friends walked over to him and Geno, now that it was safe.

"Thanks for the help. You really got me out of a jam." Geno chuckled as everyone gawked at him. "Why are you staring at me? You know I'm more than just a doll, don't you? Well, that's because I'm a visitor from above. I'm just borrowing this form for now…but I actually like it."

"Wait… So you're telling us you're...from the _sky_?" Mallow gasped.

"Oh, I'm higher than that! I'm from the Stars! You see, I am Staris's right-hand Star!"

"Wait... Are you serious?!" Bow gaped.

"Indeed I am. However, I haven't heard about the Star Rod being stolen until recently. I also ended up hearing about Staris becoming corrupted because of the Star Rod being stolen. As his right-hand Star, I needed to go out and try to find the problem to him being evil. Sadly, I haven't found any information on that yet, so all I could do was try to help recover the Star Rod. Unfortunately, it appears I'm a little too late to help you defeat Bowser, Chopper. But, when I heard from the Star Spirits that the Star Rod had lost its power, I knew I could come and help you at this moment."

"Interesting story..." Parakarry trailed. "You must be doing a lot."

"Yeah, it's a lot of work for me to try to help save Staris," Geno nodded. "Anyway, do you have the Star Rod, Chopper?"

"Yes, I do," Chopper nodded.

"May I…see it for a second?" Chopper nodded again and gave the Star Rod to Geno, who began to look at it thoroughly.

"Just as I thought. Bowser abused the power of the Star Rod. That's why its power's been drained. Thankfully, I can see SOME power has returned. This must've been because you went to Tadpole Pond and Ghost Tower, am I correct?"

"Uh huh!"

"Yes, I knew this. That Toad that was holding the doll I would eventually become actually belongs to, believe it or not, Staris. I sent that doll down for you, but things didn't exactly turn out as I planned."

"So… What you're saying is that you came down here to find me? And is that why you had all that star dust on the ground?"

"Precisely! Ever since the day I discovered Staris became corrupted and tried to take all the Stars' power, I knew I had to find somebody to help, and that happened to be you, Chopper. I'm glad I was able to find you. Unfortunately, I have to go into a grimmer topic at this moment."

"Well, you might as well tell us," Kayzee suggested.

"Beyond Star Sanctuary, there's a road behind it called **Star Road**, which leads all the way to Staris's Shrine after many obstacles. It is a long one though, and it can take MANY hours to go on foot. It's even long with you speed, Chopper. You see, the Star Rod powers up Star Road as well."

"Are you saying that the Star Rod is a part of your 'Star Way'?" Mallow asked.

"That's 'Star Road', my fluffy little friend," Geno chuckled. "Now, since you have two Power Stars, that means you only need five more to restore the Star Rod's power. However, that's not all in order to save this world. For peace to return, we must stop Bowser, Maquano, and prevent Staris from becoming any stronger. The Star Rod might be the key to fixing everything."

"So… What's your name? I heard the Toad calling you Geno before." Chopper recalled.

"My name is… Well, my name is too hard to pronounce anyway, so call me Geno, after the doll. I thought it would be right to use one of the dolls Staris has. Plus, it gives me some neat powers! But, enough of that now. I don't want to hinder our progress. The next Power Star is in that facility."

"In the facility? Wow, well this chapter might as well be a short one! Are you coming with us, Geno?"

"Of course. My goal IS to bring peace back to the Mushroom Kingdom, after all."

**Geno joined your party! Press (v) to make Geno blast through anything with his Geno Beam. You can aim the Geno Beam anywhere, and it can even help discover any hidden paths to take! While in battle, Geno can use his Geno Beam to attack foes on the ground or in the air with a deadly energy beam or use Geno Boost, which can boost Chopper's attack.**

"Now that I've found you at last, we must make haste. It's time to go into the facility and retrieve the Power Star!"

Chopper noticed there was still some rubble blocking the path, but with the Geno Beam, they were able to get through.

"Let's go, my friends," Geno declared as he began to walk toward the path to the facility while everyone else followed him.

* * *

**So THAT'S why the Geno doll came down from Shooting Star Summit. It explains it all!  
**

**And believe it or not, Geno is the final party member. However, that doesn't necessarily mean that we're very close to the end. I mean, we only need five more Power Stars! :P  
**


	60. Chopper's Robot Counterpart

"Whoa… Look at this bridge!" Chopper gaped as he saw the bridge was made of stars. "Geno, where did his star bridge come from?"

"Why, I made it!" Geno stated proudly. "Yes, I can use some star powers to summon a bridge to help us, or help cross paths. But sadly, it's not as strong as the Star Rod's power."

"Wait, if you can use powers from the Stars, can't you restore Star Road with your powers?" Mallow asked.

"My powers aren't strong enough to restore Star Road. I'm not one of the seven Star Spirits. I'm just someone from a higher authority…who doesn't have that kind of power. No need to ask questions on that."

"OK… I guess we shouldn't. But take a look at that facility." Koopla said as she gazed at the dark green facility.

Chopper stopped at the entrance and saw that the door opened up on its own. He hit the Heart Block first and then went for the Save Block. Geno took a look at the facility, and slowly nodded.

"Yes, I can feel the Power Star's power inside of there. It's strong." Geno noted. "I don't know where in the facility it's being held, but when we go deeper inside, I might know."

"Holy… He can feel the Power Star's power!" Bruce gaped. "Man, that's pretty interesting. You're pretty cool, and that's not a usual thing for me to say. I thought Bombette was cool…but then she dumped me. Thankfully, I grew a little stronger without her."

"Of course you did, Bruce. Up by Staris's home, I could see you all. I actually got a glimpse Chopper fight against Bowser AFTER taking the Star Rod. That was the time I had a feeling you would be the one to help us."

"Oh, that's interesting…except that you brought up that part with me getting my butt handed to Bowser. Those were such painful memories…"

The door to the facility was closing, which got Ghoster's attention. "Oh no you don't, door! You're not closing this time!"

He used his psychic to move it open again, while shouting "Go go go go GO!" as everyone ran into the facility and followed through the door when it closed.

* * *

**Inside the facility-**

Once everyone was inside, they could see the ground was kind of glassy, with a green floor beneath it. The ceiling was a lighter green color, and around them were many kinds of C Robos - mostly the C Robo Elites. Unlike the previous ones, these were more of a blue color and had two guns instead of one.

"More C Robos are here? Well... Then I know what must be done..." C-2 Choppor declared as he blasted one of the C Robos. "Why are there C Robots in this place anyway?

"It's probably because Bowser left them here when he had no idea what this place was," Geno answered. "I feel bad for some of the Star Kids trapped in this place... Maybe we can free them while we search for the Power Star."

"That's what I intend to do. That's my mission."

When Chopper saw a C Robo charge at him, C-2 Choppor blasted it with his gun, leaving a bit of smoke from his weapon. He was also able to free the Star Kid, which flew off instantly.

"I guess we better be careful here," Bow suggested as Chopper walked through the first room of the facility and reached the door ahead, where it led them to the next room. He didn't see much around except for more C Robos firing them. Chopper immediately jumped out of the way from the attacks.

Geno fired some stars from his Star Gun at the C Robos, destroying them on impact. "Well that takes care of those guys for now."

Chopper ran over to the next door with his partners following him. They found two C Robos in the room, but they all managed to fight them with C-2 Choppor's shooting and Geno's Geno Beam. Right by the door, which had rubble blocking the way, there was an Upgrade Block. Chopper hit the block and upgraded Geno with it. He could do 6 damage with his attacks, and he learned the move Geno Whirl, which, if timed right, could destroy an enemy in one hit. The only problem is that it won't work on bosses.

"All right, stand back, everyone. I'm going to blast this wall." Geno declared as he aimed at the rubble blocking the door and fired his Geno Beam at it. All of the rubble was destroyed, opening the door.

"Awesome! Now this is what I'm talkin' about!" Yosho grinned. "Attacks like those will blow enemies away easily!"

"That gun arm reminds me of my own for some reason…" C-2 Choppor trailed.

They went to the next room, which had three red ! switches. Since C-2 Choppor could hit them all, he scanned all three of them and fired three blasts at them, making the door ahead open.

"Quick, we must head on in," C-2 Choppor said as he began to use the wheels on the bottom of his feet to go through the door. Chopper ran through with his speed, and everyone else followed him. The room they went into was pretty big. They could see a long bridge leading to the center of the room, which had a capsule. There were three other ways to go at the center of the room too. Unfortunately, they couldn't see what was below them.

"Whoa, would you look at this. This place is HUGE!" Bruce gasped, along with the whole group. They also noticed a machine firing arrows.

"So this is where the arrows are coming from..." Chopper trailed as he walked over to the machine and smashed it. "See? Problem solved!"

"Well that was pretty easy..." Yosho trailed. "I bet everyone'll be better!"

"Yeah, hopefully..." Geno trailed as he looked around the room with everyone else.

"I never suspected a room like this," Bow gasped, "It's interesting…and…hold on a minute. What's over there in the middle of the room?"

"Huh?" Chopper noticed the capsule in the center and could see something shining in there. "Oh! I think the Power Star's in there! Isn't it, Geno?"

"Mmmmm… Yes, it is." Geno confirmed. "I can feel the power in there right now. We may have a chance to go get it now! Come, let's retrieve that Power Star."

They all crossed the bridge and looked at the capsule. They happened to notice a robot sealed inside.

"Hmmm? Something appears to be in here. I don't know exactly what it is, but it doesn't matter. Let's get that Power Star." Geno was about to open the capsule, but the robot's blue eyes glowed, and the capsule opened on its own.

The robot ended up landing in front of Chopper. The weird thing was…it, or rather he (since he's referred to as a male) looked like Chopper! The robot's upper and lower head was a lime-green color, with the inner area being black. He had blue eyes, silver hands, and green feet that were a little pointy at the tip. He also had a jetpack that seemed to be pointing at an upper right angle.

"That robot looks just like Chopper! I don't get what's going on!" Mallow gasped.

"Well, it has been a while, hasn't it, Chopper?" the robot said as he looked at Chopper. "You remember me, don't you?"

"…No, I don't remember. Why do you even look like me? Who made you?" Chopper asked as he got in a fighting stance.

"I had a feeling you wouldn't remember me. I was made to match you. Basically, I was created to be able to stop you. Does the name **Metal Chopper **ring a bell? Or does my voice ring a bell at a place such as…well, the City of Flowersville."

"You're that robot that attacked my home town?" Kayzee gaped. "No wonder my sisters thought Chopper was the reason for this! They both look the same!"

"I could've won if Maquano didn't show up and send me into that capsule!" Metal Chopper growled. "I still have my yellow star, though. It can help me power myself up!"

"So you ARE the one holding the Power Star," Geno noticed as he saw the Power Star in his hands. "I suggest you hand that over to us before things get messy."

"We need that Power Star to restore the Star Rod's power and save the Mushroom Kingdom!" Chopper cried. "It's important!"

"So, you need this thing, huh?" Metal Chopper questioned as he eyed the Power Star in his hand. "Well, how about we have a little fight then? Then we'll discuss about this thing..."

"Oh? Fine then!" Chopper ran toward Metal Chopper, who ended up disappearing. Ghoster used his Ghost Vision and noticed Metal Chopper was behind Chopper.

"Chopper! Behind you!" Ghoster warned. But it was too late. Metal Chopper managed to attack Chopper from behind with a kick, and it made him fly over to the wall. However, Chopper didn't give up so easily.

"Can't lose to a stupid copy!" Chopper grumbled as he got his feet onto the wall and began to run on the ceiling. Metal Chopper charged up an energy blast that he fired at Chopper.

"Watch out, Chopper! Try to inhale that!" Geno called out.

"OK!" Chopper jumped off the ceiling and inhaled the attack. Once he swallowed it, he got himself a red bandanna. With this, he came down toward Metal Chopper to make a punch attack on him, which made him hit the wall.

Metal Chopper got off the wall, and used his jetpack to prevent himself from falling. "Oof! Not bad… You didn't seem to put up a fight back at the City of Flowersville…"

"I wasn't prepared that time. Now I am!" Chopper declared as he charged up an energy ball and fired it at Metal Chopper. His right hand changed to his blue laser sword and blocked the attack. Metal Chopper came down toward Chopper, but then Geno fired his Geno Beam at him. It hit him, leaving sparks flying all over the place. However, noticing the scenario they were in, something hit Metal Chopper.

"This is not a good place for us to fight," he noted. "It's too small, and it will only cause this place to be a mess. I know a better place to fight."

Metal Chopper hovered down in front of Chopper and pointed to him. "Chopper… If you want the Power Star, then try to find me at the top of Star Hill. That's where the forest ends. We'll finish our fight there!" With that, he flew out of the facility by blasting through the ceiling and made his way to Star Hill.

"Star Hill… The place where wishes are granted." Geno recalled. "It is at the end of this forest. It may take a while to get there, but if that's where he wants us to go, then we must go there."

"We're going there all right! I want my revenge on him for destroying some of the city!" Kayzee growled. "He's going to pay for that! ...But seriously! I can't believe he actually looks like Chopper."

"It's so odd. He said before he was after Chopper, and now we see his reasons." Bow realized. "Maybe he just wants to get rid of Chopper so people will recognize him as the real one..."

"He's trying to destroy me to show that he can be better than Maquano," Chopper stated. "I know that it's true. I even saw him talking to Maquano about it."

"Hmm… I see. Chopper, now is not the time for talking. We have to make our way to Star Hill immediately!" Geno spoke up.

"Of course! Let's go, everyone!" Chopper began to take the way to the right, which led to the exit of the facility. Now he had a new mission: to take down Metal Chopper!

* * *

**Outside-**

Crossing the bridge to get out of the facility, they could see the trees again. This part of Star Forest appears to be…kind of different. There was a lot of bouncy mushrooms that could be used as springs to go up to a high ledge, or over something too tall for Yosho to reach. They were hoping they would find anything else of importance around.

"I don't get it… The forest looks the same as before." Chopper blinked. "Is this part of the forest meant to be the same as before? I thought there would be something interesting around here. But, it's not too bad."

Chopper looked down the bridge and saw some sparkling water. Everyone could admit that it looked gorgeous.

"I have to admit, the water does look nice," Bow sighed. "But, we're all the way up here, and the water's down there. Such a shame we never got close to this water."

"Actually… We might get closer to the water some time..." Geno trailed.

"I would like seeing this water if we weren't so high up," Bruce stated. "Yeah, it's a common fear for Bob-ombs, since they might explode if they hit the ground. Plus, they can't grab a hold of anything while falling!"

"Oh, I remember seeing a Bob-omb fall like that," Parakarry recalled. "Also, you better be careful no one lights your fuse, Bruce. It happened before, and it wasn't so pleasant."

With that, they all crossed over the bridge to get back into the forest. There, they could see some of Bowser's minions. Mostly they were Shy Guys and Bob-ombs - new and improved ones, actually.

"Hey, isn't that Chopper King Bowser told us about?" a Shy Guy asked. The green Bob-omb looked at him and slowly nodded.

"Yes… That's Chopper. King Bowser wanted us to take care of him, and that's what we shall do! Let's get him!" the green Bob-omb shouted.

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he got ready to fight. With his Fighter ability, he beat up the Shy Guy with his Vulcan Jab, knocking it toward the Bob-omb.

"Oof! Man, that's some tough fighting skills!" the Shy Guy cringed as the Bob-omb pushed the Shy Guy off with its feet.

"You're so heavy, you know that?"

"Don't you criticize my weight, pal!"

While they argued, Geno was ready to make an attack. He was thinking about the Geno Beam, but he stopped.

"Hold on a minute… Let me think again." the wooden doll pondered. "I can probably take out the Bob-omb. He seems to be the more threatening one of the two. My Geno Whirl might do it."

Geno charged up energy and fired his Geno Whirl at the Bob-omb making the Bob-omb explode.

"What the… How on earth did that…DOLL do that?!" the Shy Guy gaped. "This is getting very weird… I gotta try something else out."

The Shy Guy ran toward Chopper and jumped onto him. He was able to block the attack by bringing his arms up.

"Oh, I'm not done yet!" Chopper grabbed the Shy Guy, and he finished it off with a punch, which defeated it, making the Shy Guy and the Bob-omb leave 4 Star Points for them.

The Bob-omb was already destroyed, so only the Shy Guy remained. But like all the enemies you defeat, it disintegrated into smoke. Nothing was left behind, but now there were some things that could be smashed with the Fighter ability in the forest.

Not only were Shy Guys and Bob-ombs around, but there were also Koopatrols with light blue armor like that other Koopatrol, except without the arm gun roaming around. They were called Koopatrol Scouts, who mostly, well, scout.

"Uh oh… I think we came in a little late." Geno gulped. "Bowser and his minions have seized this place already... We cannot let them take this place over!"

Chopper began to run toward the next area, knocking many Koopatrol Scouts back. Geno fired a Geno Beam to hit the enemies, and Bow smacked them with her fan. Everyone else attacked too before moving to the next area, which had some bounceable mushrooms. Jumping onto the mushroom, Chopper bounced up to a higher ledge. He could see a stream flowing down the cliff where he was. Some Koopatrol Scouts had their helmets off as they drank the water. Their faces were like other Koopas, but dirtier.

"Ahhh… That feels good." the first Koopatrol Scout sighed. "A good drink freshens me up! I needed one anyway. It's a good thing that this water is so clean and sparkly."

"We better be careful though," the second Koopatrol Scout warned. "Word says that Chopper's here. That's what the Koopatrol Captain said."

_"That Koopatrol that I fought earlier was the captain?"_ Chopper thought as he gawked._ "I would've expected to fight these guys first and then the captain."_

One of the Koopatrol Scouts was washing its face, but then it noticed Chopper by the stream.

"Uhh… Guys? Chopper's here!" they all stopped and saw Chopper's partners jump onto the mushroom to reach Chopper.

"Whoa… Eleven against three! Man, that's just unfair! Not that it matters, because we're pretty much skilled in many techniques! Let's get 'em!"

"Oh, not so easily you won't!" Chopper retorted as he attacked the Koopatrol in the front with a punch attack, and then Geno took out the middle one with his Geno Whirl. Another thing that should be noted about the Koopatrol Scouts is that they hold the Fighter ability.

The first Koopatrol Scout got in its shell and attacked Chopper, which hit him right in the face. The other Koopatrol Scout punched Chopper rapidly, knocking him down. Chopper decided to use his defense-piercing fighting attack by throwing the Koopatrol Scout he first attacked onto the ground. Since the Koopatrol Scout was now flipped over, Geno fired his Geno Beam at it, defeating it.

"Shucks! You really are starting to become annoying, you stupid little boy!" the last Koopatrol gaped.

"Stupid?!" Chopper growled as he clenched his fists.

"Oh… Looks like he's not happy at all." Yosho noticed. "You really done it this time, Koopatrol Scout! Now yer on fer somethin' BIG!"

"All we want to do is get to Star Hill and stop that bad robot version of Chopper! And this is how you're going to stop us?" Kayzee scowled.

"Star Hill, huh? Well then… Let's see if I can finish the job by defeating ya, Chopper!" the Koopatrol Scout was about to use his kick, but his foot got grabbed by Chopper, who used his Counter ability to stop his attack. With that, he threw the Koopatrol Scout onto the ground, and since it was flipped over, he used a Vulcan Jab to leave the armored Koopa with only 3 HP left. Overall, they have 15 HP and a Defense of 3.

Bow finished off the Koopatrol by smacking the Koopatrol Scout's body,which got then all 6 Star Points. Chopper leveled up also, so he decided to go with HP, having 55 HP now. Afterward, the three Koopatrols were all left battered up and lying on the ground. In a short time, they got up, but instead of fighting, they did something unexpected.

"_**Retreeeeeeeeeat!**_" the one in the front yelled as they began to run away from the group. Looks like they were too chicken to not give up.

"Chickens..." Koopla scoffed. "You guys aren't so tough!"

"Well, we sure took care of them," Chopper smiled. "They thought they really stood a chance against us but failed horribly. I wonder if Bowser's going to flip out on them. Probably their captain, but he'll flip out on the Koopatrols."

Since there was nothing else to do, they moved on to the next area. There were many boxes on the ground, so Chopper smashed them with his punching attacks. Some coins were in the blocks, and also Super Shrooms. However, he didn't need to eat them.

They could see a waterfall going down near a gap, so Parakarry needed to fly people across. He started off by carrying Chopper over to the other side, and then he helped the others like Koopla and Bruce and Geno.

"Man, I wish I could be in a place like this when I'm older!" Mallow smiled. "Then again, I need to find my family first before doing that."

Chopper could see steps going down and also a brick block that was a little too far to reach.

"Looks like you'll need my help," Koopla said as she walked over to Chopper.

"All right, I might as well," Chopper kicked Koopla while she was in her shell, and she hit the brick block, making the Badge come down. The Badge was called Heartful Times. This Badge could heal you if you miss an Action Command by 3 HP. "Not much, but we should just keep going."

Chopper jumped down to retrieve the Badge, and they found rubble blocking a path ahead. Geno went to the front and blasted the rubble with his Geno Beam. All of the rubble was incinerated, with nothing left behind.

"Ah, perfect. Now we can get a move on." Geno smiled until he suddenly heard some snickering that caught his attention.

_"All right, Rookie! At this rate, going to Star Hill will be a breeze, see? We just have to keep moving, and everything will be just fine!" _

"I hear another voice up ahead. I don't know who it belongs to, but if they're planning on getting that Power Star, we can't let them do it."

"Hmmm… Let me listen again." Chopper suggested as he began to listen in. This time, he heard a different voice.

_"Yeah, Boss! You're right! We should be there in no time! The downside, though, is that Star Forest is kind of big, so it might be a big problem going through. You never know, we might run into trouble..."_

_"Oh be quiet, Rookie! We're lucky we were able to push that pale green drip down that waterfall to Midas River, but he's still got his friends! That robot of his should be out of the picture too."_

"Wait a second… I know those voices!" Chopper gaped. "That's Popple and Rookie! What the heck are THEY doing here! ? Then again, they go EVERYWHERE…"

"Popple and Rookie are here? Oh, dang it. I hate those two." Bow groaned.

"You mean the two thieves that stole my coins before?" Mallow recalled. "They were a pain, but if they wanna fight, we'll give them one!"

"Rookie? Why would somebody be named that?" Ghoster wondered.

"I don't have a single clue on that either Ghoster," Geno shrugged. "I'm rather confused about it. We better go check on the two to see what they're up to."

Everyone nodded and began to follow the voice of the two thieves. What were their motives in this place? Money? That's something Chopper was thinking as the voices got louder.


	61. Fighting the Duo Again

Once they made it into the next area, they can see two trees, a stream flowing and also they noticed that the area was kind of circular, with trees surrounding the place. Chopper hit the Save Block before going to the tree in the middle of the area. Popple seemed to be on top of it, and Rookie was down at the bottom.

"I can see it already! Star Hill is just off in the distance!" Popple shouted. "We'll be stinkin' rich once we get the treasure there, see?"

"Boss, I thought I noticed a robot flying over here," Rookie recalled. "For some reason, he kind of looked familiar. In fact, he kinda looks like that pale green kid we faced back at the Midas Bowl place."

"Oh, he's gone now. Drowning in the river, see? Or maybe he drifted into the ocean to never be seen again. Heh heh… He's nothing to worry about now."

Chopper walked over to Rookieand tapped him on the back. He turned around and jumped up a little once he saw Chopper standing in front of him.

"What the… How on earth are YOU here?!" Rookie shrieked. "I thought we took care of you by pushing you down the waterfall!?"

"What?" Popple jumped off the tree and saw Chopper, leaving him to gape. "How on earth are you… Boo! How did you survive that waterfall fall? And why do you have a red headband on your head? Gah! This makes no sense, see?"

"So… Which one of you is called Rookie?" Geno asked while Popple stomped his foot in anger. Rookie ended up replying by pointing to himself.. Geno seemed to be surprised on how he looked.

"Hmph… You're a rather odd fellow. I don't usually see leaves with crowns on their heads around here... I never really know who you are…but it seems you came from where Chopper lives, right?"

"What? What are you talking about?" Rookie asked stupidly. "I don't know what you're talking about, buddy. I was always known as Rookie. Ever since Boss found me in Forever Forest, I have always been called Rookie."

"Huh… How exactly did you fall into the forest, though?" Ghoster asked as Rookie scratched the top part of his leafy head.

"You know… I don't have a clue. My memory really isn't returning to me. I can't recall on what happened... I don't remember anything at all."

"Oh be quiet, you stupid doll!" Popple snapped. "We bet you want what's at Star Hill! Too bad! We're going to be there before you! _**Go get them, Rookie!**_"

"Right, Boss! …Ugh… Why do I get that feeling again that I might know this kid?" Rookie mumbled as he took out his two poison vine swords.

**Tattle: **_There's Popple again. I loved the expression on his face once he saw you! Wasn't it just hilarious? I thought so… Max HP: 70, Attack Power: 9, Defense Power: 0. He'll just steal things from you like before, but he's probably got some new things. He might do some team moves with both him and Rookie, which will waste BOTH their turns. So, if they do that, they basically used up their own turns._

**Tattle: **_So who really is this Rookie guy? I have absolutely no clue, unfortunately. Max HP: 80, Attack Power: 10, Defense Power: 1. He'll do some team moves with Popple, as I sad before. He can also use a move called Synthesis, which can help him recover 15 HP. You don't really want this, though. So I suggest you take him out first, like all the other times. That will leave Popple defenseless._

Chopper walked over to Rookie and began to use his Power Bounce. Usually, he would deal 8 damage to him, but this time he did 10. Meanwhile, Geno aimed at Rookie and fired his Geno Beam. They already took down 15 from him already, to their surprise.

"Boss, how about we make that attack?" Rookie suggested.

"Oh, we'll show them!" Popple grinned as he was grabbed by Rookie, who began to whack Chopper with Popple. Thankfully, Chopper was able to guard the attack with ease.

After that, Chopper managed to grab Popple and threw him down on Rookie, hurting them both, and ignoring their defense.

"This Fighter ability is pretty useful…" Chopper realized.

Mallow zapped both Popple and Rookie with a Thunderbolt attack, electrocuting them. To them, it wasn't as bad as before. Sure, it's much stronger, but they weren't in water.

"Gah! That thunder attack! I always hated it when he did that…" Popple growled as he stomped on Chopper, while Rookie jumped in front of Chopper and swung his two swords at him. Chopper guarded both attacks and only took 8 damage.

Chopper went back to his Power Bounce again, and he stomped on Rookie seven times, taking 8 out of him. Ghoster floated over Rookie and punched him with his Ghost Fist.

"A ghost? What is this?" Rookie gawked.

"All right, let's get to it, Rookie!" Popple demanded as Rookie nodded and grabbed Popple again. He was going to throw him at Chopper, but he missed, which made Popple hit Bow instead. "Blast! How could you miss, Rookie? All you did was hit the ghost!"

Bow fumed as she smacked Popple hard in the face. "That's what you get for hitting me!"

Chopper simply used a Power Bounce on Rookie again and stomped on him twelve times. C-2 Choppor fired a blast to leave Rookie with 20 HP. The leaf king surrounded Popple with poison, and then he threw him toward Chopper. Luckily, Chopper guarded the attack so he wouldn't get poisoned.

"Man… They seem to be tough when they're together." Chopper groaned. "But, we can still take them both out."

Chopper jumped to Rookie and used a strong kick on him that only did 5 damage, while Geno fired his Geno Beam at Rookie, leaving him with only 10 HP and make him feel exhausted.

"Urgh…" Rookie groaned as Popple simply stole something from Chopper, which was a Shooting Star.

"I'll be taking that, see?" Popple grinned as Rookie slowly walked over to Chopper and swung at him, poisoning him for two turns.

"Oh man… I don't feel so good." Chopper coughed as he looked a little whitish from Rookie's poison vine swords. He even took 1 damage because of the poison. Despite this, he slowly walked to Rookie and punched him with his fists. Geno finished him off with a Geno Beam.

"Hurrrgh! Forgive me, Boss!" Rookie moaned as he fell to the ground, leaving Popple shocked.

"Rookie! No! ...Well this is bad, but there's no way I'm losing, see?" Popple growled as hevused the Shooting Star, which only did 6 damage to Chopper, unlike his normal attacks, which do 9 damage.

Chopper used his Power Bounce attack on Popple and managed to stomp on him eight times. Mallow decided to use his Falling Cloud to hit Popple, which now left him with 40 HP. This fight was going pretty well for them. For the heroes, at least.

Popple ran toward Chopper, but ended up tripping instead. Chopper managed to guard his attack and use his Vulcan Jab on Popple. Ghoster followed up with his Ghost Fist.

"Grrr! This isn't right at all! How could the Great Popple be losing so easily! ?" Popple exclaimed as he ran toward Chopper and jumped on him. Chopper quickly shook his head from the attack and walked over to Popple to attack with another Vulcan Jab.

"Hmmm… I'll make this fight go a little quicker." Bow declared as she appeared right in front on Popple and smacked him five times with her fan. Popple began to pant, but he wasn't done just yet. He took something out of his sack, which happened to be a bomb. He threw it at Chopper, who guarded it.

"OK, let's finish this!" Chopper used his Vulcan Jab attack on Popple, leaving him with only 5 HP left, and then Geno used his Geno Beam, which knocked Popple to the ground and defeated him, leaving Chopper with 30 Star Points.

"Uuuuurgh… Rookie… Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to fight…" Popple moaned before he became unconscious.

"Yeah, you're right, Boss. This was…kind of stupid…" Rookie agreed. "If they manage to get to Star Hill…then it's all over for us. Oooooog…"

"Well, looks like that sums everything up!" Chopper stated proudly. "It's a shame a quarter of this chapter only had this fight."

"What do you mean 'it's a shame a quarter of this chapter only had this fight'?" Bow gawked, along with everyone else.

"Uh… Never mind that. I'm sure only people watching us would understand. …If they are, that is."

"It doesn't matter right now. Let's just get a move on." Geno suggested. "We need to make it to Star Hill before any madness spurs out. Your robot copy may even try to destroy that place for good."

"Oh, that's not good! What are we waiting for, then? Let's MOVE!" Chopper shouted as he began to run toward the next area. Everyone else followed him, with Geno right behind him.

After leaving the area, they could see that there were more waterfalls around. There was also a bridge crossing over the water ahead. Thankfully, the water wasn't too far down. The bridge was old, but maybe there's a chance they'll get across. The only one that seemed afraid of the bridge was Bruce. He had no arms, so holding onto the ropes of the bridge wouldn't be so easy. Geno looked a little worried about the bridge, due to it being sturdy, but he didn't worry as much as Bruce.

"Oh god… That bridge doesn't look so safe..." Bruce gulped. "Maybe we can go another way? I'm sure there has to be another way through here. C'mon, can't we do that?"

"This is the only way to get to Star Hill," Geno stated. "There's no other way but this, I'm afraid… So I apologize if you don't like this bridge."

"Not many of us have to cross it," Bow assured. "Only Chopper, Koopla, you, Yosho, Mallow, and Geno have to cross it, which makes that less than half of us. So, if any of us died…which it WOULDN'T be me, there would be at least the majority of us left."

"Riiiight…" Chopper scowled before he brought his attention to the others. "Just don't worry about a thing. I've managed to get across bridges like these on my planet. I'm sure this shouldn't be a real problem at all."

"Yeah, because you're faster and have a decent jump," Bruce pointed out. "A Bob-omb such as myself has two weaknesses: Bad bridges, and fire. Those two things are big threats for Bob-ombs. Oh, and heights are a big weakness. We all have weaknesses, right?"

"Yeah, I do have my weaknesses. I can't really pick up some stuff. I'm not really THAT strong… My feet usually deal more damage than my fists."

"See? Chopper's got his weaknesses. Just overcome them, and maybe you'll cross this bridge." Geno assured.

"Can't you just carry me over there, Parakarry?" Bruce asked as Parakarry sighed. "You usually carry me over to places."

"I'll only help you if it's necessary. Right now, it isn't. If you end up falling, I'll be there to get you." Parakarry assured before he noticed something across the bridge by a bush.

"No way… Is that a letter?" he flew over the bridge and grabbed the letter in the bush. "Yes! Here's a letter to…**Goombado**? Never heard of him before…"

"OK… I'm going to do this." Bruce took a deep breath as he began to walk over the bridge carefully. He looked down at the water, which wasn't TOO bad. It wasn't so far down anyway. He was halfway there, but once he took three steps, he felt the bridge shaking.

"Aiiiiiiiiiee!" Bruce screamed like a little girl, leaving everyone to gawk.

"What the heck was that…?" Koopla asked as Yosho shrugged back at her. They had NO idea what they just heard.

"That was just me walking on the bridge..." Chopper trailed as he smacked his forehead and picked Bruce up and he threw him across the bridge. He didn't want to resort to this, but he pretty much had no choice.

Once he crossed the bridge, he was trying to rest his arms after picking Bruce up. Though, Bob-ombs weren't so heavy for him to carry, throwing one can be annoying for him.

"This shouldn't be too bad!" Yosho assured. "Bridges are easy fer me to cross! It's like playin' 'Cross the Bridge'!"

"What's 'Cross the Bridge'?" Mallow and Kayzee asked in unison.

"Uhhhh... You...cross the bridge?"

"That doesn't sound like a game. Anyway, I'm flying over!" Kayzee flew over the bridge, but something dropped while she flew over.

"Is that Kayzee's Blooper doll falling off the bridge?" Bow asked, making Kayzee stop and notice Bloopi falling.

"Oh, dear… That is not good." C-2 Choppor said as he scanned the water. "That river is going pretty fast… That doll will most likely get carried away by the current."

"_**BLOOPI!**_" Kayzee cried.

Chopper knew what he had to do. He removed his Fighter ability, and he jumped down.

"Chopper! What are you doing?" Bow gaped. "Are you trying to get carried away by the current? !"

"I'm trying to get that doll!" Chopper managed to run on the cliff, and when he got close to the water, he started to run on it, now that he gained enough speed.

"I got it!" Chopper grabbed Bloopi and was pulled out by Ghoster, who followed him down so he could get back up with ease. He brought him down to the other side of the bridge, where everyone else was (Koopla, Yosho, Mallow and Geno crossed the bridge already).

"Here you go, Kayzee! I got your dol-I mean Bloopi." Chopper handed it over to Kayzee, who giggled happily.

"Thank you, Chopper! I never knew you'd be so nice!"

"Well, I like to help people," Chopper shrugged. "Anyway, moving on...

They all headed into the next area, which seemed to have a lot of water.

"Ah, we're getting to the water now," Geno noticed. "Yes, we better be careful here if any of us can't swim. But I'm sure most of us can."

"I can't swim…" Mallow trailed, while Geno turned to him and laughed.

"Oh, you best not worry! I can surely help you through the waters! Maybe all of us can!"

Chopper simply ran on the water instead of swimming. C-2 Choppor and Ghoster followed him on one of the small islands in the area. There was an Upgrade Block there as well.

"Hey, Geno! I found another Upgrade Block! You should come over here so I can upgrade you!" Chopper shouted.

"Oh?" Geno jumped into the water, and due to being made out of wood, he was able to float over to the island. Chopper hit the Upgrade Block once he reached him, and the power within the block went into Geno. His attacks could do 7 damage now, and he learned Geno Blast. This lets him summon light energy from the sky to damage all enemies.

"Ah, yes… The Geno Blast. It's one of my stronger moves, just to let you know." Geno informed. "It can hit all enemies, and it's rather strong. However, there's one other attack that's stronger than the Geno Blast. That will be revealed once I'm fully powerful."

"Hold on, there's another Upgrade thingamajig?" Chopper gawked.

"If you mean by an Upgrade Block, then yes. I can't tell where to find one, but it could be somewhere else."

Chopper understood. However, they had to move on, so he ran into the next area on the water. Mallow got help from Kayzee to fly over the water, while the ones who couldn't fly swam. They reached the next area, which had some waves flowing to the left, while Chopper was going to the right, so he tried to dodge them while he ran.

"Be careful… If those waves hit you, you'll fall into the water, and the waves can easily get you." C-2 Choppor informed.

"Relax, I got a better idea!" Chopper became Ice Chopper and used his Ice Breath to freeze the water. Now he began to ice skate through.

"See? What'd I tell ya? Easier than before?" he smiled as he jumped and spun around in the air. His fists were spinning around too, freezing some of the Koopatrol Scouts that were around on the ice.

"Oh, this is much better!" Mallow smiled as he got down on the ice and began to skate on it. Once they all got onto land, Chopper became Fire Chopper and melted all the ice, making it water again. He removed the ability afterward.

"I gotta say, that was rather fun," Bow admitted.

"Let's keep going," Chopper suggested as he ran to the next area as he began to see some steps going up, with a stream coming down. Chopper found a Save Block at the top of the stairs, so he hit it to save. The next area they went in didn't have much either, but they could see less trees around and also a Heart Block.

"Chopper! I can feel the power of the Power Star!" Geno informed. "We're close to Star Hill. It's a long way up to your robot copy, but it's an interesting sight. I've been there a couple of times."

"Really? Well, how about we take a look at Star Hill! I'd really like to see what it's like there."

As Chopper began to walk away from the Star Forest part, he began to see some shooting stars. Also, there was the sky that resembled Shooting Star Summit's sky, which made him feel at peace.

"I'm ready whenever you guys are!" Mallow declared. Everyone was indeed ready, and they began to leave Star Forest. Now all they had to do was find Metal Chopper and take the Power Star from him.


	62. Kidnapping at Star Hill

When they got out of the forest, they noticed that the ground around them was a dark blue color, and there were some crystal-like stars on some of the rocks. The top of Star Hill seemed to be shaped like a star. That's not to say that every area is shaped exactly like a star...

Geno looked at the shooting stars coming down. Once they hit the ground, they turned into star dust. His head was hung low a little, seeing the star dust scatter around. When he looked up, he saw some Stars disappear. How do they disappear? They die and turn into star dust.

"Whoa, look at that! Some Stars are dying!" Chopper gaped. "It's going a lot faster then how it was before. This isn't good at all... Will it go faster than this?"

"Sadly, it will," Geno sighed. "Only the Star Rod can save the Stars from dying, and it can help create new Stars with the star dust. It's like some kind of cycle for Stars. But, if the Star Rod's power isn't restored, the cycle will be broken, and we will never see the Stars again. It might even affect the Mushroom Kingdom too, such as not getting our wishes granted."

"Oh, that's terrible! If Bowser didn't steal that Star Rod, then everything would be all better!" Kayzee cried. "But how can we fix it?"

"What do ya think we're doin'? We're tryin' to get all the Power Stars!" Yosho mentioned. "That's the only way we're savin' the Stars and the Mushroom Kingdom!"

Koopla took a look at how steep Star Hill was. They weren't at the beginning, but she took a look herself and came back to everyone else afterward. She wasn't happy nor sad.

"It may not be bad, but it may not be good. That's what I think of climbing Star Hill." Koopla informed. "At least…there's a path to take."

"So there's a path to go? Huh…" Chopper trailed. "Metal Chopper never said something about that, but he never told us that much about Star Hill, so why should we really care about that?"

"Forget this, let's just go," Bow sighed as she began to float toward Star Hill. That is, until Metal Chopper came down and grabbed her.

"What the…!" Bow gasped as Metal Chopper tightened his grip around her to prevent her from escaping.

"Metal Chopper! Put Bow down right NOW!" Chopper growled. He was about to shoot a fireball at Metal Chopper, but Bruce kicked Chopper's arm so it would hit the ground.

"Bruce! Why did you do that? I was trying to hit Metal Chopper!

"Chopper, if you hit your metal copy, you might hurt Bow! You don't want that, do you?" Bruce informed. When Chopper realized this, he brought his arm down and hung his head low.

"No… I guess that was the right thing for you to do." he sighed as Metal Chopper cackled and Bow tried to smack him. Unfortunately, her smack didn't seem to work well against him.

"A mere smack doesn't harm a robot made of a tough material!" Metal Chopper scoffed. "So try all you want, Ghosty!"

"Ghosty?!" Bow fumed.

"Now, Chopper… I had a feeling you'd make it this far. I do wish to battle you, but to make things a little more interesting, I was thinking about stealing your friend!"

"Just so you can lure me into some trap?" Chopper growled.

"Maybe..."

"Let go of me right NOW!" demanded Bow. "You don't know who you're trying to take, are you? Unhand me now!"

"Nah... I don't have to. Anyway, Chopper, if you want your friend back, come to the top of Star Hill to face me!"

Metal Chopper flew off with Bow, while Chopper tried to jump up to grab Metal Chopper. He shot a blast down at him, sending him flying back to the ground.

"I got you!" C-2 Choppor used his jetpack to fly up and catch Chopper. He put him back on the ground afterward.

"Are you all right, Chopper? Do you need some rest?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"No thanks, I'm fine. But thanks for the offer, though." Chopper replied as he shook his head and brushed himself off a little, though there wasn't any dirt around here.

"Did your metal copy seriously kidnap Bow?" Mallow gaped. "Oh man, that's REALLY bad!"

"Let's just go up Star Hill so we can battle Metal Chopper," Ghoster suggested. "He's got the Power Star we need anyway."

They began to go to the path going up Star Hill, and when they took the hill going up, they could see some new enemies around. One of the enemies was a pink spherical creature with wings and two round light red feet. It also had two orange X's for eyes and a small smile.

"What the heck is that thing?" Kayzee asked, which Geno replied with a simple shrug.

"It's called a Love Bubble, and it can heal other enemies we might encounter," C-2 Choppor informed after he finished scanning it.

"Oh, then that's pretty bad," Chopper whacked one of the Love Bubbles with his hammer when it came down. Afterward, they continued climbing up. There wasn't any puzzles or anything at all around for them yet. However, another new enemy called a Handfake appeared on their way. It was some kind of creature shaped like a hand but made of black ooze. It would hold a sign that had a Goomba, a Koopa, a Hellspawn, a Bob-omb, Bowser, or even Maquano. These signs are based on how they attack. The last enemy in Star Hill was a Fly Guy. Basically, they look like the Shy Guys in any color, except they got a propeller that allows them to fly.

"Holy… Look at all of the new enemies here! I never expected to see them here!" Yosho gaped.

"Me neither. Let's just keep going." Chopper suggested as he headed into the next area after going up the steps. They were led into a flat area with rubble blocking the way to the next area. However, Ghoster felt something else.

"Hold on a minute… I think I can sense something interesting around here… Let's check." Ghoster used his Ghost Vision, and he could see a pipe that was hidden from them.

"There's a pipe! Let's check what's in there." Koopla suggested as she jumped in first, and everyone else followed. Chopper couldn't help but feel a little worried about Bow.

Once they came out of the pipe, they found that they were around a sparkling pool, and pretty much the walls and water were sparkling as well. Everyone looked amazed. Even Chopper's eyes sparkled in amazement.

"This has to be one of the most sparkly places I've ever been," Chopper gasped. "Not even my planet had stuff like this! I swear!"

"Yeah, yer right! This place is freakin' cool!" Yosho agreed. "It's like we hit the jackpot or somethin'! There's gotta be somethin' cool around here!"

Chopper took a step in the water and began to sink down, showing that the water was a little deep. Ghoster went down to join him, while C-2 Choppor hovered over the water. Geno took a dive in too, but sadly, he couldn't sink down. After walking down on the bottom of the water for a little while, there was a tunnel that the found being blocked by rubble.

"Oh, man… We need Geno for this. Can someone bring him down so he can blast this rubble?" Chopper asked.

"I will," Ghoster used his psychic abilities to make Geno sink down into the water, who looked confused when he saw himself sinking.

"What the... This is rather interesting." Geno noticed. "I've sunk down to the bottom of the pool. But… How did I do it? I'm made of wood..."

"That's because my psychic is helping you stay down. If I stop, you'll just go back up to the surface."

"Oh, I see. I'll take care of the rubble." Geno blasted it with his Geno Beam, and the tunnel was now open for them.

"All right, let's check what's in here!" Ghoster began to go into the tunnel, with Geno being dragged on the ground. Looks like he forgot about him…

"Ghoster! Don't leave Geno dragging!" Chopper cried as he swam after Ghoster. Actually, Ghoster found himself in a small room, with the ground moving up to the surface. There was a chest in the room. This made him stop using his psychic, making Geno float up to the surface.

"Where are the others? Did they follow us?" Geno wondered.

"They didn't want to go in the water," Chopper explained as he reached the surface. "Well, some of them didn't feel like it. Mallow can't swim, don't you remember? Parakarry wanted to make sure his mail was safe. Yosho said he'd be coming…"

They could see someone swimming to them, and it turned out to be Yosho. "All right, I'm here! What'd I miss?"

"Nothing really," Geno assured as he opened the chest and found a Star Key. "Oh! This must be what we need to go after Metal Chopper. Yes, this is the key."

"What do you mean? Is there a gate we need to go through in order to make it to the top?" Chopper asked.

"Yes, I forgot to tell you there's a gate you need to go through. I apologize."

"Don't worry about it. Let's just get out of here now so we don't have to worry about talking about anything else. Plus, I don't think Bow's safe."

"Yes, you're right. We must go now. Now, Ghoster, if you would be so kind as to GENTLY use your psychic to get me out of here so I…"

"What?" Ghoster asked as he used his psychic on Geno to get out, who got dragged along the ground again.

"…won't be dragged like I am now."

After they left the underground area of Star Hill, they made it back outside, and Geno destroyed the rubble so they can go to the next area. They only saw a yellow gate up ahead with a lock blocking their way, so Geno walked over and used the Star Key to unlock the gate.

"There we go! Now we're ready to get that Power Star. Let's go!" Geno declared as he began to walk up to the top of Star Hill. Chopper hit the Heart Block and Save Block first before going up. They knew Bow was in danger, and they gotta make sure she would be safe from harm.


	63. Metal Chopper: The Evil Chopper

Chopper has a serious look as he was running up the hill, like he was saying, "You're going to be going down, Metal Chopper!" Kidnapping Bow did not make him happy, and he was hoping to TRULY get him down this time. He was moving so fast that his partners couldn't catch up to him.

"Whoa, Chopper! You might want to slow down a bit!" Parakarry suggested. "Some of us need to catch up with you! Only C-2 Choppor, Kayzee, and Ghoster are actually doing well with following you."

"He's still worried about Bow," Koopla reminded. "In fact, I'm sure we're all worried about her. Chopper is probably more worried, though. But, it's not like I care that much."

"I'm sure Bow is fine. I don't think that robot really harms anyone when he kidnaps them." Bruce assured. This caused Chopper to stop and turn around.

"You don't know about Metal Chopper," Chopper stated. "He's a dangerous foe. Believe me, he's not like Bowser, who simply does nothing to harm them. Sometimes Metal Chopper might TORTURE people he kidnaps!"

"Oh, really? That's not good at all." Mallow frowned as he saw Chopper run on ahead up the hill. "Hey! Chopper! Wait up!"

Mallow tried to catch up with him, but he really couldn't. However, he saw that they actually made it to the top, which was rather big, and the ground was shaped like a star. There wasn't much around except for some star dust around the area.

"I've been waiting for you," Chopper and his friends saw Metal Chopper right beside a force field cage with Bow trapped inside. Bow saw Chopper and the others show up.

"You came, Chopper! I'm so glad!" Bow sighed dreamily.

Chopper waved to Bow with a smile, and then he clenched his fist when he looked back at Metal Chopper, giving him a serious look. Geno walked beside him and clenched his fists too.

"Metal Chopper! We made it up here, and now it's time for us to settle this!" Chopper shouted.

"You will hand over that Power Star right now!" Geno demanded, pointing at Metal Chopper. "It's property of the Star Rod! If you still refuse, we'll take it by force. This is your last chance."

"We're not afraid to take ya on!" Yosho growled as he and Kayzee got in their fighting stances.

"You're going to pay for what you did to the City of Flowersville!" Kayzee cried. "I'll never forgive you for that, you terrible machine!"

However, instead of a rude response, Metal Chopper simply laughed at them.

"What's with the laughing?" C-2 Choppor questioned.

"Be careful Chopper, he may have something up his sleeves…er…robot wrists or something." Ghoster warned as he floated closer to him.

"You meatbags have always been so stupid," Metal Chopper scoffed. "We robots were mostly created to do your dirty work, or fight in battles. We were like the pawns. But, that era is over. Today will be a new era, and that will be an era of which robots will rule, and I will be the ruler of every single kingdom we take over! Especially this one…"

"You want to rule the Mushroom Kingdom? With Bowser and Maquano around, there's no chance of you ruling!" Koopla scoffed.

"That may be, but I don't need to worry about them. I can take their C Robo army no problem. Plus, I can actually stand a chance against you, Chopper! I even managed to beat the living crap out of you in the City of Flowersville! Even your friends didn't stand a chance!"

"You will NEVER do a thing like that," Geno growled. "Now are you going to battle us or are you going to hand over the Power Star."

"And why exactly would I do that? This Power Star is what made me stronger!" Metal Chopper declared. "I don't HAVE to give the Power Star to you, stupid doll! I'm tougher than you now, so who cares what you think! ? I'm even stronger than Chopper! And you thought the original could win? HA!"

"Chopper, be careful when fighting him! He sounds pretty threatening…" Bow informed, her eyes softening at Chopper as her look saddened.

"Oh, so you think you can take us, huh?" Chopper scowled as he clenched his fists. "Well, then perhaps we should have a little battle, then! Yeah, that sounds good!"

"If you won't hand the Power Star over now, then we'll have to use force..." Geno trailed.

"Ha ha HA! Excellent, this should be good for me!" Metal Chopper cackled. "Now, Chopper… It will all be over! You'll never see the light after this fight…and you'll never see your girlfriend! I'll finish what we should've finished years ago!"

**Tattle: **_Oh my god… This robot looks just like you! I never knew about this! He seems pretty dangerous. Max HP: 120, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 2. He'll fire some blasts at you, and he might even fire missiles. Be careful when he takes out his laser sword. Really, his attacks HURT a lot. So you gotta be careful. Geno can raise your attack power, so maybe that can be a good thing for you. Either that, or use C-2 Choppor to keep attacking. This actually is a tough fight because of his attacks and defense._

Chopper walked over to Metal Chopper and began to use his Power Bounce on him. After about nine stomps, he jumped off of Metal Chopper and allowed Geno to fire a Geno Beam at Metal Chopper, dealing 7 damage. Overall, they managed to take 15 out of him.

"Who knew you had it in you, Chopper? You didn't fight like this in the City of Flowersville!" Metal Chopper noticed. "Looks like you're ACTUALLY trying."

"Because I know who you really are," Chopper retorted. "That's how fighting you isn't such a big problem for me!"

Metal Chopper's right hand changed to some gun, and he fired a blue blast at Chopper. Luckily for Chopper, he was able to guard the attack with ease.

"Maybe I should use something else," Chopper pondered as he walked over to Metal Chopper and used his D-Down Pound.

"I want to attack! He's going to pay for what he did!" Kayzee cried as she used her Heat Vision to damage Metal Chopper.

"Stupid Heat Vision… Though I don't melt from it, I dislike it!" Metal Chopper grumbled as he hovered up and grabbed Chopper and threw him down.

"Oh! That's gotta hurt!" Bow cringed as Chopper lost 11 HP from the attack. However, it didn't stop him from using his D-Down Fire, which made him shoot a fireball at Metal Chopper that pierced his defense.

Mallow went ahead and attacked with his Thunderbolt on Metal Chopper, which electrocuted him and pierced his defense as well. With that, Metal Chopper shot three missiles missiles at Chopper, which could do 4 damage each.

"Uh oh!" Chopper gulped as he began to guard all three missiles. Metal Chopper already took away 30 HP from him! That's not good...

"Oh, man! He's really getting me down! No way am I letting him beat me so easily!" Chopper cried as he whacked Metal Chopper with his hammer.

"You think one hammer attack's going to hurt me? You're wrong, Chopper!" Metal Chopper boasted before getting blasted by C-2 Choppor. "Oof! Not bad… I'm surprised there's another one that looks like you. But joining HIS side? That's the biggest mistake you've ever made."

Metal Chopper began to fire at Chopper with his machine gun, who was able to guard the bullets hitting him. Unfortunately, this left his HP low.

"Oh, man. This reminds me of battling Bowser… Better summon Misstar." Chopper moaned as he used his power to summon Misstar, who flew down to Chopper to kiss him in order to recover 20 HP. Geno followed up by using his Geno Blast. Since it ignores defense, the attack did 10 damage, which surprised the group.

Metal Chopper fired a blast toward Chopper, but it missed him and hit Bruce's fuse, leaving the Bob-omb to fume.

"Oh, are you kid-" Bruce gaped before blowing up and landing on the ground after a couple of seconds. "This is the… You know, I completely forgot how many times I blew up unintentionally."

"Who really cares? Just fight already!" Bow cried.

"OK, time to fight again!" Chopper stomped on Metal Chopper again, using Power Bounce. This time, he stomped on him fourteen times, taking a massive 14 out of him.

"Gah! Who knew your feet would pack such a punch!" Metal Chopper cringed. "That's what I hate about you!"

"I can't stand this!" Bruce let out a battle cry and ran toward Metal Chopper, letting off an explosion in front of him. This made Metal Chopper change his hand to his blue laser sword and attack Chopper with a simple slash.

"Man! I think I'm gonna need to use an Ultra Shroom!" Chopper wheezed as he took out an Ultra Shroom and ate it, recovering 50 HP. Geno used his Geno Blast attack again, which knocked Metal Chopper back, but he then thought of something.

"Fine, you made me do this," Metal Chopper used his move Armor Up ability, and it boosted his Defense by 2. For two turns, he had his Defense up to 4.

"Oh, that's not good. We gotta use moves that ignore his defense!" Chopper groaned as he walked over to Metal Chopper and used his D-Down Pound. Since C-2 Choppor's attacks weren't affected by defense, he shot a blast at Metal Chopper, leaving him with 28 HP.

Metal Chopper used his machine gun on Chopper again, but since Chopper was able to recover his HP from before, it didn't leave him with low HP. And because Chopper was fine, he attacked once again with D-Down Pound, and C-2 Choppor attacked Metal Chopper with a blast.

Metal Chopper growled as he used his flamethrower to scorch Chopper, who was able to huard the attack and take only 10 damage.

"All right, this battle's getting close!" Chopper realized as he attacked with his D-Down Pound once again, while C-2 Choppor blasted the robot.

"So weak… But…how could this be…?" Metal Chopper moaned as he fired a missile at Chopper, but despite that, his defense boost wore off.

"Oh, now I can finish this!" Chopper began to charge up a fireball to hit Metal Chopper, which made the robot sweat.

"Nuh… No! Don't…!" Metal Chopper cried. "M-Maybe we can settle this in a different way!"

"Don't listen to him," Geno suggested. "He's already made his decision, and that's how it's going to be."

"B-But I changed my mind! Don't hurt me! Please!"

"Sorry, Metal Chopper, but I'm not highly convinced," Chopper said as he shot the fireball at him, sending him flying off Star Hill.

"_**GAAAAAAAAAH! I'll be back for you, Chopper!**_" Metal Chopper cried as his voice echoed throughout Star Hill before they saw a sparkle in the sky. He also left 42 Star Points, leveling Chopper up!

"I'll go with FP this time," Chopper declared as he chose FP, giving him 55 FP. Now that Metal Chopper was taken care of, Chopper walked over to the force field cage and destroyed it with his hammer, allowing Bow to be free.

"Thank you, Chopper! You made me so happy!" Bow squealed as he grabbed Chopper and kissed him on the cheek, making Chopper cry out. "I knew you would come."

"Gross!" Chopper cried.

"Seeing you rescue me like that... I feel that I can fully trust you." she giggled as she kissed Chopper again, leaving Chopper to almost fall over and sweat drop.

"Lucky dog again!" Yosho grumbled until getting whacked by Ghoster.

"Dude... If Bow made herself to look around Chopper's age, you'd be considered too old for her," Ghoster informed.

"Hey, well at least she can change to my age so we can date, ya know! That's what I'd like."

"Keep dreaming, pal."

"Well, at least we took care of that bad robot!" Kayzee smiled. "He got what he deserved!"

"Oh, yes! Metal Chopper ended up dropping something while you fought." Bow realized as she let go of Chopper (who began to wipe her kiss off his cheek) and floated down by the destroyed cage, grabbing the Power Star left behind.

"The Power Star! That's what we've been looking for!" Geno gasped as he gazed at the Power Star. "So he must've dropped it. I see… At least we have it in our hands now. Chopper, would you mind if I traveled with you to get the rest of them?"

"I don't mind at all!" Chopper nodded as Geno grabbed the Power Star and brought it over to him.

"You know the drill. Take it, and bring out the Star Rod!" Chopper understood and took out the Star Rod, and once he held up the Power Star, it went into the Star Rod, and a third of its power came back.

**You got the third Power Star! Only four more remain…**

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_After defeating the mysterious robot who was also the one who attacked the City of Flowersville, Metal Chopper, Chopper had gotten the third Power Star. Not only that, but he had fully gained Bow's trust and also a new friend, Geno, to help him on his quest to get the last four Power Stars. Though Metal Chopper was not really a minion of Maquano's, it seemed he was still disappointed. But, only more than half of the Power Stars remain. What could possibly happen next for Chopper and friends?_

* * *

**And that's the end of that chapter! Yup, now Metal Chopper got his butt handed to him, and I also told you I would put this up, and I did. Aren't I such a good person?**

**Well, anyway, things'll get even better later on. These last four chapters are pretty cool and are a little more unique than the others, if you catch my drift.**


	64. Chapter 11 Interlude

Down in Hell, things were rather peaceful in the city. The Hellspawns were working and were selling things to people such as Darklings and other Hellspawns. Bowser sighed in relief as he felt the peacefulness in his castle.

"Ah, yes! This is what I wanted!" Bowser grinned. "Nothing to bother me at all! So, Kammy… What's the news so far?"

"Er… Bad news, King Bowser..." Kammy gulped. "Chopper has gotten the third Power Star. He only needs four more to get now."

"What? This better be a joke! Because if it isn't, I'm not going to be happy!"

"Your Viciousness… This isn't a joke. He managed to defeat his robot copy and get the Power Star."

"Grrrr! Unbelievable!" Bowser growled as he stomped his foot in anger. "Well, at least it wasn't guarded by anyone that works for me. Surely, Goombado will…"

Suddenly, Bowser could hear someone riding their motorcycle through town. He looked outside of his castle and saw Bob making a lot of noise on his motorcycle.

"Oh, great… Not that idiot again. I'll go take care of it." Bowser stomped out of his castle and went to Maquano's Castle and saw that Bob was going to open the front door, but Bowser got there first and blocked the way. "Don't think you're getting in here so easily this time! Maquano's not here anyway. He said he had to go do something. So I'm in charge here…and I always have been!"

"Who cares? I'm sill going in there!" Bob declared as he was about to move Bowser out of the way, but he ended up getting burned by Bowser's fire breath. "Uhh…. OK, I think I'll uh…stay back a little. I just wanted to annoy Maquano, that's all."

Bob stepped back, but Bowser stomped on him, flattening him like a pancake.

"Listen, I'm REALLY angry today after Chopper got the third Power Star!" Bowser snarled. "You're making me want to crush you, you know..."

"W-Wait… I almost forgot! I still need to become a boss! I almost forgot about that goal!" Bob realized. "I'll make sure I'm the baddest of the bad! It's my goal to be a boss…and also give Maquano noogies."

"How OLD are you anyway? Because if you're pretty old, then you already need to grow up. Tell me your age…"

"I'm 9,996 years old. What's the big deal with that?" he asked until Bowser grabbed him and threw him into the lava. Thankfully, for Bob, he wasn't incinerated by the lava.

"Haven't you already learned? No matter what stupid thing you do, it's going to make you worse each time. I'm already too busy with having one of my minions guard a Power Star."

"Hey, did you say that a Goomba's guarding the next Power Star?" Bob asked as he got out of the lava. "In **Nightclub Casino**? Yeah, I know that place. It's like a club…and a casino."

"So you know about that place where Goombado has for people to come in?" Bowser grinned, an idea striking him for a minute. "If you wanna go there, then go for it. I'm pretty sure Chopper can't go in there anyway."

"What? But that's what I want to go there for! I want to become a boss! I still haven't given up on it yet!"

"Fine, go ahead and go," Bowser demanded, trying to shoo him away. "Chopper can't even go inside, because he's too young to do so. But even if he does…I should alert Goombado. No, wait! I already had a letter to be sent to him. I wonder where it went, though…"

"Your Evilness!" Kammy cried as she came in and walked over to Bowser. "The letter ended up lost in some kind of forest, unfortunately… I'm sorry, but you might have to make another one."

"Grrrr! Fine, I'll just take out the spare one I made." Bowser growled as he took out his spare letter. "Hey, Mega! Are you here?!"

"How may I be of service, King Bowser?" C-1 TM asked as he came in and noticed Bowser handing him a letter.

"Go to Nightclub Casino and give this to Goombado! The other letter apparently got lost in the forest... Just follow those train tracks that go to Mt. Rugged, but instead of going there, take the way down so you can go to **Syrup Path**, which has NOTHING to do with syrup. The train tracks there are broken, but you can fly over."

"I will do that, King Bowser," C-1 TM nodded as he flew into the castle and went into the secret teleporter room the Koopa Bros. told him about. He actually was glad to go out, considering that there were two people he loathed that were still out there...

* * *

**Clara-**

In the jungle of Clara, a yellow, spherical shaped boy with white gloves, short gray legs and round feet and gray pointy wings on his head seemed to be flying through the jungle. He was a great friend of Chopper's named Flyer, but badly, he hadn't seen him for about two years.

"I need to warn Chopper about all the stars disappearing in the sky around the Mushroom Kingdom!" Flyer cried. "If there's anybody I can work with, it's him!"

He Chopper's house and began to knock on the door. Unfortunately, he got no answer.

"It's been such a long time since I saw Chopper, but now this is a good time to see him. Open up, Chopper! It's an emergency!"

He still got no answer.

"Chopper wouldn't sleep in like this. It's daytime already. I don't know where he went, but this is a REAL emergency!"

Flyer was about to blast the door open with his buster gun he created, but he was stopped when he heard a voice.

"I'm afraid your good friend Chopper isn't here. He already knows what happened… You're a bit too late!"

"Who said that?" Flyer shivered before noticing something behind a bush. He walked over there and found a Power Star.

"Huh? What's this star object?" he began to inspect it. "I might need to examine this at my workshop."

"So the Power Star went there?" the voice called out again. "Bah! I should've hidden it someplace else! But never mind that for now. I think I have better things for you, Flyer."

Flyer saw Maquano land in front of him, which made him shriek a little. "It's been such a long time, hasn't it, Flyer? Well, I have a little something special for you! You do want to see Chopper, correct?"

The six year old stepped back and aimed his buster gun at Maquano. "All right, tell me everything, Maquano! Give me the info so I can tell Chopper! If you don't, I'll blast you!"

"Heh heh heh… I'm not going to hurt you." Maquano grinned as he used his dark powers to keep Flyer still.

"What are you doing?!"

"This won't hurt at all! I'm just going to give you a little something to help me defeat Chopper, that's all!" Maquano began to use more dark powers, and once he aimed it at Flyer, the winged boy's sight blanked out.

* * *

**Star Hill-**

The Star Rod hovered over Chopper's hands when he looked at it. They noticed that the brightness increased a little bit. But what was better was when Chopper felt some of the Star Rod's power give him some kind of Power.

"What the… What is going on…? The Star Rod seems to be doing something to me!" Chopper gaped as he felt it give him a new ability.

**Chopper can now use Star Pulse, a Star Rod power. With this ability, Chopper can attack all ground enemies with a powerful pulse attack!**

"You were given the Star Pulse move," Geno informed. "It's like using the Star Spirit's power, but this time, you're using the Star Rod to attack. No, it's not a bad thing. It's fighting against anything evil, which is what it's supposed to be kept away from."

They all saw a shooting star on the ground that seemed to read some kind of wish. Mallow was the first one to see it, and he began to listen to what the wish was telling him.

_"Please let Mallow find his way home."_

_"We want to see Mallow again."_

"Mother... Father..." Mallow sniffled. "Don't worry, I'm going to find you guys..."

"It's OK, Mallow. We'll find your parents. Don't worry!" Ghoster assured. "Let's just leave Star Hill and go back to Toad Town."

"We better do that before Metal Chopper comes back. I do NOT want to get myself kidnapped again." Bow stated.

With that, they began to go down Star Hill, which was A LOT better than going up. However, there was one thing that was stopping the when they got down.

"Gaaaaaaah! Almost there!" they could see that Jr. Troopa was climbing up Star Hill, and he wasn't doing such a good job at it. When he noticed them coming down past him, he wasn't satisfied. "What? Noooooo! This stinks! I can still get Chopper, though!"

Jr. Troopa tried to go down Star Hill, but he ended up tumbling down. "OOH! OW! EEE! OOF!"

Once they all made it to the bottom of Star Hill, they saw Jr. Troopa made it down first. He slowly got up and began to pant.

"All right, Chopper! I finally have you where I want you!" he wheezed. "After about three HOURS going through that Forest Maze, two in that facility, and one getting here, I finally find you!"

"He got stuck in that maze for three hours? Well that has to be a pain…" Geno trailed.

"How about he fight some other time," Chopper suggested.

"No way! I didn't come here all for nothing! We're fighting whether you like it or not! It ends here! Ayyyyyyyyaaaaaaaa!" Jr. Troopa charged at Chopper, but he tripped as Chopper stepped out of the way. He growled as he slowly got himself back up.

"All right, now is the time for something else! _**More power!**_" Jr. Troopa cried as a jetpack was equipped on him. "Oh yeah! You probably didn't expect to see this, didn't you? I'm WAY faster than having wings! It'll be in a flash of an eye!"

**Tattle: **_Since when did Jr. Troopa get himself a jetpack? I don't really understand this one bit…Max HP: 100, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 1. He seems to be faster now, so some of his attacks may be tough to dodge. But seriously… He's got wings. Does he REALLY need a jetpack? Sometimes things just don't make sense._

Chopper could really only shoot a fireball or ice ball or even jump on him. He started off with his Power Bounce and stomped on him nine times. Geno fired his Geno Beam at Jr. Troopa afterward.

"Stupid stupid stupid! Well, I knew you could hit me. But take a look at this!" Jr. Troopa came blasting toward Chopper, but he guarded the attack. With that, Chopper went for another Power Bounce on Jr. Troopa and stomped on him ten times.

Geno used his Geno Beam attack again, and the beam hit Jr. Troopa. Everyone was glad that they were doing a good job, but this was just the beginning of the fight anyway.

Jr. Troopa used his rocket blast to charge at Chopper, but he guarded the attack once again, since the attack wasn't difficult to guard against. Chopper used his Power Bounce again and stomped on Jr. Troopa ten times afterward while Ghoster attacked with his Ghost Fist.

"Uh oh… Things aren't looking for me. What am I saying? I can take them down!" Jr. Troopa assured as he rammed into Chopper and knocked him over.

Chopper got himself up and used his Power Bounce on Jr. Troopa, stomping on him thirteen times.

"Whoa… I stomped on him thirteen times? That's GOOD!" Chopper gaped as C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Jr. Troopa afterward. Jr. Troopa attacked Chopper again, but he was able to guard the attack. But, since he was running low on HP, Chopper had Misstar come down and use Smooch on him to recover 20 HP.

Geno attacked Jr. Troopa with his Geno Beam, and then Jr. Troopa tried to attack Chopper, who accidentally knocked into Bruce instead.

"Ooh! That's gotta hurt. Ya got yerself hurt, Bruce!" Yosho noticed.

"No I didn't! Jr. Troopa was the one to do it!" Bruce growled.

"Shut up, guys! Now's not the time!" Chopper snapped as he shot an ice ball at Jr. Troopa, freezing him. Since he was frozen, he fell to the ground, vulnerable to ground attacks.

"I wouldn't want to be him now. Meh, I'll attack him." Koopla used her Fire Shell on Jr. Troopa, thawing him out and dealing decent damage.

"Who? What? Oh, I'm fine! Let's just finish this up, Chopper!" Jr. Troopa declared as he attacked Chopper by ramming into him, but unfortunately for him, Chopper guarded the attack with ease.

"OK, let's do it!" Chopper shot a fireball at Jr. Troopa, and to finish things off, Parakarry used his Shell Shot to end the fight, giving Chopper 31 Star Points.

"Shooooooot! I can't believe I lost to you and your loser friends!" Jr. Troopa growled. "I did all of this just to lose to you guys? !"

"Loser friends? How dare you call us that!" Kayzee scowled. "You're just a big bully!"

"Heh heh! Well, looks like I'm doing my job! Now, let's have a little rematch, Chopper! I'm not going to gi-" Before Jr. Troopa could continue, he noticed his jetpack was malfunctioning. "Uh oh… This isn't good. I think that fire affected the jetpack…"

Jr. Troopa then began to fly all over the place uncontrollably with his jetpack, screaming "_**AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!**_" as he flew out of the forest and somewhere unknown to the heroes.

"I feel bad for him. He might be a little hurt." Parakarry said worriedly. "Then again, Jr. Troopa always seems to handle anything, no matter what happens."

"True, but if we see him again, he should be more prepared to battle," C-2 Choppor stated.

"Let's just get out of here. We gotta find out where the next Power Star is." Chopper suggested. Everyone agreed, and they began their long way back to Toad Town.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

After taking a nap in the inn, Chopper decided to see what he could do in Toad Town (which thankfully was back to normal after the arrow incident). Unfortunately, it didn't seem like he could do much, but Toadsmeth was in town, and he said something like this:

"Chopper, maybe you should go to the Dojo if you don't have much to do now," Toadsmeth suggested. "Maybe you can get a little stronger."

"All right…but we already beat Chan and Lee. Oh well, might as well go there." Chopper shrugged as he and his friends headed to the Dojo, and his friends. Chan and Lee noticed their arrival, as well as The Master.

"Ah, so he's back again?" Chan gawked.

"Looks like it," Lee nodded. "I guess he's come here to challenge The Master."

"Let's see if he's successful."

"_Cough…hack…_ Ah, Chopper, you've returned once again, I see?" The Master greeted as Chopper walked over to him. "You came here to fight in the Dojo, is that correct?"

"Yeah, we did," Chopper nodded. "But, we already beat Chan and Lee. Is there anything else that's left for battle?"

"Yes, there is. Now that you've beaten those two, it's time you fought The Master."

"I better be prepared, then," Chopper put the red bandanna on his head to become Fighter Chopper.

"To battle!" The Master cried as he got in a fighting stance.

**Tattle: **_This is The Master. He owns the Dojo-and he's the strongest member. Max HP: 100, Attack Power: 10, Defense Power: 0. If he's the best in the Dojo, he must be pretty tough!_

Chopper started off with his Vulcan Jab on The Master. Thankfully, he didn't have any defense, so the fight didn't look like it would be as bad as he thought. Geno attacked with his Geno Beam, and so far they did 13 damage to him so far.

The Master came walking over to Chopper and punched him. Luckily, Chopper was able to bring his arms up to guard the attack, allowing him to charge up an aura sphere at The Master and fire it at him, taking 7 out of him.

"Looks like I can play a role in this fight!" Bow smirked as she took out her fan and smacked The Master five times, who retaliated by punching Chopper, who was able to guard his attack.

"Hmm! Not bad!" The Master complimented.

"All right, time to make another attack!" Chopper declared as he began to use his Power Vulcan, which allowed him to attack The Master multiple times with his Vulcan Jab attack. After ten times, he stopped. Mallow followed up by making a cloud fall on The Master, which left him with 50 HP. The Master managed to punch Chopper once again, but at full damage.

Chopper used his Vulcan Jab on The Master, and then Ghoster attacked The Master with his Ghost Fist.

"Are you sure you can take the hits?" Chopper wondered. "I mean, I don't really like to hit old people…unless they're evil. You can take this, right?"

"_Cough…wheeze… _Yes, of course. I am rather skilled, and I can take these hits. Do not worry about my safety." The Master assured as he attacked Chopper with his fist, who managed to guard the attack. Chopper decided to eat one of the fruits from Star Forest to recover 20 HP. Meanwhile, Bow smacked The Master with her fan again.

The Master tried to punch Chopper, but he managed to counter the attack and throw him to the ground. Afterward, he got back up and he brushed himself.

"Impressive. You are getting good with that Fighter ability."

"Thanks," Chopper replied as he used his Vulcan Jab, and then Geno used his Geno Beam to leave The Master with low HP. Just like before, The Master used a punch attack, but Chopper managed to counter it once again and finished off The Master with a punch, making him kneel in defeat.

"Ah… I am rather impressed with your fighting skills." The Master commented as he slowly got up. "You are truly a masterful fighter. ...Well, not yet."

"What do you mean?"

"You see, I wasn't fighting at my fullest, Chopper. I was simply going a little easy on you. However, next time you come back to challenge me, I will not go as easy. But, now that you've won, you may take this." The Master gave Chopper a Third-Degree Card. "Come back when you wish to battle again. I promise you it won't be as easy as before…"

They waved goodbye as they left the Dojo. Unfortunately, that left them with nothing to do.

"Geez... I'm so bored!" Kayzee groaned.

"Who ever knew hunting for a Power Star would be this difficult," Chopper groaned. "Do you have any idea where we can find one, Geno?"

"Well... I feel as if I'm sensing something, but I don't know where exactly. Its power hasn't really activated..."

"Well first things first, I need to get this letter delivered," Parakarry stated as he pulled a letter out. "I don't want to leave this in my mailbag forever!"

"Hey, Parakarry…" Chopper trailed, noticing the letter. "That letter's to someone named Goombado, right? Who mailed it to him?"

"Let me see…" Parakarry checked the sender of the card, and he was quite shocked. "Oh my gosh… Bowser was sending this to him! At Nightclub Casino! …Yes, that place requires the train to go to."

"So we need to take the train? Can't we just fly there?" Kayzee wondered.

"Apparently, SOME people can't fly…" Koopla mentioned.

"Wait, why would we even go there in the first place?" Bruce wondered.

"Maybe that's where we'll find a clue to a Power Star," Geno informed. "If Bowser has to do something with it, then that means we're guaranteed to find a Power Star."

"Then we shall go to the train," C-2 Choppor declared as they headed to Southern Toad Town and met with the conductor by the train.

"Excuse me, but we need to go to Nightclub Casino, and that train can take us to where we need to go, right?" Chopper asked.

"Of course it can!" the conductor nodded. "...That is, if the tracks weren't broken... Sorry, but if you want to get there, the only way to do it is follow the broken tracks on foot."

"Is that all? Well that kind of stinks. OK, guys, we might as well go the direction where the broken tracks are."

Chopper began to take the broken track direction as soon as they discovered another track, and everyone followed. Kayzee flew over to see what would be ahead. Turns out that this track wasn't going to be short.

* * *

**Yes! I really like Chapter 12 because it's pretty unique compared to the other chapters you've read. How exactly? Well, you'll see when we start the chapter.**


	65. A Weedy Situation

**CHAPTER 12**

**-Nighttime Adventures in Nightclub Casio-**

The sky was a nice light blue color and the sun could be seen coming down on the train tracks. Parts of the tracks are broken, but once Chopper and his friends got through that broken track area, they were be on the smooth tracks, which were light brown with silver railing. There wasn't much around, but going closer each step showed that the sky was getting darker.

A little higher up from the tracks, the evil C Robo, C-1 TM was flying toward the Nightclub Casino. He had the letter Bowser gave him held onto and was trying to get there as fast as possible.

"Boy, times like these make me want to go find Chopper and C-2 Choppor and annihilate them!" C-1 TM growled. "I haven't given up on that yet! I'm gonna make sure I find them and destroy them!"

When he looked down, he noticed Chopper running on the tracks, with his partners following him.

"What's this? Could this really be…? Are they ACTUALLY here? Man, this is a pretty good thing for me! ...But I need to get this letter to Goombado, so I can't actually attack them just yet."

C-1 TM flew further away from them as this bothered him and headed to Nightclub Casino. Chopper was now grinding on the rail to move a little quicker, while Kayzee was flying over the tracks. Sadly, she didn't notice C-1 TM flying over them.

"These train tracks are soooo long!" Kayzee sighed. "I want to do something else besides this! It's making me booooored!"

"We're all bored, Kayzee. You're lucky you can fly! Look at me! I only got two pairs of feet, and I got no arms to help me! I'm going through worse!" Bruce shouted as he tried to run as fast as he could. "Curse my stubby feet!"

Some Lakitus seemed to be flying over, and when they noticed Kayzee flying, they took out Spinies and threw them down.

"Kayzee! Watch out!" Geno warned as he used his Geno Beam to destroy the Spiny and blast the Lakitu off of its cloud, sending him out of here. "Phew… That was a close one. Kayzee was in trouble there."

As Bruce and Mallow tried to keep up, the cloud boy realize something.

"You know, I can just make a cloud help me move faster," Mallow said as he summoned a cloud jumped on it. He helped Bruce get on it and sat down, letting the cloud carry them on.

"Now this is MUCH better!" Bruce smiled as they caught up to the group.

As they were all traveling on the tracks, three boys that were of weed, similar to a Dayzee, were flying up in the sky. The middle seemed to have some red, the left one seemed to have some blue, and the one on the right seemed to have green. They were just flying over, minding their own business.

"Say, Bindweed, you sure it was a good idea just leaving the Flower Palace? I mean, what about beating up the Dayzeeflower Girls?" the green one, Poison Ivy mentioned

"Of course, Poison Ivy!" Bindweed nodded. "That king really wasn't interesting. We'll get those Dayzeeflower Girls some other time."

The blue one, Thornbush, saw a fly flying around his head. He kind of played with it a little, but Bindweed saw this and smacked him.

"Quit messin' with the flies, Thornbush! That's not going to help us around here! Pay attention to where we are!"

"All right!" Thornbush began to look down at the tracks, and then he noticed Kayzee and her friends. "Hey, Bindweed! I noticed something!"

"I'm not believing you," Bindweed retorted. "Everything you say is usually wrong. Just be quiet right now and look around to see if there's anything!"

"But I saw one of the Dayzeeflower Girls! …And also ten others on the train tracks!" Now THIS got Bindweed's attention.

"Hmmm?" he looked down and saw them all on the train tracks. He looked at Kayzee and grinned evilly. "Well well! One of them is actually here! You know what we gotta do, right, boys? Let's get her!"

"All right! I call making the first attack!" Thornbush declared as he dove down and managed to knock Kayzee onto the train track.

"What was that? Where did it even come from?" Bow asked as Kayzee got herself up. When she looked up, she saw the Frenzyweed Boys.

"The Frenzyweed Boys!" Kayzee gasped as Chopper stopped and he turned around. C-2 Choppor decided to scan them to see if he could get any information.

"So, who are these stupid people with you?" Bindweed asked rudely as he flew down. "I gotta say, they seem helpless!"

"Stupid? What makes you think we're stupid?" Chopper growled as he clenched his fists. The Fenzyweed Boys laughed.

"Look at yourselves! You don't stand a chance against us!" Poison Ivy scoffed. "Just try anything you can on us! We'll go easy on ya!"

"What makes you think that?" Parakarry asked.

"We're the Frenzyweed Boys!" Bindweed replied. "We're like that Dayzeeflower Girl friend of yours. However, when it comes to power, we triumph!"

"Hmmm… So they have super powers like Kayzee. That's what my scanners tell me." C-2 Choppor stated.

"Oh yeah? Well I'm something a little different to this world too! Chopper jumped up and attacked the Frenzyweed Boys with a Hi-Jump Kick, sending them flying to the ground.

"Awesome work, Chopper!" Ghoster said with a thumbs up. Bindweed flew up, and he began to fly toward Chopper to punch him. Luckily, Kayzee flew in the way and punched him in order to save him. Though, that didn't change anything when Chopper got knocked down by Thornbush.

"I'll handle this," Mallow stated as he summoned some clouds, and a Thunderbolt came down on the Frenzyweed Boys.

"Grrrr! What's this? What kind of powers do they have?!" Bindweed exclaimed as Poison Ivy got up and noticed that they were all trying to get away. C-2 Choppor noticed them coming toward them, so he turned around while flying and fired at them.

"Whoa! Get a load of the robot! He's pretty cool…for a destructive creation that is!" Poison Ivy snorted.

"I am not destructive. I don't actually want to fight." C-2 Choppor stated. "The reason I am fighting is because I'm trying to save all the Stars from being trapped by robots of my kind."

"Oh, whatever! We can still get them!" All three of them flew closer to them, but Ghoster used his psychic to keep them still.

"OK, Koopla! You're all clear!" Ghoster declared as Koopla got in her shell. Ghoster used his psychic to make her attack all three of them and help her come back to them safely.

"They're not really easy to get rid of apparently. They still want to fight for some reason. This is just getting too ridiculous." Geno sighed as he fired a Geno Beam at the Frenzyweed Boys, whoy dodged it. They noticed a tunnel up ahead, and they were going to crash in it.

"Boys, watch out!" Bindweed warned, but unfortunately, they crashed above the tunnel, making them fall to the ground. They all got up in a dazed manner, but Bindweed was able to recover quickly.

"You idiots! If you didn't act so slowly, then we could've had them!" Bindweed yelled. "Now we lost them in that spooky tunnel!"

"Sorry Bindweed. But they were just too fast." Thornbush moaned as he got up. "Also that kick in the head really hurt. Who ever knew that some kid could have a tough kick. That was so hard on my head."

"Yeah, my head hurts too," Poison Ivy whined as he twitched. "Why did we have to hit that tunnel? My head feels like it's in such HUGE pain! Ohhhhhhhhhhh… So bad."

"Fine, we'll let them go for now," Bindweed grumbled. "If we ever see them again, we're gonna GET them! You got that, boys? Let's go fly somewhere else…and maybe steal ourselves a new Nintendo 64 console! You HAD to break our old one, Poison Ivy."

"I thought we were going to steal a SNES!" Thornbush gawked. "Wait… What does SNES stand for anyway?"

"I don't know, but I could care less! Let's just go. The Nintendo 64 is better anyway." Bindweed stated as he and his brothers flew off to steal a Nintendo 64.

* * *

**Tunnel-**

"Do you think they'll be waitin' fer us outside of the tunnel?" Yosho asked. "Or are they followin' us through the tunnel?"

"I can't hear them coming," Bow noticed. "It doesn't seem like they're going to follow us anyway. At least we're all OK."

"Hmmm… I can't read much on this letter in the dark" Parakarry groaned. Oh, whatever! I'll check it when we're out of this darn tunnel!"

"We're almost there. Good thing no trains showed up, or this would've been a bad thing. We should be lucky." Geno sighed.

"OK, we're getting close out!" Chopper noticed as he saw the light at the end of the tunnel. "Now let's get prepared for anything that might pop out of nowhere in there…such as those Frenzyweed Boys, OK?"

"I'm ready if they come back," Kayzee declared. "Of course, your kick can always affect them greatly. I just wonder when we'll be off of these tracks."

"I'm sure it won't be so long. Just bear with it." Chopper assured as he began to grind toward the light, and they all began to see something as they were coming out of the cave. Something…interesting.

* * *

**Syrup Path-**

The tunnel led them back outside where the train tracks are, but to the south, they could see a path with a sign right by it. It seemed to lead someplace else, so they all got off of it. The grass was a green color, and there were bushes around. It looked likes Pleasant Path and Frog Fields, but there were more trees around. There was a dirt path that led the way to where they needed to go.

"Good thing we're not on those train tracks," Koopla panted as she sighed in relief. "I almost heard a train comin' our way! We should be safe for now… At least, I think we are."

"Let's see what the sign reads," Chopper wondered as he walked over to the sign and began to read it.

_To go to Nightclub Casino, you must go through Syrup Path, and to __**Lumberjack Mill**__. Getting to the casino isn't easy, because you need to get a ticket at the mill. If you're a lumberjack, then come over to Lumberjack Mill!_

"Lumberjack Mill? Come on! I was hoping it would be a restaurant! What's so good about a lumberjack? I mean, they're tougher than barbarians. Then again, they're always good at wrestling bears…and finding traps."

"But there aren't any bears in the Mushroom Kingdom," Ghoster pointed out. "There are traps, but no bears. So I don't think lumberjacks are so great here. Wait… I know nothing about lumberjacks!"

"Lumberjacks are usually jacked men…like me! Yep, I sure looked jacked, don't I?" Yosho grinned as he flexed his "muscles".

"You don't even look muscular at all," Bow face palmed. "How could you say that when you AREN'T? Sometimes you're a bit stupid..."

"I do have to agree. Yosho is kind of stupid at times." Kayzee agreed. "But, he's not really bad. He's our idiot, after all!"

"Yeah, we can't have an adventure without an idiot!" Chopper smiled. "A useful idiot at that!"

"Oh, yer welcome!" Yosho grinned as he punched Chopper's stomach.

"Ow…! Oh, man… Not again. It feels just like Yoshi's Island already. Why did you DO that, Yosho?! That kind of hurt!"

"Well that's what I do sometimes! I haven't done it in a while, an' I did it fer good luck! Ya'd understand that, right?"

"I would…but I'm not going to." Chopper quickly shook his head and looked at Syrup Path. Not much was around, apparently.

"So if this place is called Syrup Path, you suppose there might be some syrup for us?" Mallow wondered. "Syrup is pretty good with pancakes."

"Maybe they should have Pancake Road! ...Or Maple Trail!"

"Chopper, stop with that already," Koopla groaned. "You're starting to make me dislike you a little more."

"...You dislike me?"

"Uhhh... No?"

"Oh... OK, then!"

"I'm pretty sure that there isn't any syrup here. But… Let me just feel where the Power Star is." Geno closed his eyes and tried to feel where the Power Star was. "Ahhhh... I think coming here was a good idea. I can feel it inside Nightclub Casino. Although, the walk may be long, but it's the only way to get there. I recommend we go to Lumberjack Mill to get those tickets - if they have eleven of them, that is."

"So we need to actually go to Nightclub Casino," Chopper sighed in relief. "Well, I guess that's better than any of the dangerous places like Koopa Bros. Park, Dry Dry Ruins, Boo's Mansion, Mechanical Box, Yoshi's Island, Flower Palace, Crystal Palace, Frog Swamp, Ghost Tower, and Star Hill. Yep, I'd take the casino place over those."

"Yes, I think it's rather…nice," C-2 Choppor agreed. "Though, I'm not sure about this Goombado that the letter's for. Parakarry, it says it's from Bowser, yes?"

"Yeah, it is," Parakarry nodded as he checked the letter again. "I have a bad feeling about going there, though. Doesn't feel like we'll be safe and sound inside the casino. That and the Lumberjack Mill might be dangerous. Lots of work going on there. A lot of sharp objects too."

"All right, anyway, I'm gonna see what's up ahead," Chopper declared as he began to run on ahead through Syrup Path. Bruce jumped up a little.

"Hey! Wait for me—er, I mean us!" Bruce cried as he began to run after Chopper, not doing such a good job at keeping up.

"I have a feeling this may not be exactly as easy as I think it is," Geno pondered. "For some reason, it feels like it's going to be…a difficult task."

"Oh, quit worryin' already!" Yosho suggested. "We can get through here an' go to Lumberjack Mill! I'm sure I can handle all the tough work there! I am manly, after all!"

"Yeeeah… We'll see about that." Geno followed Chopper, and so did Yosho. He got Bruce and Mallow onto his back so it would be easier for them. Luckily, both of them weren't too heavy for him to carry.

"Oh, thanks Yosho!" Mallow thanked. "I thought I would have to walk through this place! Though, I don't want to be considered 'lazy'…"

"Don't worry 'bout it! If I didn't help ya, then ya'd be waaaaaaay behind us! I'm not lettin' you two fall behind while the rest of us keeps goin'!"

While Chopper was running on the path, Bow managed to catch up. "Maybe you can go a little slower so everyone else can keep up."

"Why would I do that? Don't we need to go a little faster?"

"Please? For me? You can do a favor for your pretty girlfriend, right?"

"But you're not my..."

"You really should."

"Oh, all right," Chopper groaned as began to slow down. _"It makes me wonder when I can ACTUALLY just run…"_

Chopper could see some stumps on the ground on the grass, which he used his Tornado Jump on them and found a pipe hiding under the ground. This left everyone confused, but they jumped into it anyway.

Chopper saw a chest in the brown underground room, so he opened it and picked up a Super Charge Hand Badge, which could boost Chopper's Hand attack by three. It could be helpful, but the Super Jump Charge Badge was a lot better.

"Awesome! We got a new Badge! I might hold onto this for now." Chopper equipped the Badge and went out of the underground room and to the next area of Syrup Path.

They could see a lot of Syrup Koopa Troopas that seemed to be hyper lurking around. It was like they're on a sugar rush. It must be because of all the sugar they were having from syrup. That is, if any syrup actually existed around the path.

"Whoa… Look at those Syrup Koopas move. It's like they've been having…" Chopper noticed a Syrup Koopa drinking syrup. "…syrup! No wonder this is called Syrup Path. I guess people drink syrup in Syrup Path..."

One of the Syrup Koopas got in its shell to attack Chopper, but since he still had his Fighter ability on, he managed to perform an uppercut punch on the Syrup Koopa, knocking it down.

"Ow! Man, I didn't know he can do that! I got a better idea!" the Syrup Koopa said as it got in its shell and before Chopper could attack, it managed to knock him away, removing his Fighter ability.

"What? Aw, COME ON! I loved that ability!" Chopper growled as Geno took care of the Syrup Koopa with his Geno Beam.

"These Koopas are too dangerous. We can't risk fighting them." Geno suggested. Everyone agreed and walked toward the next area, following the dirt path. However, Chopper stopped and looked through some of the bushes for coins. Afterward, he flipped a Syrup Koopa over.

"Ah, that felt good to go!" Chopper then felt Bow grab his hand and drag him over to the next part of the area of Syrup Path, knowing that he stayed behind a little. They found some hills, but it wasn't such a big deal. They just went over the hills and beat the Syrup Koopas that tried to attack. But when they went to the lower right, they saw that they couldn't jump all the way up over a big hill. Luckily, there was a hill they could go up to the upper right that they ignored before.

It wasn't over yet, since there was a big gap between. Parakarry was happy enough to take Chopper over. After helping the others that couldn't fly, they all saw a wandering Goomba on the path. It had a big bag that it was carrying around.

"_So heavy…_" the Goomba moaned as the heroes walked over to the Goomba, and when it looked up, it saw them. "Oh… Hello there…_urgh!_ Who are you people? I don't know what some of you are, especially you, pale green boy."

"I'm Chopper, and I'm trying to get to Nightclub Casino," Chopper replied. "Any chance if you know the way there?"

"Of course… But I don't think it's easy for someone like you to go in. Though, I'm not so sure how old you are, but just keep going through Syrup Path and you'll make it to Lumberjack Mill. You'll need a ticket to go to Nightclub Casino, which you can only get it by going to Lumberjack Mill."

"What are you carrying on your back?" Kayzee asked. "Whatever's in there, it looks heavy."

"Why, aren't you adorable!" the Goomba noticed as it looked at Kayzee. "I'm carrying a big golden statue of Bowser to be taken to Toad Town. It's so…heavy."

"Hey, maybe I can help you!" Mallow declared as he made a cloud appear, and the Goomba was on it now. "Go ahead, put the backpack down."

The Goomba put it down and noticed that the backpack didn't go through the ground.

"Why thank you, cloud person! I feel much better! Here, you can take this." the Goomba gave Chopper an Attack FX C Badge and also an Attack FX K. Apparently the last letter seemed to represent which character the Badge affects. Chopper's Attack FX C makes some kind of guitar sound, and Attack FX K makes a drum sound for Koopla.

"Huh… These are rather cool. Thanks for the Badges!" Chopper waved goodbye to the Goomba as it floated away on the cloud...until he realized something. "Wait a minute… A statue of Bowser? Uh… Did we do the right thing by bringing it to Toad Town?"

"SUCKER!" the Goomba shouted as the cloud left their sights

"Crap… We fell for that one." Koopla face palmed. "Damn... Now there's going to be a statue of Bowser in Toad Town! I think Bowser might be trying to take over the Mushroom Kingdom by taking over Toad Town!"

"You're right, and we can't let him do that. We better get going." Chopper proceeded onto the next area, which they didn't find much, but close by, they could see a mill. Not only that, but they could hear saws and wood being cut up. The area was small, but it might be where they need to go.

Kayzee flew up just to make sure and noticed Lumberjack Mill up ahead. She floated down to everyone else and smiled.

"I see the Lumberjack Mill! We're not much farther now! Yay!" Kayzee cheered as Bow took a look for herself.

"I can definitely hear it," Bow nodded, despite being annoyed with the noise. "Ugh, I hate all that noise, but we have no other choice but to go there."

"Then we shall go," C-2 Choppor declared as they began to walk toward the mill. For some reason, they had a feeling there would be more there besides wood and saws.

* * *

**They've been fooled...by Goomba! How could that happen? I don't know, not all Goombas are stupid (even ask Goombella!), but we'll be heading on over to Lumberjack Mill next chapter!**


	66. Bob Becomes a Boss

Our heroes made it through Syrup Path and got to Lumberjack Mill, noticing that the mill was bigger than they saw it before, and there was also a windmill to add to that. The mill was brown, and inside they could hear a chainsaw cutting a log. The grass was a little darker, and they could see some tree stumps on the ground, showing that trees had been cut down by lumberjacks. Of course, they knew that they needed tickets to work here.

"Well, there it is guys. We have finally made it to Lumberjack Mill!" Chopper smiled as he stood proudly. "Yep, after going through Syrup Path and being fooled by some weird Goomba that acted old, we made it! …But I don't know if I'm going to actually LIKE this stuff."

"You guys can do the work," Bruce stated as she leaned as if she was on a leaning chair. "I'm not going to be doing any of this. I'm not going to risk myself from getting hurt or getting dirty."

"Of course we'll let you do nothing!" Bruce assured, trying to impress her, while it clearly wasn't working. "You're pretty much like a princess! Princesses don't deserve to do any of the work!"

"Yeah, you just sit back. I'll be the man an' do all the work!" Yosho grinned. "You'll probably like seein' me do the work fer ya! Plus, I bet yer gonna fall for me when I'm done! Don't you think so, Bow?"

"Wait… WHAT? Bow, just because you're a girl doesn't mean you get to sit back and let us do all the work. It wouldn't be fair." Chopper scolded. "Plus, we're all in this together, so we all have to work together."

"Chopper, you wouldn't want anything bad happen to me, wouldn't you? Remember back at Star Hill what happened?" Bow asked as she batted her eyes at him, which were softened.

"No, but nice try. That's not going to work on me this time. I've already dealt with that before..."

"Well then…" Bow changed to her appearance that Chopper found attractive before and floated close to Chopper, rubbing her hands on his cheek. "Come on, Chopper. Don't you care about me?"

"Uh… I don't know… But uh…" Chopper stammered as his cheeks turned red. "Well... You see..."

_"You HAD to do it!"_ Koopla thought as she face palmed._ "Bow should DO something!" _

"OK… You can go ahead and just sit back." Chopper assured. "I'll do the rest for you."

"Oh, good!" she kissed Chopper on the cheek and changed back to her regular appearance. Seeing Bow get off the hook on the job, Kayzee was certainly not happy.

_"How come she's allowed to get away with that?! That's not fair!"_

"Chopper, if Bow's allowed to not do any work, then how come I can't either?" Kayzee asked. "It's not right if she's the only one who can't do work!"

"Kayzee, you can literally do ANYTHING…" Koopla pointed out. "Why are you whining about that?"

"Don't ask me why! I don't even like lumberjack stuff! So if you don't like what I'm saying, then you can go shove yourself into a toilet!"

"Whoa, settle down, Kayzee," Geno suggested. "Your superpowers would help us, you know. You're not going to get hurt by all of the stuff here."

"...OK, I suppose I'll do it," Kayzee sighed. "While I won't like it, I can literally do anything with these superpowers. However, Bow shouldn't be sitting down and making us do all the work! She's just being lazy!"

"Don't worry about it. Cute little Chopper just doesn't want anything bad happening to me, that's all." Bow said as she pinched Chopper's cheeks, who covered his face as his cheeks turned red.

_"I feel so uncomfortable right now..."_ Chopper thought.

"We should get going. That wood isn't going to cut itself." C-2 Choppor stated. "Now, if only we had a laser sword..."

"Outta the way, suckers!" Someone on a motorcycle went past them. It seemed to be Bob, and when he got to Lumberjack Mill, he began to rev his motorcycle so he could be the louder one.

"Abababababababa!" Bob shouted randomly to be even louder. He even got a horn and began to play it.

_"Hey! Who the heck's playin' that horn an' makin' that noise? Get him off of our property right now!"_

A Koopa in a red shirt and blue overalls came out. He looked pretty dirty, and he had a gray beard. "Hey! Who the heck do you think you are revvin' that motorcycle in front of our mill! Can't you see we're tryin' to work here!"

"Well SORRY!" Bob apologized sarcastically. "I just wanted to get a ticket to Nightclub Casino! What's wrong with that?"

"Do you know what they call people like you? A brick."

"What did you say? !" Bob gawked, obviously hating being called a "brick" for some reason. "Did you just insult my by calling me a _brick_? !"

"Yeah, that's right. Yer a brick! An' if you don't like that, then you can get yer butt off our property! You better make a decision before I get my shotgun out to shoot ya!"

"Hey, you know what? If you call me brick at my face one more time, You better-"

"I already did it twice, brickhead."

"Well I think that… I think that you uh…you probably won't say that again!" Bob retorted, doing a terrible job at his argument.

"I bet I do," the lumberjack assured as he crossed his arms.

"Well OK I…"

"Brick!" Bob was interrupted once again, and it made him walk over to the lumberjack and punch him in the face. He wasn't the best fighter in the world, but he can get ticked off whenever he gets called a douche. He then threw the lumberjack onto the ground.

"_**NEVER…CALL ME…A BRICK! YOU GOT THAT?**_**!**" Bob roared. "Now where's that Nightclub Casino Ticket that I need to go to the casino? 'Cause I wanna go there to relax. OK?"

"You need to work in this lumber mill if you want to get a ticket!" the lumberjack replied as he rubbed his face. "Sorry, but that's how it is. I didn't make the rules, Goombado did."

"Do you even know I'm Maquano's brother? You know, that evil old demon knight that's a wuss? I'm the better one around here, and I always try to go through his stuff and use it without cleaning after myself. Sucks that I've never seen him without his helmet on. But you better know that I AM his brother, so you better give me the ticket...or else!"

"Or else what?" the lumberjack asked as Bob walked over to his motorcycle and began to rev it as loud as possibly. When Chopper walked over to the mill, he covered his antennas, due to the loud noise.

"Oh come on! Stop with the motorcycle already you brick!" Chopper shouted, which Bob heard and stopped revving his motorcycle.

"Hey… You're Chopper!" Bob gaped. "Oh man, have I been WAITING to get you! Now I can finally become a boss like I was trying to do! Yeah! I can finally achieve my goal!"

"Who are you anyway?" Chopper asked. "I never seen anyone like you? Tell us who you are."

"What? You never heard about me? Who do you think I look like?"

No one responded.

"Yeah, I look like Maquano! …Sort of! Yes, I'm Maquano's brother! I'm the better and cooler brother of the two! Yup, me and my motorcycle are what makes me the better sibling!"

"What? I never knew Maquano had a brother! Get out of here, OK? I don't have time to face against you, you idiot!"

"Get lost already! We don't need to deal with the likes of you anyway!" Geno shouted as he got in a fighting stance.

"Pbbbbbbbbbbbt! No way, doll!" Bob retorted. "I'm taking you all down! I'm the best fighter there is!"

"Well, at least they'll take care of him…" the lumberjack shrugged as he walked back into the mill, while the eleven heroes began to face off against Bob.

**Tattle: **_This is Maquano's brother? Wow… He looks like a biker for some reason. I never knew he had a brother anyways. Max HP: 120, Attack Power: 10, Defense Power: 0. He doesn't seem to be much of a fighter at all. I think this fight won't be as bad as you think it would be. Just watch out for his motorcycle. That might be a little dangerous._

Chopper walked over to Bob and simply attacked him with his hammer, making Bob cringe in pain.

"Ouch! Man, that hammer's tough!" Bob yelped. "Oh yeah… I haven't really fought in a long time."

Geno fired his Geno Beam at Bob, knocking him over. However, Bob got himself up, and he knew what to do.

"I'm gonna punch ya!" Bob ran toward Chopper, but he tripped on a rock and fell right on Chopper. He managed to flatten him, but his punch probably would've been much better. Chopper punched Bob with a flaming punch, and it caused him to go on fire.

"YAAAAAH! It burns! Need water!" Bob began to stop, drop, and roll and all the flames went away in no time.

"Oh, man… He's rather stupid. But that's a good thing for us." Mallow smiled as he made a cloud fall on Bob, taking 7 out of him.

Bob got out his motorcycle and revved it loudly. "Yeah, I'm cool, right? Oh, you wanna see it go? Here ya go!" he revved his motorcycle even more, wasting his own turn by only doing that. Everyone had no idea what to say.

"Wow… That's all you're doing? OK… I might as well attack." Chopper blinked as he used his Power Bounce to stomp on Bob eight times, while Bow took out her fan and smacked Bob five times, leaving him smacked.

"Ow! Stop with the smacking!" Bob cried.

"Hmmmmm... No, not likely." Bow smirked.

After the smacking, Bob charged at Chopper with his motorcycle and managed to knock him back. However, Chopper got back up and returned to Bob, not looking quite as pleased.

"Oh, now you've done it!" Chopper brought his hand toward Bob and shot an ice ball at him, making him feel cold.

"I might as well go boom," Bruce declared as he walked toward Bob and blew up in front of him, taking out 8 from him.

"What am I going to do now? Oh, yeah!" Bob took out a knife and threw it at Chopper, which made him yelp and duck to avoid it.

"Phew! That was TOO close!" Chopper sighed as he brought his hammer out and used his Mega Smash to deal 10 damage to Bob.

"Yeow! Man, I never knew being a boss would be so painful! I don't think I came prepared for this…"

"All right, I'm goin' for it!" Yosho laid an egg and took the egg and he threw it at Bob. Thankfully, nothing came out of the egg.

"Aw man! Nothing in the egg!" Bob pouted as he walked over to Chopper and slightly slapped him, which only did 1 damage.

"What was that? I don't even know what you just did there…" Chopper trailed.

"Oh crud…" Bob gulped as he got stomped on by Chopper twice, allowing Ghoster to punch him with his fists.

"Take THAT!" Ghoster shouted as Bob got on his motorcycle and revved it, which didn't even do anything at all.

"Wow… Is that all? You really aren't so good. I'm sorry, but I had to say that." Chopper face palmed as he threw an ice ball at Bob. Geno attacked again with a Geno Beam, and it left Bob with only 15 HP. To them, this was barely even a fight.

"Oooooog… This isn't good. Oh, whatever. I'll just use it!" Bob took out a Hellspawn grenade, but he suddenly forgot what to do with it.

"Oh boy! Not a Plasma Grenade!" Chopper gulped as he brought his arms up to guard.

"Hold on a minute… What do I do with this again?" the grenade blew up, and he took 10 damage from it. "Wow... I am sucking horrendously..."

"That's it? Oh… Let's finish it up, then." Chopper walked over to Bob and stomped on him, making him fall over on the ground in defeat. Chopper waggled his finger and got 34 Star Points. Also, he leveled up and chose BP to have 33 BP.

Bob slowly got back up and got to his motorcycle and revved it so he could get some more attention from the lumberjacks. One of them came out and he knocked that one out and went inside, leaving Chopper and his friends to gawk.

"Wait... What on earth is he..." Chopper blinked as he and his friends could hear some punching and kicking sounds and some "OOH! OW! EEE! OOF!" sounds. Afterward, Bob came out of the mill holding a ticket up while having a couple of bruises on him.

"Forget it! I'm not working in this Lumberjack Mill! I'm too cool for that anyway!" Bob stated. "Smell ya later, Chopper! Next time I WILL be a true boss! …And then I'll give Maquano some noogies after that."

Bob revved his motorcycle again as he rode over to Nightclub Casino. He smirked and made loud noises before Chopper face palmed.

"He got his ticket already… Crud." Chopper groaned. "That's really REALLY bad that he got it. What are we going to do now?"

"Well… We gotta do the work here." Geno stated. "We have no other choice. If we just steal a ticket, that's not gonna do much. We're good guys, remember?"

"It's a good idea, and you can just go to it," Bow assured. "Of course, I'll just be watching you all do it. You even _said _that I could just relax, didn't you, Chopper?"

"Come on, Bow. Don't just make us do all the work, because it'll just make…" When Chopper felt Bow rubbing his cheek, he stepped back with his cheeks turning red. "Er… Never mind what I said."

"Oh, Chopper. You're just as cute as you always were! I'm so glad I met a cutie such as yourself. You'll always let me do whatever I want, including not doing any work here!"

However, Kayzee was not pleased by her manner. She flew over to Chopper and tapped his arm.

"Hey, Chopper, maybe you shouldn't listen to her for once," Kayzee suggested. "She's pretty much using you to do everything for her! Don't let yourself be so gullible!"

"Oh please, flower girl... He'll do anything for his girlfriend." Bow said as she gave Kayzee a snooty look and grabbed Chopper's arm. "After all, I told him we were boyfriend and girlfriend if he helped save my people. That doesn't give you the right to interfere with our relationship."

"I don't know much about relationships, but I don't like it when my friend's being used like a slave by a snobby girl!"

"Snobby?" Bow fumed. "How am I snobby?"

"You decide not to do any work as if you were superior to them! That's really mean!"

"Oh boy… I think we're having a cat fight!" Bruce gaped. "And usually those are hard to break up! You have any idea what to do?"

"My scanners…don't tell me what to do," C-2 Choppor responded as he shook his head. "Sadly, there's not much we can do."

"Kayzee, stay out of our relationship," Bow suggested as she pulled Chopper away. "Chopper's just being a gentlemen for me like he usually is. Most guys act like gentlemen to girls anyway."

"Does it even look like he enjoys it?" Kayzee asked, noticing Chopper's face. She grabbed Chopper's arm and pulled him away from Bow. "You shouldn't be like this to him! Plus, not everyone gave you permission to sit back and do nothing!"

"I'm allowed this kind of special treatment in my mansion."

"Yeah! She is!" Yosho agreed.

"Stay out of this, Yosho!"

"Dang..."

"Well, you sure are snooty and lazy!" Kayzee scoffed.

"Please let me go! I don't want to be involved in this!" Chopper cried as Mallow tried to pull him away. Unfortunately, with Kayzee's grip on him, he wasn't succeeding.

"It's no use. I can't do anything about it." Mallow sighed. I wish I could help Chopper, but doing that won't be so good… Then again, at least Kayzee is defending Chopper over what's right."

"Hmmm…" Geno began to ponder for a moment. "Ghoster, your psychic can help, right? Maybe you can help him by using your psychic abilities."

"Of course! I was planning on doing it anyway. Watch the master do this!" Ghoster grinned as his eyes were glowing a blue color, and Chopper was pulled away from the two girls, who noticed Chopper being pulled away by Ghoster.

"Thank you, Ghoster! I thought I was going to be some big trouble there!" Chopper sighed in relief as Geno's right hand changed to his star gun and shot small stars into Chopper's mouth. "Hmmm? What are these? They're pretty good!"

"Oh, that's just something called Star Snacks. I just have that with me in case if I'm hungry…though I'm not sure how that's possible, since I'm a doll." Geno laughed.

"We should just go into the Lumberjack Mill already. Those two girls can fight as much as they want." Koopla said as she watched the two girls argue.

"Will they notice me being gone?" Chopper wondered.

"Ehhh... I don't think they'll care. Besides, it won't last forever."

* * *

**Inside the mill-**

The nine walked into the Lumberjack Mill, where it was the loudest. The ground was made of wood, and they could see a wood pillar in the middle. There were approximately three floors in the Lumberjack Mill. A Koopla lumberjack noticed them come in.

"Eh? Who're you? Oh! Yer the one that took care of that idiot biker!" the lumberjack realized. "What do ya need? We'll give it to ya if ya need it!"

"We need…tickets for the Nightclub Casino. That's what we came here for." Chopper explained.

"Oh, that? It may be risky for ya, but you can go on ahead. But, ya gotta work in order to get 'em!" the lumberjack looked over at Koopla and grinned. "Well hello there, pretty lady! You came here to work too? Well, I'll make it easy fer ya! Don't you worry about it!"

"Cut that crap out. I'm not gettin' any respect from you. I'm going to do as much work as I want to do!" Koopla growled, bringing her fist up to the lumberjack. "So don't give me any of that, or I'm gonna kick your butt! And I mean it!"

"OK, then…" the lumberjack backed away and turned to Chopper, but then Yosho pushed Chopper out of the way.

"So yer sayin' that I'll be more of a man if I work in this Lumberjack Mill, is that correct?" Yosho asked.

"Of course ya will! But ya don't look much like a man! Ha ha ha ha! But, I'll let ya have a chance, all right?"

"SCORE! Now I'll get the ladies by workin' here!" Yosho raised his fist up as his sunglasses shined.

"Yosho, you know we're only doing this until we get the tickets, you know that?" Chopper wondered as he slowly got up. "And don't just push me out of the way like that!"

"Well this won't be easy for me," Mallow sighed. "I'm not exactly the strongest person, and it might be hard for me to do this. Can anyone lift things up?"

"I can, so don't you worry. I'm already a toughie." Koopla assured. "I've broken a lot of rocks, and a lot of things made of steel with my shell. Yeah, I can do it!"

"I'll try to help as much as I can. I might have some good strength in me." Parakarry said. "C-2 Choppor might be pretty helpful too, as well as Ghoster for having those psychic abilities. Kayzee could help but she's busy arguing with Bow."

"Two girls outside are arguin'? Well, we can handle it! Chuck here will help you guys out right now!" the lumberjack left the mill and a lumberjack Koopa with a hat on walked over to them.

"Hey, you remind me of Chuck Dorris!" Chopper noticed.

"Who's Chuck Dorris?" Mallow asked.

"Some guy I once saw on TV before. He was pretty cool!"

"All right, let's get to work now," Chuck declared. "Follow me so we can get everything settled. Don't worry, it's not that hard…if you're strong, that is."

"We can handle it!" Chopper assured as he smirked and pulled on the cuffs of his gloves. "I know we can!"

"Excellent. Now follow me so we can get started." the nine of them began to follow Chuck to a log with a giant saw. "You need to cut these in half and carry them up to the third floor to the machine to turn it to sawdust. If you can carry logs, then this should be easy. Come back to me when you carried all the logs up and made it into saw dust. Don't try to trick me, because I'll know if you did it. The saw dust on your hands would prove you did it or not."

Chopper nodded, and they all walked over to the big log. The lumberjack who got the two girls came back inside with them. Bow flew over to Chopper, while Kayzee flew over to the group.

"So what happened?" Mallow asked.

"She kept going on with something called 'chivalry', which I didn't understand," Kayzee explained. "Honestly, she's not a likeable girl..."

"Oh... But, I guess she'll probably learn soon. But at least you helped a friend. That's a good thing."

"It's the least I can do for helping me save Bloopi."

"Well, I guess you guys can get back to work. After all, Chopper told me I didn't have to work." Bow said as she winked at Chopper. However, this time he wasn't going to let her get away with all of this.

"No, Bow. You NEED to help us." Chopper declared. "I don't care about being a gentlemen or you being a princess. If you want to help us on this quest, then you have to help us get a job like this done."

"But..."

"No! I'm tired of you trying to take advantage of me making me be like a slave! If you wanted me to actually like you, you wouldn't do that!"

"...OK, I guess you make a point," Bow sighed. "I'm sorry for that... I suppose I shouldn't act like that."

"Thank you, Bow."

"OK, that's good! Now can we get back to work?" Yosho asked as he lifted a log. "Man, is this thing heavy or what? It's a little long, too!"

"Don't worry, I got this!" Kayzee giggled as she cut the logs in half with her heat vision. "Don't worry! Now they should be lighter!"

"Oh, yeah, thanks..." Bruce groaned. "But I can't do a thing!"

"You... You can turn on the machine!" Parakarry suggested.

"Oh! OK then!" Bruce hurried over to the machine as Yosho carried a log over to the sawdust machine. Kayzee grabbed a log and easily carried it into the sawdust machine. So far, that was one whole log.

"OK… I'm gonna try to pick one up." Chopper tried to pick a log up, but when he held it up, he had a hard time moving it. "Curse myself for not being so strong!"

"Don't worry, I'm giving you some help. Don't worry about the log falling on you. I got this!" Koopla assured as she helped lift up the log. "We'll do this together, all right?"

"OK!"

Chopper and Koopla began to carry the log up to the third floor. Ghoster got two logs using his psychic abilities. Parakarry helped Yosho with one log, and C-2 Choppor, Mallow, and Geno made sure the log Ghoster was carrying with his psychic would be just fine.

"Move it gently… Make sure that log doesn't hit anything, Ghoster." C-2 Choppor suggested as he was trying to keep it steady.

"Careful now… We got it!" Mallow smiled as he stretched his arms to hold it still, and they made their way up the stairs. Kayzee was the only one who was carrying a log herself. She was the first to throw it into the machine.

The log Chopper and Koopla were carrying almost fell over, but Bow managed to grab a hold of it with her stubby arms and help bring it to the machine, where the log got turned into sawdust.

"Well, at least sawdust didn't get in my bows," Bow sighed as she stepped away from the machine.

"Hey, Chuck! Can you turn that radio on? We need some music here!" a lumberjack called out.

"Oh, fine…" Chuck turned on the radio, and a catchy song called "Ashley's Song" began to play. Chopper and his friends thought it was a little catchy, but the lumberjacks themselves didn't like it.

"Dude, what's this song? Where's the manly songs?" they tried to change the song, but it wouldn't work. It was like the song had a curse that prevents you from changing it. While they banged on the radio, Chopper and his friends managed to get the logs to become saw dust and went down to Chuck. One thing for sure was that everyone was dirty and had sawdust on them.

"Whoa, man! You sure look dirty!" Chuck gaped. "You've probably been carrying that thing for a while. Great work! I think you deserve some payment."

Chuck gave Chopper sixty coins. "And you also earned yourself tickets! Yup! Good job, kid!"

"Who's singing that song?" Chopper asked, curious about the singer. "Is it some kind of creepy girl who uses magic?"

"Beats me, I mostly do some karate when I'm not working. But, take the tickets anyway." Chuck shrugged as he gave Chopper three tickets.

"Wait… _Three_ tickets? We need eleven!" Yosho gaped.

"We had four of 'em, but that idiot revving his motorcycle stole one of 'em. Sorry 'bout that..."

"Oh, that stinks," Chopper sighed. "Well, we should just go to the casino already. We can't do anything else..."

Chopper began to take the back way to reach the casino, while everyone else followed him. Knowing that they only had three tickets, how were they going to all get themselves into Nightclub Casino?

* * *

**Only three tickets? I wonder how this is going to work out. I said that Chapter 12 would be unique, and you'll see what I mean in the next chapter. I really liked this idea when thinking of it.**


	67. Nightclub Casino's New Employees

Leaving Lumberjack Mill after some tough work, Chopper and his friends saw that it was nighttime right by Nightclub Casino. The only problem was that there was a hill going up and the fact that they only have three tickets. They could see some light purple lights outside and a glowing sign on Nightclub Casino. It looked absolutely gorgeous, and they all wondered how in the world Goombado could afford all of this, seeing that the place was huge.

"Having only three tickets is a bad thing… " Chopper sighed. "If that Bob guy didn't take a ticket, we'd have four! …But that still isn't enough…"

"Not only that, but we really got ourselves dirty," Koopla noted, despite not caring. "We really can't go into that casino like this, you know. They just won't let us in since we might get things dirty."

"Maybe we can clean ourselves in there," Chopper suggested as he noticed a hot spring. "That, and I can heal myself as well."

He jumped into the hot spring, and when he came back out, he was all cleaned up and revitalized. Afterward, he stretched and sat down to relax.

"Holy… There's a hot spring here? All right! Now I can get myself clean fer the ladies!" Yosho declared. "I'm pretty sure there are some of 'em in there fer me! If not, then why the hell are we even goin' to that Nightclub Casino?"

Everyone went into the hot spring to clean their hair, skin, shells, bows, and clothes. Chopper took out the three red tickets and looked at them with an unsatisfied look.

"Having only three tickets sucks," Bruce stated bluntly. "How are we supposed to get inside the casino when only three of us can go in? This isn't right at all!"

"I don't know… All we can do is go to Nightclub Casino right now. Hold on a minute... I already said that! Well, anyway... Let's go, everyone." Chopper began to go up the hill while his friends followed. As they went up, they could see the ocean, and Chopper noticed something out in the distance. He saw what appeared to be a ghost ship.

"Hey, guys… Look at that!" Chopper said, pointing to the Ghost Ship. Everyone took a look, but they didn't see the Ghost Ship there. Apparently it disappeared before they could take a look.

"I didn't see anything," Bow replied as she turned to Chopper. "Are you sure there was something there, Chopper? That's not the first time this happened, you know…"

"But I swore I saw that Ghost Ship that sunk our terrible raft Toadsmeth gave us! It was just there!"

"Ghost Ship? What are you talking about, Chopper?" Geno gawked. "Hold on… Did you see a Ghost Ship a lot earlier before I joined you? That could possibly be the case… But I'm not fully sure."

"You weren't with us then. Never mind, let's just go to the casino." Chopper sighed as he reached the top of the hill and got to the entrance of Nightclub Casino. There was a red rug leading up to the entrance, and a big Koopa with glasses and a red shell appeared to be guarding the door. Parakarry and Bow looked shocked as they remembered seeing a guy like him.

"Uh oh… It's him again!" Parakarry gulped. "I didn't expect Kent C. Koopa to be a guard here! This isn't good for us…"

"Why should we be worried? He wasn't THAT hard to fight..." Bow recalled.

"Huh? Who goes there?" Kent C. Koopa couldn't see anyone around, since they hid behind a pot. While they were hiding, Kayzee noticed a poster on the wall. It said "HELP WANTED."

"Hey, guys. Take a look at this! I think there might be a way for us to actually go inside of the casino!" Kayzee noticed as she tore off the poster and showed it to everyone.

"Let me take a look!" Chopper looked through it, and jumped up in surprise. "Hey, there's some stuff that might actually help you people to get in! They say they need two waitresses, a waiter, a singer, a dancer, something explosive, and someone who can help with the stage in the auditorium."

Everyone looked at each other for a minute before they looked at Koopla and Bow about the two waitresses they needed. Koopla's expression, however, didn't look happy.

"No way. I'm not bein' a waitress!" Koopla retorted as she shook her head. "I'm not going to dress in some girly outfit just to get in some casino! Sorry, but I'm NOT doin' it!"

"If it's the only way to get in, then it looks like I have no other choice. But it also says they need a waiter." Bow added as she took the poster from Chopper.

An idea struck Yosho as a light bulb appeared on his head. "I'll do it! Bein' a waiter means I get to see all the ladies! Yeah, once I go in, they'll all want me! Chopper, I'll be that waiter they need!"

Just like before, everyone sighed - with the exception of Chopper.

"Oh no… There's no way YOU are going to be a waiter!" Koopla guffawed. "You're going to act like a complete idiot around everyone!"

"No!" Chopper cried as he shook his head at Koopla. "Yosho! Go ahead and be a waiter! And if you want to get the ladies, then do it! I'm being completely honest. You CAN do it!"

"What? You're going to let him do that?! Seriously, that's going to make him look worse around everyone!"

"But it's a good idea to do that," Chopper replied as he took the poster back from Bow and looked at it. "Anyway, they need a singer. Can anyone here sing? Geno? Mallow?"

"Ooh! I'll do it!" Kayzee blurted. "I know that I use my singing on enemies, and maybe I can sing a relaxing tune to everyone!"

"Oh, OK! Now they need a dancer. I don't think anyone around here can dance… Umm… This one looks like a tough one to think of. Let me think…"

"I'm like a puppet, so I can probably do the dancing part," Geno volunteered. "Besides, it's not like it's going to hurt me! Ha ha ha! It'll be some good exercise, I suppose!"

"OK, good! Now… Something explosive? Bruce, maybe you can…"

"Count me in!" Bruce declared. "If anyone can blow something up, it's me!"

"All righty… Someone who can help with the backstage. Mallow, you got arms that can stretch, so maybe your arms can be useful. Plus, you can make weather effects with those weather powers of yours."

"That sounds like a good idea!" Mallow agreed. "OK, Chopper, I'll do it! I can be pretty useful with that stuff!"

"Well, looks like everyone's pleased with their jobs!" Chopper smiled. "Although, are you fine with yours, Bow?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry."

"Chopper, seriously. I DON'T want to be a waitress…" Koopla growled. "It's such a stupid job anyway..."

"Well too bad! You have to!" Chopper replied sharply. "It's the only way we're going to get into the casino anyway. So, go with it, or just leave us!"

"Sigh... OK, fine. I'll do it. But I'm not going to like it, you hear me? This is probably the first time I have to dress in some girly outfit, and believe me, it's going to stink."

"Hey, what about me, Chopper? Is there something I can do to help?" Parakarry asked.

"Sorry, Parakarry. I can't find anything here for you here..." Chopper frowned until an idea struck him. "Wait! You're a postman! You can go inside and deliver the letter to Goombado! You don't actually HAVE to do anything! Postmen can get easy access to places!"

"Oh, really? I think my boss told me about something like that. Not fully sure. But gee, that's a good thing! OK, I'll do that no problem!"

"Hold on a minute," Bruce paused. "We got something for everyone else…except for you, Choppor, and Ghoster. What EXACTLY can you three do though?"

"Well, we got three tickets, right? So… We three can use these tickets to go in!" Chopper declared as he held the three tickets up. "You guys have to go to the back in order to get hired, so go ahead and do that."

They nodded, and everyone except for Chopper, Parakarry, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster went to the back of Nightclub Casino.

"Interesting… So we're just going to go in with the tickets..." C-2 Choppor trailed. "You would probably need me here anyway. I can scan anything important around."

"That's the reason why you and Ghoster are going to be using the other two tickets," Chopper responded. "You can see other things around, and it'll help. Parakarry, you can come with us too, but you gotta mail the letter to Goombado himself."

"Got it! Let's go now!" Parakarry said as the four walked over to the entrance of Nightclub Casino, where Kent C. Koopa noticed their arrival.

"Huh…? Who're you four?" Kent C. Koopa asked. "You look like…an underage kid, a postman, a robot, and some kind of ghost! What're you doing here?"

"Well, sir… We've got tickets to go into the Nightclub Casino. Need proof? Take a look at these." Ghoster pulled out his ticket, while Chopper and C-2 Choppor pulled out theirs. Parakarry simply took out the letter.

"I have a letter that needs to be delivered to Mr. Goombado, sir," Parakarry noted. "So, could I please go into the casino?"

"Hmmm… It looks like it's from him. Go on ahead." Kent C. Koopa stepped aside and Parakarry went inside.

"All right, you know the rules. Anyone under eighteen can't go inside. …Though somehow some weird scary-looking girl with some red devilish kid got inside somehow. Er… I'm so confused." the Koopa began to ponder. "Can anyone go in? Oh, I completely forgot... You know what? You can go right on ahead."

Kent C. Koopa stepped out of the way, and Chopper smiled as he walked into Nightclub Casino. C-2 Choppor and Ghoster followed him inside. There, they could see a dark red carpet in the casino and also some slot machines some Koopas and Lakitus and other minions of Bowser were using. Because of the purple lights inside, it felt very...purple inside.

"Dang it! I just lost myself fifty coins!" a Goomba raged. "This is just a bad day for me! Could it get ANY worse than this?!"

"Holy… This place is HUGE!" Chopper gaped as he could see there was an elevator and also escalators that go up. There was also a bathroom where there were showers. Of course, there was one for males and one for females on each floor, but the showers were on the first floor.

"Oh my god… We just hit the jackpot here!" Ghoster gaped. "This place is AWESOME! And it's so great that it's us three in here! Now, where is Goombado's office. We need to get that Power Star."

"Scanning Nightclub Casino…" C-2 Choppor began to scan everything around. "Invalid location. There is too much stuff here. This presents a problem."

"Invalid? Aw man! Now what're we going to do?" Ghoster groaned as they heard a familiar voice at the restaurant area. They could see Koopla in a white girly outfit with a pink trim serving food to someone.

"Thanks, ma'am!" the Goomba thanked. Koopla was annoyed, but she tried to act out by being kind, which wasn't very easy for her to do. Chopper also saw Bow taking orders and going into the kitchen. All three of them noticed Yosho talking to a lady. They even heard what he was saying.

"Well, hey there, pretty lady!" Yosho greeted. "Y'know, yer pretty hot, but I'm hotter. Stick around after the show, an' maybe we can spend some quality time together at a movie!"

"No way! Who are you anyway? Get away from me, you weirdo." the Koopa barked as Yosho's eyes widened while stepping away.

Chopper, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster walked to the stage area, where they saw Kayzee was singing by a microphone. They couldn't hear the lyrics, but it sounded calm. However, some magic flew toward her, making her shriek as she moved out of the way. Apparently, a girl with black hair with two long ponytails and a red robe did it. The thing is, she was a human, which is not something you'd expect to see often in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Whoa, Ashley! You almost set that girl on fire!" a small red imp named Red realized. "You shouldn't be rude like that!"

"HEY! What happened to the singing?!" Bob cried out as he glared at Ashley, who was apparently sitting next to him. "You HAD to ruin the whole singing! I know my brother would do that, and you remind me of him for some reason…"

"…Leave me alone," Ashley said coldly. Unfortunately, Bob didn't listen to her and continued to be annoying. Red got angry at him and poked Bob in the butt with his weapon, making him yelp like a little girl.

"Hey! Oh, you're going to get it now, you stupid imp!" Bob was about to grab Red, but Ashley took out her wand and zapped Bob.

"We should just keep looking around right now," Chopper suggested. "There's no point in just staying here. Though… That girl gives me the creeps."

The three of them went up the escalator to the sixth floor, which was the top floor. They saw a door that Parakarry was right by. He saw Chopper, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster come up to him.

"Oh, you made it! This is where Goombado is." Parakarry informed. "I'll open the door, since I got access, and you three come in with me. It won't be hard to do, I swear."

He opened the door, and they saw that Goombado's office was big. There was a desk, a computer, and a paper on the desk. Goombado heard them and turned his chair around. He was wearing a tuxedo, a black hat and also had a cigar on him.

"Eh? Who're you?" Goombado asked. "You don't look like my employees! Wait… You're that postman. You got some mail for me?"

"Right here!" Parakarry gave him the letter and left afterward, feeling relieved that he finally got the letter in. Chopper, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster were hanging on the ceiling as Goombado read the letter.

"Hold on a minute… I already got this letter!" the Goomba realized. "C-1 Triple Mega gave me this! Something's not right here!"

"Aha!" Chopper landed on the ground, and his two friends flew down. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Goombado, and Chopper and Ghoster got in their fighting stances.

"What the…! Chopper?! How on earth did you get here! ?" Goombado gaped. "King Bowser told me that you wouldn't get in here! …Then again, I had a feeling you'd get away with it."

"Yeah, we did! Now hand over the Power Star!" Chopper declared.

"Heh heh heh… Sure, I'll give it to you." Goombado hit a switch on his desk and trapdoor was revealed to be where the three were standing. "…But you'll have to get through this! Ha ha ha!"

"We were fooled! No!" Chopper gulped as he and his friends fell through the trapdoor and going down into what Goombado liked to call "paradise" to those he despised.

"There we go! That takes care of that!" Goombado grinned as he leaned back on his chair and turned around. "Have fun in the Garbage Pit, suckers!"

* * *

**Garbage Pit-**

Chopper, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster were falling down through a garbage pit, but they eventually fell into a deep pool. They slowly began to sink to the bottom of the pool with their eyes closed, like they were unconscious.

But for some reason, Chopper didn't feel so satisfied. He was beaten by a Goomba!

* * *

**Nightclub Casino, first floor-**

Meanwhile, back on the first floor of Nightclub Casino, Geno was performing his dance on the stage. Luckily, he wasn't getting blasted by any of Ashley's magic.

_"Kayzee told me to be careful with…that witch."_ Geno thought as he eyed Ashley._ "And I can't believe that weird demon biker is still here. I thought he would be doing something else right now." _

"Man, that witch girl is still her," Kayzee noticed as she looked out by the audience in the back of the stage. "She really creeps me out for some reason…"

"Are you doing OK out there, Geno?" Mallow asked, who was holding onto a rope to prepare for closing the curtains.

"Yes, I'm fine Mallow. Thank you. Just a little bit and I should be done for right now. And… There we go!" Geno made one last pose to show he was done, and Mallow brought the curtains down. Everyone clapped, while Bob was whistling loudly by shooting steam out of his...butt?

"Why is steam coming out of his butt?" Kayzee gawked.

"Maybe to show that he's whistling?" Mallow wondered. "That's so weird..."

"Hmm… That was all right, I guess. I would give it a seven." Ashley shrugged while Red was busy pointing his weapon at Bob.

"Hey, point that thing someplace before someone gets hurt, you crazy imp!" Bob snapped as he pushed Red away and knocked him down.

"Oof! Hey, watch it!" Red was going to poke Bob again, but he bonked him in the head, and knocked him back on the ground.

"Just get away from me," Ashely grumbled, not even taking a glimpse of Bob.

"Why would I go now?" Bob asked. "I just got here! If anyone should leave, it's you, freak!"

Ashley ignored Bob and stood up from her chair to leave.

"Oh, fine then! If ya wanna just go, then go!"

Ashley used her wand to set Bob on fire without taking a glance at him. Bob let out a scream as he began to stop, drop and roll like an idiot while the audience looked over at him.

"Let's go, Red," Ashley suggested as he got up and began to leave. Red got up and followed her too. "We have something else to take care of right now."

* * *

**Restaurant area-**

"So… I hear yer single, 'cause I'm single," Yosho grinned after using some breath spray. "I'm only one, ya know. And single means yer one too. How about you an' me get together after I'm done workin'. How does that sound?"

"Yosho, you're talking to a statue," Bow mentioned as Yosho realized he was talking to a Koopa statue in the corner.

"What? Oh geez! I thought this was a lady! No no no… I gotta get outta here!" Yosho cried as he bumped into a wall.

"Just shut up and get back to work, Yosho..." Koopla trailed annoyingly as she kept looking at her outfit. "Seriously, you're lucky yours isn't all bad. I would take your outfit right now if I had to."

"But I need this outfit to flirt with the ladies!" Yosho declared, only to get smacked by Bow.

"Just keep working and stop with the flirting already," Bow growled. "You're going to make a fool out of yourself."

"Chopper told me I could! An' that's how I'm meant to roll. I was meant to be…a ladies man! Plus, you kinda made a fool out of yerself back at Lumberjack Mill! You tried to make Chopper do everything fer you 'cause you believed he would do it!"

"Don't even think about bringing that up. That was a while ago, and I want to forget about it." Bow paused when she noticed Ashley and Red walking by.

"Whoa, that's one creepy girl, if ya know what I mean," Yosho gawked.

Ashley saw Bruce looking at a crack in the wall. "Uh… Let's see here." the Bob-omb began and he began to inspect the crack, but then Ashley thought of something.

"Ooh! I was thinking you would do that!" Red said with an evil grin as Ashley bonked him on the head with her wand.

"Quiet, you. Yes, I am doing that. You didn't have to tell me." Ashley shot a fireball at Bruce's fuse, who noticed that his fuse was going to go off and noticed Ashley did it.

"Oh you… YOU…" Bruce growled as he ended up exploding, blowing up the crack in the wall. Apparently, two Goombas were bonking each other with pillows, and they even noticed that the crack in the wall was open.

"Run for it, Billy!" the two Goombas cried as they ran out of Nightclub Casino.

"What the heck was that?" Bruce gawked.

* * *

**Garbage Pit-**

Down in the garbage place in the pit, Chopper opened his eyes after hearing an explosion. He saw C-2 Choppor and Ghoster wake up too and also noticed they were at the bottom of the pool.

"Whoa… Where the heck are we?" Chopper asked. The other two shrugged as they got up to the surface. Getting out of the water, they could see a big slope going to another pathway. Since some water was on them, they shook it off. "This place is…weird. Choppor, any idea on where we are? Maybe your scanner can tell us."

"We are in the Garbage Pit," C-2 Choppor informed after scanning the area. "Apparently we were sent down here by a trapdoor Goombado used. If we were to get out, we'll need to explore this place a little bit."

"Exploring, huh? Just what we need." Ghoster groaned. "This is surely going to get annoying... But hey! At least we three get to do something together! Doesn't that sound good?"

"I suppose it does… Let's just check this place for anything." Chopper began to run up the big slope ahead. There were some blue Gloombas around and also Spiked Gloombas and Paragloombas. They also happened to notice a Spiked Paragloomba as well, which left Chopper annoyed due to them being almost impossible to hit.

Some Gloombas tried to attack them, but C-2 Choppor scanned some of them with his laser visor and fired at them, taking them out. They went into the next area after defeating a couple of more Gloombas, which was flat and had water dripping from the ceiling. There were some brick blocks and yellow ? blocks around.

"My scanners don't show any hidden blocks around here, I'm afraid," C-2 Choppor informed. "I'm not sure if there's anything else around here."

"Let's see if my Ghost Vision has something…" Ghoster used his Ghost Vision, and they could see a wooden X in the middle of the room. Chopper used his Tornado Jump on it to go down below, where there was nothing else but an Ultra Shroom, so Chopper took it. They left that area by taking the spring back up to the area they were in and went to the next area, which seemed to have a slope going down, which made Chopper run faster. All that mattered was that they got out of this Garbage Pit.

* * *

**Nightclub Casino, sixth floor-**

Parakarry was waiting by Goombado's office, waiting for Chopper to come out of the door, but he didn't see him come out. He stopped flying and he landed on the ground to relax.

"What's taking you so long Chopper? You should've gotten that Power Star already!" Parakarry groaned as he began to tap his foot and look at his wrist like it was a watch. "Well I can't stay here forever. I gotta go do something else just to wait."

Parakarry began to walk away from the office, but he stopped when he saw Ashley and Red walking by. _"Whoa… I didn't know there were any humans around but Mario and Peach! This is rather odd… But who is this girl?" _

"You know I can hear what you're thinking…" Ashley informed as she turned her head away, making Parakarry gulp, worrying that Ashley would turn him into a frog or a spoon. Ashley and Red noticed him sweat and walked over to him.

"Hey, why is this postman sweating?" Red asked. "Hey, doesn't he have what we need for our potion? Yeah, he does, right?"

"Huh? I don't know what you're talking about!" Parakarry cried. "You want my postbag? Sorry, but I need this thing to deliver letters!"

"No, I was supposed to get something mailed," Ashley noted. "You have it, right? If you don't…you're toast."

"O-OK…" the postman checked through his mailbag and saw a red letter that had Ashley's name on it.

"Th-This is the one, right?" Parakarry stammered as he handed the letter to the witch girl, who took the letter and looked at it before nodding.

"Yes, this is it. That's all I need. Let's go to the attic, Red." Ashley suggested as she and Red headed up to the attic.

"Gee, I wonder what they're doing… Hopefully it's nothing dangerous, if you ask me. I just hope Chopper's OK."

* * *

**Goombado's Office-**

"Heh heh heh… Man, look at all of this GREAT stuff!" Goombado grinned as he was looking at some items through the internet. "I should really order these for my casino! More people will want to come in once they see this. Yup, it'll make me filthy stinkin' RICH!"

He searched through his computer again and saw a screenshot of the Bowser statue that he told that Goomba to take to Toad Town.

"With that statue in Toad Town, that'll make it easier for King Bowser to take over the Mushroom Kingdom! ...Hold on a minute, what's that?"

Goombado saw what appears to be Staris in his fourth transformation a little further from the statue. He was right by the gate to Peach's Castle. The Goomba pondered for a minute, trying to figure out who that was.

"Hold on a minute… That's the Star God Staris, ain't it? I thought so… What's it doing in Toad Town though? I don't understand WHY it would be there…"

Goombado went to another screenshot, and it showed that Staris destroyed the Bowser statue. Steam came from Goombado's head as his face turned red with anger.

"Why that no-good Star God… He destroyed my statue that was meant to go to King Bowser! That fool!" Goombado paused when he heard some footsteps from underneath. Chances are those three were moving. "Oh, don't tell me that they already got themselves up! I better get that big Koopa over here pronto!"

_"What do you need now, Boss?"_ Kent C. Koopa asked through his communicator._ "Is there something important? 'Cause I gotta watch for anyone coming here."_

"Go down into the Garbage Pit and squash those three fools who came down there! You better do it or you're fired…or I might even cut your pay!"

_"All right, I'm on it, Boss!" _Goombado could hear some footsteps that were going to the bathroom to a secret entrance down below.

"You better find them… Because if they make it here, then it's all over. Just to be safe, I'm going to seal my office so they can't get in! Let's see how they like THAT!"

Goombado hit another button, and his room was sealed by a steel door. He began to laugh evilly, but he soon choked because of his cigar.

"I seriously have to lay off the cigar… This thing might kill me in the future." Goombado groaned before noticing Ashley and Red in the attic. "What now? What's this? A witch girl and an imp going into the attic? Oh, well that doesn't matter. It's not like anything bad is going to happen anyway."

The Goomba leaned back on his chair again and turned around to relax.

* * *

**Garbage Pit-**

When the three got out of the tunnel, they landed in a big circular room. Below them, they could see a fan, but it wasn't turned on right now, unfortunately. However, there was a blue ! switch a on a ledge above.

"Oh… There's a switch right there. Well this stinks." Chopper frowned. "We can't even reach over there! How disappointing…"

"Hold on, I'll get it," C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at the blue ! switch and fired a small yellow blast. Suddenly, the giant fan turned on, and they all began to float upward.

"Whoa… This is pretty cool. Woo hoo!" Ghoster cried as he flew up. When they reached the top ledge, they found another doorway, so they went through there and ran down the slope, leading to another pool, except it wasn't big nor deep.

"Ah, the water's here again!" Chopper began to swim backwards and then got out of the water to hit the Save Block. However, they noticed a Koopa walking around in these sewers, checking around the area.

"Hmmm… Boss said that they should be around here somewhere. But where are they? I can't see them anywhere!" Kent C. Koopa shouted as Chopper and his two friends jumped back into the water and sunk to the bottom.

"Crap… That Koopa's looking for us." Ghoster groaned. "What CAN we do? He's bigger than us for Pete's sake!"

However, Chopper couldn't help but notice a kunai lying on the ground.

"Hmmmm? What's this kunai here?" Chopper wondered. "Hmm… Oh! I remember what this does! I know EXACTLY what to do!"

Chopper inhaled the kunai and after swallowing it, his skin turned to a light purple tint, and his gloves and shoes were a darker purple. He had a helmet like the Stone ability, except it was a red. There were three stars on the front of the helmet, the middle one being bigger and his tuft of hair on the helmet was purple.

"My scanners indicate…you have become **Ninja Chopper**. Have you not?" C-2 Choppor informed as Chopper took a look at himself.

"Oh, yeah! I did! Let's test this ability out!" Chopper swam up to the surface and found himself standing on top of the water, making him gasp.

"OH MY GOSH I'M JESUS!" Chopper gaped as C-2 Choppor and Ghoster swam to the surface, which got Kent C. Koopa's attention. "...Oh, wait. Ninjas have the ability to walk on water. That was a little unnecessary to shout out."

"I found you!" Kent C. Koopa cried. "Don't think that you're getting out of here alive, Chopper! Goombado ordered me to come down here to find you, and that's what I'm going to do! So… Hold still!"

**Tattle: **_This is Kent C. Koopa. He seems pretty greedy for such a large Koopa. Max HP: 120, Attack Power: 10, Defense Power: 6. He sometimes does a stomp attack with his shell. That attack has a power of 8. His shell attack also damages party members, so be sure to defend! As with all Koopas, your chances will greatly improve if you can flip him over. His defense power will drop. Watch it, though! He'll attack as soon as he's back on his feet. And by the way, this is one big Koopa you're facing here! Somebody told me that he used to live in Koopa Village..._

Kent C. Koopa tried to grab Chopper, but he was too fast. His ninja ability let him jump up to avoid the attack and come down on Kent with a ninja kick, flipping him over. Not only that, but his ninja attacks ignore defense as well.

"Guys, go for his tail! That must be his weak point!" Chopper informed as Ghoster punched Kent C. Koopa's tail with Ghost Fist, dealing a good 7 damage. Kent C. Koopa got himself up and used his shell attack to hit Chopper. Luckily, he guarded the attack, so his party members didn't get hit.

"Let me try something… Maybe putting him to sleep might be a good idea!" Chopper summoned the Star Spirit, Mamar, and she used her Lullaby to make Kent C. Koopa fall asleep for four turns.

"I don't think we've ever used that yet..." Ghoster trailed. "Well, at least what I've seen so far..."

C-2 Choppor aimed at Kent C. Koopa and fired a blast at him. Since he was still asleep, he didn't even have a chance to attack, so they basically had a big advantage here.

"OK, time to flip him over!" Chopper declared as he performed his ninja technique on him again, flipping Kent C. Koopa over and allowing Ghoster to punch his tail. Chopper took out a kunai knife, and he attacked Kent C. Koopa's tail with it, making the Koopa yelp in his sleep.

"YEEEEEOW! My tail!" Kent C. Koopa cried as his eyes shot open before falling asleep again. Relieved, Ghoster punched his tail yet again.

"Man, this guy can SLEEP!" Ghoster noticed. "Oh well, we got one more free attack on him before he wakes up."

Chopper once again attacked with his kunai knife, making Kent C. Koopa yelp once again, while Ghoster attacked with his Ghost Fist, making the Koopa wake up while flipped over.

"Must…get up!" Kent C. Koopa moaned as he felt some pain from his tail. Chopper took out three shurikens and threw them at his tail, each of doing 2 damage. C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Kent C. Koopa and fired a blast at him. He only had 50 HP left, to their relief.

Kent C. Koopa got back up and walked over to Chopper to stomp on him. Luckily, he guarded the attack with his ninja skills.

"It's time for you to take another nap! Sorry, but it's necessary!" Chopper declared as he used his power to summon Mamar once again.

"Oh no! Not another nap!" Kent C. Koopa cried. "Come on! I already took one nap! Boss will fire me if I just sleep while fighting!"

Mamar used her Lullaby, and Kent C. Koopa fell asleep. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him afterward.

"He has a pretty high defense," C-2 Choppor informed. "Chopper, don't jump on him, because it won't do anything. Just flip him over and attack his tail."

Chopper used his ninja attack to flip Kent C. Koopa over, and Ghoster punched his tail with his Ghost Fist. Chopper attacked his tail with his three shurikens afterward, which made the Koopa yelp loudlu.

"Man, WHEN will he ever shut up about his tail? It's getting annoying already!" Chopper grumbled. "Although, I do feel sorry about his tail..."

"I know what you mean," C-2 Choppor said as he fired a blast at Kent C. Koopa, not aiming for the tail.

"Meh, let's finish this up. He's got only 19 HP left anyway." Chopper rushed toward Kent C. Koopa's tail and used his kunai knife on him, and then Ghoster followed up with a Ghost Fist attack.

"And now…the finisher!" Chopper ran toward Kent C. Koopa and jumped right on his tail. He woke up and realized he got beaten, giving Chopper 29 Star Points from the battle.

"Wow. You must be really strong." Kent C. Koopa moaned as he got up. "I mean, beating a guy my size? I guess I have to give up. See you later… _Boss is really going to make me pay now…_"

Kent C. Koopa ran away from the three while crying like he was screaming, "Mommy!"

"Well we took care of him, huh? Now let's get out of this place already." Chopper suggested as he went to the next pathway and noticed another pool, but at the other side, there was a ladder going up. Two of them to be exact.

"Are those the ladders to get out of here?" Ghoster gaped. "Oh MAN have I been waiting to get out of this pit! It really smells down here anyways."

"But this water is too deep for Chopper. He can't jump out of it." C-2 Choppor informed.

"Yeah I can! Watch this!" Chopper began to walk on the water, thanks to his ninja ability. Once he got to the other side, he noticed a machine and also a bomb with a skull on it. "Wait a minute… I saw something like this before! It can power a lot of things up! Maybe this will weaken the office Goombado has! I think…some kind of machine in his office!"

Chopper removed his Ninja ability and inhaled the time bomb. Once he swallowed it, he didn't have any hat on him. He did glow a little, but it did show he got a REALLY powerful attack.

"Guys, I think you better stand back. This attack is going to be DEVASTATING! …And it can even hurt you guys. Go someplace safe." Chopper suggested, who had just become the devastating Crash Chopper.

"We will," C-2 Choppor began to find a safe place, and so did Ghoster. Chopper unleashed a huge explosion, and it destroyed the machine completely, which disabled Goombado's computer.

* * *

**Goombado's Office-**

"What now? What is this?" Goombado gaped as he noticed his computer wasn't functioning. "Oh crud… Don't tell me Chopper…"

* * *

**Garbage Pit-**

"Now let's just get out of here," Chopper climbed up the ladder to the left, which revealed a secret entrance. C-2 Choppor and Ghoster followed up the ladder as well.

Once Chopper opened the hatch, he popped his head out, but his happy look turned to a look of disdain when he saw something in the girl's bathroom. Something...horrible.

"Oh, man… I can't believe what I just saw…" Chopper shivered as he closed the hatch.

"What did you see?" Ghoster asked.

"I saw...a soggy burger."

"Wait... A soggy burger? What's so bad about that?"

"Why would someone leave an unfinished burger like that? That's so..._awful!_"

"Does not compute," C-2 Choppor responded before looking at the other ladder. "We should go up there. That might go to the boy's bathroom."

"OK…" Chopper began to climb up the ladder, noticing that he and his friends were reeking after exploring the sewers. "Hey, guys... Maybe we should try to clean ourselves a bit? You know, so we don't reek?"

"You can do that. I'm just a ghost!" Ghoster responded.

Chopper opened the hatch from the floor and saw that no one was around, so he and his two friends climbed out of the Garbage Pit to return back to Nightclub Casino.


	68. Into the Attic

"Please, Goombado! You can't fire me!" Kent C. Koopa begged as he was on his knees, pleading for his boss not to fire him. "I tried my best to stop them, but I failed miserably! Could you let me off the hook? !"

_"Hmmmm... This is rather difficult..." _Goombado thought as he turned his chair around to ponder. However, after pondering for a minute, he turned back to Kent C. Koopa and answered him.

"Kent, you're my only guard around here, so I can't fire you. Then again, I could hire some more guards to replace you. Of course, you ARE tough for a Koopa your size, but you were beaten up by someone SMALLER than you."

"So you're not going to fire me?"

"Hmmm… I guess I shouldn't... You've been working here ever since you left Pleasant Path for some reason."

"Oh thank you, Boss! I thought I was going to get fired for a second there!" Kent C. Koopa cried with joy.

"Now get out of here. I need to seal this place so Chopper can't get in." the Koopa listened to his boss and left, leaving Goombado to seal his office.

"All right, Chopper… Let's see how you get to me now! I'll NEVER give the Power Star away! Oh no… King Bowser would be angry if I did that."

* * *

**Bathroom-**

"Good god, look at me! I look like a dirty ghost!" Ghoster noticed as he looked at himself. "…Wait, since when can ghosts get dirty? I don't understand that!"

"I don't know either. At least we're out of that Garbage Pit." Chopper sighed. "It felt like it was garbage day down there! Plus, that place reeked!"

"Relax… There's no one in here, and we're on the shower area." C-2 Choppor assured. "So maybe we can have the water clean us off before we go anywhere."

"OK, I guess we should do that..."

The shower water turned on, and they all cleaned themselves. Chopper made sure that his shoes and gloves were cleaned off too. After two minutes, they were all squeaky clean.

"Ah, that's better!" Ghoster sighed. "Now we can just get out of here and go after Goombado! That's what we're here for, right?"

"Well DUH… Now that things are all better, we better get going." Chopper declared as C-2 Choppor dried everyone off with an electric fan, before going back to the first floor of Nightclub Casino.

"Ah, yes! It's GOOD to be back!" Chopper smiled as he noticed Kayzee, Mallow and Geno at the stage. Since they weren't doing anything as of now, they went over to the three.

"Where have you been?" Mallow wondered. "Did you three just come out of the bathroom? What about the Power Star?"

"We had...a little problem," Chopper explained. "Goombado sent us down to a Garbage Pit below here, where we had to make our way through garbage. Let me tell you, it's not fun."

"There was this really scary-looking girl we saw," Kayzee explained. Well, what she wore and how she looked was scary. I think I even saw her zap Bob with her wand. I don't know where she went, but I would be careful if I were you. She even tried to shoot a fireball at me! It was terrible!"

Everyone noticed that Kayzee was about to cry.

"Don't worry, Kayzee. She isn't here, so you don't need to worry one bit," Geno assured. "But enough of that. I wish we could go help you guys, but we have to stay here. So get the Power Star so we can get out of here."

"That's a good idea. Let's move, guys!" Chopper left the stage area with C-2 Choppor and Ghoster and noticed at the restaurant area, Yosho was holding up a sign while the girls face palmed.

"If you ladies need an attractive man, I'm the one!" Yosho shouted, quoting the lines on the sign. Of course, he was getting ignored.

"_I REALLY hate my job," _Koopla thought after serving food.

"C'mon, ladies! You know you want some of this! HUH!" Yosho flexed his "muscles" while he was getting ignored.

"You sure that was a good idea?" Ghoster asked.

"Well, he got what he wanted, so I don't think that's a problem," Chopper smiled as they moved on.

* * *

**Second floor-**

On the second floor, Bruce was blowing up cracks in the walls. He even found some people having a pillow fight behind the walls.

"Man, whenever I blow up a crack in the wall, I find people pillow fighting, or even people playing cards! Let's see this one." Bruce blew up another wall and found some dogs playing cards.

"What the…" Bruce instantly covered up the wall with all the rocks that were around. "OK... I like blowing stuff up, but this is insane."

* * *

**Sixth floor-**

When Chopper and his two friends reached the top floor with the elevator, they noticed Parakarry was standing by Goombado's office, looking very impatient.

"Come on Chopper… I can't wait here all day! Get back in here already!" Parakarry groaned as he tapped his foot. "It's been such a long time!"

"We're over here, Parakarry!" Ghoster informed.

"Wait, really?" Parakarry gaped as he turned his head to the three. "Where were you guys? I've been waiting by this office for an hour! Can you explain to me where you went? There might be a reason why you suddenly came back over here and not from the office."

"We ALMOST had him…but he managed to open a trapdoor and make us fall. But now we can get back at him!" Chopper declared as he walked over to the door. Unfortunately, it was sealed shut by the steel door.

"Hmmm? The door's sealed shut." C-2 Choppor noticed. "I don't think I could break through that, nor could Geno. We need another away through."

"Well some witch girl said she was going up to the attic with a red imp devil thing," Parakarry recalled. "I think there's something there that'll lead you into Goombado's office. Maybe you should go up there…though I might suggest you be careful."

"A witch girl and a red imp devil thing?" Chopper gawked. "Oh, that's nothing to worry about. Which way is the attic, though?"

"I saw her walk into there," Parakarry pointed a dancing room, where there was some catchy music playing.

"Hey, that sounds pretty cool in there!" Ghoster smiled. "But the attic's in there? Oh well, at least it's not in some other dangerous place in Nightclub Casino. Let's hope there's no GARBAGE around here."

"I'm going to stay here and make sure the others are all right. Someone has to keep an eye on them, right?"

"Yes, that's true. You can go ahead and do that, Parakarry." Chopper suggested. "Choppor, Ghoster and I will go up to the attic. It's probably best if you did that anyway. ...Unless you want to come with us."

"No, it's OK. I want to make sure everyone's OK. Just go to where those pink lights are. You're guaranteed to make it to the attic there. Try to listen below, and come down into the room with your Tornado Jump. OK?"

"I sure will!" Chopper gave Parakarry a thumbs up, and all three went over to where the pink lights were labeled "Nightclub Disco".

Once they walked into there, Parakarry sighed in relief. "I thought they wouldn't believe me. Well, I _am _going to do that. After all, a postman is like a hero to all those people in need."

Parakarry flew down to the second floor and saw Bruce trying to cover some of the walls up.

"Why hello, Bruce! What are you doing by those walls?"

"Oh, hey Parakarry," Bruce greeted as he turned to his friend. "Some of these walls have…so many weird things. First I see Goombas pillow fighting, and then I see some dogs playing poker. It makes absolutely NO sense whatsoever!"

"Here, let me help you!" Parakarry grabbed some rocks and gave Bruce a hand. Since two people working together is better than one, Bruce seemed just fine with this.

* * *

**Nightclub Casino-**

Chopper and his friends walked into the disco room and saw a lot of cool stuff. Koopas and Goombas were dancing, and the darkness in the room made it feel cool. The lights spun around the room with the disco ball hanging on the ceiling.

"Hey, this place is cool! I even like the music!" Chopper began to dance on the disco floor, but when the Goombas and Koopas noticed him, they stopped dancing.

"Hey! Chopper's here!" a Koopa gasped. "What's he doing here? Oh man… He probably got through that tough Koopa at the front entrance! Everyone! Don't fail King Bowser! Attack!"

"Uh oh… Spaghetti O's..." Chopper gulped as the Goombas and Koopas charged, but C-2 Choppor blasted them, and Ghoster used his psychic to make them stop, allowing him to throw them to the walls.

"Oh, that was close," Chopper sighed before he noticed a microphone right by his feet, which he decided to inhale. Once he swallowed it, he had some earphones and an old-fashioned radio microphone.

"Oh, cool! I'm **Mike Chopper**! Wait… Mike Chopper? Umm… Guys, COVER YOUR EARS!"

"What for?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"JUST DO IT!" Chopper's cried as his voice came from the microphone, so C-2 Choppor covered his antennas, as well as Ghoster.

"Here's a song by… I don't know." Chopper began to sing loudly, which made some the the Goombas and Koopas cover their ears in pain. Yeah, it was that bad.

"Oh crud! I think I'm going to explode!" the bad mushrooms ended up exploding, and the Koopas got in their shells to hide…only for them to crack and break.

"I can't take the singing!" the Koopas in their underpants cried as they ran out of the disco room and ended up running to the second floor to hide behind a wall.

"Huh… So that's where they're coming from." Bruce realized as Parakarry raised an eyebrow. "Well, our solutions have finally been solved!"

Chopper's earphones and microphone were gone now, and he noticed a ladder nearby. There was a Heart Block, so he hit that first as C-2 Choppor and Ghoster uncovered their antennas.

"No offense, but your singing is terrible," C-2 Choppor commented.

"No wonder all those Goombas and Koopas ran away. They couldn't stand it." Ghoster noticed as the room was empty.

"Yeah, I know it's bad. But at least we're safe!" Chopper added. "C'mon, let's go up into the attic! …And let's be careful with any witches."

Chopper climbed up the ladder into the attic with his two good friends. A familiar robot walked into the disco room and noticed it was empty.

"Hmmm? There's nobody here. That's odd…" C-1 TM noticed C-2 Choppor climbing up the ladder into the attic. "My brother is going up into the attic! Oh… Well this isn't going to be over yet! Oh no… I'll get my revenge on you and Chopper! Yep, I'll go up into the attic and tell Goombado that they were lurking around in there!"

C-1 TM floated over to the ladder and began to climb up. Little did Chopper and his friends know that they were in some big trouble coming up.

* * *

**Attic-**

Up in the attic, something was rather odd. It looked like the whole place was some kind of dungeon area with Lakitus and Spiked Parabuzzies around.

But somewhere else in the attic, a black pot had purple bubbles and steam coming out. Ashley seemed to be stirring something. Possibly for a potion that was going to be made for unknown reasons. Some flames appeared to be under the pot as well. This room was dark, and there were two lit up torches on the walls. Red was sitting by a plate which had some ingredients that needed to be put in.

Ashley took a little taste of the potion, but the look on her face didn't look so satisfying.

"What's wrong, Ashley?" Red asked. "Is there something wrong with the potion you're making?"

"We need more ingredients. Get me those ingredients and make it quick." Ashley ordered. The little imp nodded and gave her garlic, an apple, a lizard, and a crystal ball.

After that, she looked at the book. After looking through it a couple of times with a magnify glass, she realized something wasn't right.

"Red… You got me that last ingredient, right?" Ashley asked, turning her head to Red. He gulped and face palmed.

"Sorry, Ashley… I think I forgot about that." Red responded as he shook his head and hung his head low. "I failed you…and now I have to pay the price. I'm really sorry."

Ashley took her wand out and zapped the potion, but she saw that it didn't work at all. There was only a heart that came out of the pot, which made Ashley groan.

"Abysmal," she used her wand again, and the potion went back to normal.

"Don't worry Ashley… I'm sure you'll nail it next time." Red assured. "But what do you need that's next for the potion?"

"I need…something from a ghost. That's what I need. Some kind of ghost energy is required to finish this."

* * *

**Somewhere else in the attic-**

Chopper, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster climbed up into the attic and saw that it looked like an advanced attic. There were some equipment around, like the lights and also some items like a Jammin' Jelly and an Ultra Shroom.

"Ooh! There's something! I'll take it!" Chopper took the Ultra Shroom and Jammin' Jelly and put them away. There were a couple of ways to go, but some of them were blocked off by some crates. At least the north way was, so they took the doorway going to the right.

There was a Save Block in that room, so Chopper hit it to save his game. Chopper couldn't use his fireballs on the Spiked Parabuzzies roaming around, so Ghoster used his psychic to flip over a Spiked Parabuzzy, and Chopper stomped on its soft body when it got flipped over. C-2 Choppor finished it off with a blast.

"There are a lot of enemies in here. You're going to have to be careful here." C-2 Choppor informed as they walked to the north doorway to find a Koopa selling some items. However, he appeared to be sleeping.

Ghoster tapped the Koopa, who woke up in a flash. "Huh? Who? What? Where? What am I doing here?"

He noticed that the three heroes were standing right in front of him with confused looks.

"Oh, sorry about that. Now I remember. I came up here putting all these items in here, but then I fell asleep. Oh man, if Goombado discovers that I've been sleeping on the job, I'll get fired!" the Koopa pondered before realizing something. "Oh! I know! Would you guys like to buy something here? I'll make it fair for you. If you want to use that pot there, you may."

"OK!" Chopper inhaled a chefs hat and got himself a chef's hat and also a frying pan. He even took the pot with him.

"How can you carry that thing around with you?" Ghoster questioned. "It suddenly disappeared… That makes absolutely no sense!"

"Unfortunately, many things don't make sense, Ghoster," C-2 Choppor responded. "That's how things are here. They make sense, or they don't make sense. That's how the Mushroom Kingdom is."

"Anyway, let's just get out of here," Chopper suggested as he left the room by going back into the previous room. The other two followed him, and they went into the doorway to the south. They could see a wooden X on the ground and also some Lakitus and Spiked Parabuzzies.

"Whoa, this room is too dangerous for us to be in," Ghoster noticed. "Isn't there another room we could go into right now?"

"Hold on a minute…" Chopper took out the pot, and he hit the frying pan. All of the enemies somehow were forced into the pot.

"Are you cooking something out of those enemies?" C-2 Choppor wondered. "Erm… I don't know if that's really a good thing to do or not."

"Don't worry about it," Chopper assured as he stirred up the food in the pot and put salt and pepper inside as well. Ghoster took a peek at what was below them, and it seemed that two Goombas were in a room with a lot of slot machines. Both of them could suddenly smell something.

"Sniff sniff… Hey, do you smell something good…like stew?" the first Goomba asked.

"Yeah, I can smell it," the second Goomba replied, smelling it as well. "It's pretty nice, if you ask me! Mmmmmm… I wish I had some right now."

* * *

**Ashley and Red-**

Ashley and Red were walking through the attic, and Red smelled something good. The scent really got his attention.

"Hey Ashley… I smell something good!" Red smiled as he licked his lips. "Do you think we can grab something to eat first? That smell is making me feel hungry for some reason."

"No, we don't have time for eating," Ashley replied coldly. "We must find some ghost energy. I can sense there's a ghost in this attic, and he's...right by the pot? We should follow that scent."

"Oh, boy! We can eat then!"

* * *

**Chopper, C-2 Choppor and Ghoster-**

Chopper opened the pot, and Mushrooms, Super Shrooms, and Honey Syrups came out. A Whacka's Bump also came out as well. Chopper ate a Super Shroom just to recover 10 HP.

"All right, that should be good enough!" Chopper smiled. "Now let's keep going. We need to find the right room where Goombado's room is!"

He ran into the room to the right, and C-2 Choppor and Ghoster followed. There wasn't anything in this room but a doorway to the right.

"This place looks empty. I don't know why. But… It doesn't feel like we're alone in here."

"So you figured it out, didn't you? I excepted someone of your intellect to already find out."

"Wait... Who said that?" Chopper wondered as C-1 TM floated down in front of them.

"Triple Mega…" C-2 Choppor trailed as he raised his arm gun. "Don't think that I forgot my main goal..."

"Oh, I know your goal," C-1 TM responded. "You want to save all the Star Kids being trapped inside the C Robos! That sounds like something an organic being would do!"

"Robots can have hearts too, you know."

"Seriously? Robots don't have hearts! That's an organ! We were built to destroy, not feel!"

"So you've met this guy before, huh?" Ghoster pondered. "I can't say much about him, but he reminds me of you, Choppor. You two are brothers, right?"

"Yes... He is."

"Enough idle blather!" C-1 TM shouted. "We're going to finish this up right now! It's such a shame for you that there are only three people instead of eleven. It makes things better for me. Now let's do this!"

**Tattle: **_That's C-1 Triple Mega. TM for short. You've faced him before, right? Max HP: 130, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 1. He seems to have improved, and he looks pretty dangerous. He's got his usual attacks, so you might want to be careful. He was tough before, and he's tough now. Just give him everything you got!_

Chopper walked over to C-1 TM and began to use his Power Bounce on him. After about eight jumps, he jumped off of the robot, while C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at C-1 TM.

"I hope I'm able to finish my job of eliminating you," C-2 Choppor stated. "It's for the better..."

He fired a blast at C-1 TM, which knocked him back, but he was able to use a punch attack to knock Chopper back.

"Whoa!" Chopper hit the wall and took 11 damage. He got himself off the wall and became Sword Chopper.

"I don't think you've ever seen this ability before!" Chopper ran toward C-1 TM and he swung his sword at him, taking only 5 out of him. "Huh? What's going on? That didn't work at all? Oh man… I wish Mallow was here to use his Thunderbolt on him."

C-2 Choppor fired another blast at C-1 TM while flying up with his jetpack. Some sparks went flying around him, but that wasn't stopping him.

"No… I will not go down like this!" C-1 TM roared as he fired a blast, which hit C-2 Choppor, knocking him to the ground. He bent down in pain from the sparks flying around him.

"Choppor! Are you all right?" Chopper asked as he dropped his sword and walked over to him. Thankfully, C-2 Choppor's visor turned back on.

"Yes… I'm fine. I'm just a little hurt. Initiating…Recover Mode now." C-2 Choppor began to recover, but it would take a little time.

"Looks like we gotta do this, Chopper!" Ghoster declared. Chopper nodded and used a D-Down Slash on C-1 TM. Ghoster punched C-1 TM with his Ghost Fist, while the robot decided to punch Ghoster, but his attack didn't even work.

"HAW! Your attacks can't really hurt me!" Ghoster scoffed. "I'm a ghost for crying out loud! Only a ghost move can hurt me!"

Ashley and Red managed to find Chopper, C-2 Choppor, Ghoster, and C-1 TM fighting. But Ashley didn't care about the fight. Ghoster was the one she paid attention to.

"Hey, Ashley! There's the ghost!" Red noticed. "You need that ghost energy from him, right?"

"Yes. I do." Ashley slowly nodded as she took out her wand and waited for the right moment to use it on Ghoster.

"Recovery Mode complete," C-2 Choppor got himself up while Chopper realized that he shouldn't use his sword to fight.

"I shouldn't be using my sword! I got something better!" Chopper removed his Sword ability and he became Fire Chopper "Yeah, maybe this'll work!"

He walked over to C-1 TM and used his Fire Breath to scorch the robot.

"Danger! Overheat level way high!" C-1 TM warned. "Oh, great… I'm overheated. Wait, I can't be touched by anyone! This is an advantage for me!"

C-2 Choppor fired a blast at C-1 TM, who tried to move but couldn't. However, his overheating began to go out, but that didn't mean he could make another move.

"All right, now let's do this!" Chopper used a Fire Spin attack, hitting C-1 TM with his flaming fists, while Ghoster followed up with a Ghost Ball, lowering his defense.

Ghoster had another Ghost Ball, but Ashley managed to capture it using the powers from her wand. Ghoster noticed this and saw Ashley and Red.

"Uh… Chopper? Big problem!" Ghoster warned. "There's a witch and imp!"

"What?" Chopper gawked as he got hit by a missile from C-1 TM, losing his ability and bumping into Ashley, which didn't make her happy.

"Ouch! Wait… Who are you?" Once Chopper got up, he saw Ashley's eyes looked red, and her hair was light gray. Red tried to calm her down.

"Chill out, Ashley!" Red suggested as Chopper yelped and jumped back into the fight, starting off by becoming Ice Chopper and using his Ice Breath C-1 TM. Sadly, he didn't become frozen.

Ghoster followed up with a Ghost Fist on C-1 TM, which damaged him a little more thanks to his lowered defense. C-1 TM used his Omega Punch on Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack and not take 13 damage that it could've dealt.

Chopper used his Power Bounce on C-1 TM and managed to stomp on him eleven times, and then Ghoster attacked with his Ghost Fist.

"That boy is lucky he has friends with him," Ashley grumbled. "I'm the only one who doesn't have any. It seems like I'm feared by all."

"Er… I'm not afraid of you!" Red slightly cried. "Don't worry, Ashley. You'll get more friends one day."

"Now let's get this potion ready," Ashley suggested as she summoned the pot with her wand and put the ghost energy into the pot. It began to bubble up even more.

Meanwhile, C-1 TM began to fire multiple missiles at the three. Luckily, Chopper managed to freeze some of the missiles, but he ended up getting hit by some of them.

"Man, he HAS gotten pretty tough," Chopper panted as he used his Ice Storm on C-1 TM by surrounding himself with an icy shield. Ghoster fired another Ghost Ball at C-1 TM to keep his defense down to make the fight a little easier.

"Gah! Take this!" C-1 TM shouted as he fired a blast at Chopper, who was able to guard it. Now he made another attack with his Ice Storm.

"I always hated ice…" C-1 TM grumbled as C-2 Choppor fired a blast at C-1 TM, leaving him with only 19 HP. C-1 TM began to raise his attack power for a devastating move, which made Chopper and Ghoster gulp, since C-2 Choppor couldn't gulp.

"Uh oh… That's not good." Chopper frowned as he tried to take him out by using his Ice Storm, but it didn't stop him. C-2 Choppor used his Missile Fire on him to do 8 damage to him, leaving him with only 3 HP.

"That robot's attack looks like it can be pretty useful… Maybe we can get it into here to make the potion stronger and more powerful." Ashley suggested as she readied her wand.

"This is it for you, Chopper!" C-1 TM fired a huge beam at Chopper, but Ashley used her wand to stop the beam and make it go into the pot, making it even stronger. "What the…! Hey, girl! Get out of here! We're trying to fight here!"

Ashley aimed her wand at C-1 TM, ready to destroy him completely, but C-2 Choppor got in her way before she could attack.

"Don't," C-2 Choppor suggested as sparks went flying everywhere on C-1 TM.

"I still got one last thing left!" C-1 TM growled as he began to charge up an attack.

"Do you want me to use my wand on you now?" Ashley asked.

"No, I'm doing the honors," C-2 Choppor declared. "This is my brother, and I have a mission to complete."

"Whoa, I think you better listen to him, Ashley," Red suggested. "You really wouldn't want to mess with him…"

"Fine, go ahead and do it," Ashley groaned.

C-2 Choppor turned back to C-1 TM and fired a blast at him, defeating him and giving Chopper 36 Star Points and a level up! He actually had 98 Star Points, so he had 34 now. He chose HP, so he had 60 HP as of now.

"How did I lose?" C-1 TM cried as he got up. "This isn't right… Brother, this isn't over yet. I swear to you that I'll be back!"

After slamming his fists, he broke the ground and left the attic.

"Holy… I didn't know he could do that. Anyway, we better get going!" Chopper suggested as he, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster ran into the next room. Ashley and Red stood there.

"Should we follow them, Ashley?" Red asked.

"Fine, we'll see what's going on," Ashley used her magic pot make the pot float as they went into the next doorway.

Chopper could see a wooden X in the center of the next room and also a Save Block and Heart Block. He hit both of those to be prepared.

"Hmm… Let's see what's down there." he began to listen what's down below. To his surprise, he heard a familiar voice.

"_Ha ha ha! Oh, yes! With that Chopper out of the picture, things should be going fine! I doubt I'll see him coming right down from the ceiling!"_

"That's Goombado's voice," C-2 Choppor heard. "Come, we must go down there and settle things with him."

"We'll get that Power Star in no time, now!" Ghoster smiled as Chopper nodded and used his Tornado Jump to smash into the office. C-2 Choppor and Ghoster jumped down to join him.

"Hmmm… I have a feeling it would be a good time to test out that potion." Ashley mentioned to Red. "No, not on you. But I have a good idea on who…"

"Heh heh… I was thinking the same thing!" Red grinned.

* * *

**Wait, did Ashley say she was going to TEST the potion on someone? Who could that be? Well you'll find out in the boss chapter!**


	69. Goombado: Big and Mutated

Chopper came down right on Goombado's desk, destroying the switch to seal off the door and also destroying the switch for his trapdoor. Goombado heard the noise and turned around to see Chopper, who no longer had his Ice ability on him. C-2 Choppor and Ghoster landed on the desk as well.

"What the… How did you get here?!" Goombado gaped. "I thought I sent you down to the Garbage Pit! …And how did you get up into the attic? This doesn't make any sense at all! _**NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!**_"

"Wow that was one big no there," Chopper blinked. "Have you competed in a contest on screaming the word 'no'?"

"You should seriously consider doing that!" Ghoster suggested. "That's one of the best no's I've ever heard in my life!"

"My plans are RUINED! How am I supposed to stop you now when I can't do much!?" Goombado whined as he stomped in anger. "I mean, I'm only good at making a lot of money! That's why I'm filthy stinkin' rich!

"OK, now is when you can let us take that Power Star," C-2 Choppor declared.

"King Bowser will be ANGRY if I let you do that! And I definitely don't want to give it to you either! …But I can't do anything. I literally suck at fighting!"

Goombado tried to kick Chopper, but Chopper simply jumped on him.

"See? This is a piece of cake!" Chopper said as he kicked Goombado off the desk. Afterward, he got off the desk and got in his fighting stance.

Before Goombado could do anything else, the potion Ashley made spilled all over him

"Er… What just happened? Did something just spill on me?" Goombado wonder as began to grow bigger and looked a little mutated. His flat teeth were now sharp and his eyes were a red color. The potion also caused his brown skin to become greenish..

"Hmm? I look HUGE! Hah hah hah hah hah! Now this is what happens when I'm in need of assistance!" Goombado cackled as he stomped the ground, making Nightclub Casino shake.

* * *

**Restaurant area-**

"Hey, I think that's coming from the top floor!" Koopla said as she tried to listen. "Bow, Yosho! I think we need to go up to Goombado's office! I think there's some trouble going on there!"

"Yeah, it sounds like there is! We better go to Chopper immediately! Things don't seem so good up there!" Bow agreed, feeling a little worried about Chopper.

"But first, I'm getting out of these girl clothes!" Koopla ran into the dress room quickly came back in her blue sweatshirt and shorts. "Now THIS is much better! I feel much more comfy now!"

"I'll be back too," Bow flew into the dress room and changed back to her normal bows. The two girls walked over to Yosho, who was still holding the sign.

"Hey, what're ya doin' without yer uniforms?" Yosho asked. "Ya gotta stay in 'em right now!"

"We're going to Chopper. Get back to your normal clothes…and do it in the dress room."

"Fine… But I REALLY wanna stay here fer the ladies." the Yoshi groaned as he went into the dress room and went back into his black jacket and sunglasses. The three walked over to the stage, where they could see Kayzee, Mallow, and Geno were all ready to go up the stairs.

"Oh, so you came here too," Geno noticed. "That's good! I heard what was going on on the top floor, so I got everyone together."

"We don't have time! We need to find Bruce and Parakarry!" Kayzee cried. They went up to the second floor to find Bruce and Parakarry sealing the walls.

"Guys, we need to go to Chopper!" Mallow cried. "We don't have time to do any work right now!"

"Oh, then that's good! I'm getting tired with these walls! Let's go, Parakarry!" Bruce said as he followed everyone up the stairs.

* * *

**Goombado's Office-**

"This worked out very well. I'm rather pleased with this." Ashley came down on her broom, which was actually Red transformed into one.

"Did you do this?" Chopper asked.

"Uh huh! She did it!" Red fist pumped. "And it worked!"

"Why would you do that? We needed to get the Power Star, and now you ruin it! What gives? !"

"I needed someone to test my new potion on, so I used it on the casino owner. I couldn't think of anyone else, so I chose him. This is a perfect thing for me! I don't really care about having friends…but this new Goomba is my new pet!"

"PET?!" Goombado guffawed. "What? There's no way I'm your pet! I'm here to destroy Chopper! So buzz off, girl!"

"Fine, I'll see how you do. I might do some things for you…but not much." Ashley pulled out her wand. "You three might be some good guinea pigs for this guy. Let's see how you fare against him."

"Bah ha ha ha ha! I'll just focus on you guys first, and THEN I'll handle this witch girl!"

"Quiet, you. I don't care if you're working for King Bowser. You'll be serving me as soon as you finish up fighting those three."

**Tattle: **_Whoa… Did Goombado just…become mutated? Wow… That's one big Goomba. I almost look scared! Wait, I AM scared! Max HP: 150, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 1. He'll try to stomp on you or squish your partners. Be careful though, I think Ashley might try to help him. She doesn't seem like she wants to kill anyone, but…do something._

**Tattle: **_Who's this witch girl? Hmmm… It tells me she's called Ashley. I don't think she's a real threat, though. Max HP: ?, Attack Power: 9, Defense Power: ?. She's not really going to attack you, but she'll use her magic to help Goombado. I don't think you can really hit her. You can if you want, but you can at least paralyze her or make her fall asleep. You can actually do that so she doesn't do anything. She'll barely attack you, though. I don't think she really is going to attack someone. She does makes creepy things, that's all. Wait… I heard she might turn you into something. But focus on Goombado, because she's not really a threat to you.  
_

Chopper started off by perfoming a Power Bounce on Goombado, stomping on him nine times.

"C-2 Choppor, can you do something about Ashley?" Chopper asked. "I mean, don't hurt her, but try to keep her from doing anything."

"I can certainly do that," C-2 Choppor nodded as he aimed his gun at Ashley. She was going to aim her wand at him, but when C-2 Choppor used his Stun Shot, she became paralyzed. It didn't do damage, but it certainly paralyzed her.

"Thanks for doing that, Chopper! Now to finish you!" Goombado grinned as he stomped on Chopper, who was able to guard the attack.

"All right, take this!" Chopper walked over to Goombado and whacked him with his hammer to take 5 out of him. "I don't need to use my jumping to beat you! My Hammer can work just fine!"

While he was being cocky, C-2 Choppor fired at Goombado afterward. The Goomba was about to stomp on Chopper again, but someone's arms grabbed Chopper so he wouldn't get hit.

It was Mallow.

"Guys? You came here to help?" Chopper gasped.

"Of course. We had to come here to make sure you'd be fine." Yosho stated. "Now let's just fight this guy already."

"Hey! What's that witch doing with Goombado? Is she on his side?" Kayzee asked.

"No, she just tested her potion on him," Chopper explained. "Don't attack her. She's not on the evil side. At least, that's what I think..."

"Can we just finish this already?" Goombado asked. Chopper almost forgot and used his D-Down Hand, making him shoot an ice ball at him that pierced his defense. Koopla got in her shell and used her Fire Shell attack on Goombado, taking a good 7 out of him. Goombado stomped on Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack to take 10 damage. He decided to become Yo-yo Chopper to make the fight a little interesting.

"All right, take this!" Chopper flung his Yo-yo at Goombado, hitting him in the face.

"Ouch! That almost got me in the eye!" Goombado screeched as Bruce blew up right by Goombado, who Goombado charged at Chopper, running him over and dealing 11 damage to him.

"Hah hah hah hah! I'm such a strong Goomba now! I'm probably the strongest one in the world!" Goombado boasted. Ashley was no longer paralyzed, and she could get back to using her magic.

Chopper became Chef Chopper, and he whacked Goombado with his frying pan just for the heck of it. Thankfully, using a frying pan as a weapon doesn't instantly get rid of the Chef ability.

"All right, I'm going to attack!" Parakarry got in his shell and attacked the Goomba with his Shell Shot. Goombado almost got knocked down, but Ashley helped him balance himself with her wand. He charged at Chopper, but he held his frying pan up, making Goombado hit it and take 3 damage.

Ashley used her wand, and she turned Bruce into a newt, which only lasted for two turns.

"I always wondered if that worked on Bob-ombs," Ashley pondered. "Well, now I know."

"What the… Since when did Bruce turn into a newt?" Ghoster gawked. "This doesn't make any sense! …Unless Ashley had to do something with it."

Chopper was still looking at his frying pan, seeing that he actually used it to defend. "Wait, that WORKED? Wow… That's weird. Forget this! I'm going for something else." he became Beam Chopper, but Ghoster shot a Ghost Ball at Goombado first to lower his defense.

"OK, now it's time for me to attack!" Chopper shot a beam at Goombado with his wand, making the Goomba cringe in pain.

"So he's got a wand… Interesting." Ashley commented as Goombado turned his head to witch girl with a glare.

"Shut up! I'm trying to destroy Chopper here!" Goombado growled as he stomped on Chopper, who was able to guard his attack. Ashley raised her wand up, and she tried to turn Chopper into a frog. Luckily, he managed to guard the magic attack and stay safe from harm.

"Hmm? I was pretty sure that would turn him into a frog…"

"Haven't you heard about guarding?" Ghoster questioned. "Sure, it doesn't make sense how he didn't, but don't blame us or the author! Blame the creators of Paper Mario!"

"Hey! Only I can say that kind of stuff!" Chopper frowned.

"No rules telling me that!"

"Fine..."

"Careful Chopper… He's almost got you down, you know…" Koopla warned.

"I got this. Don't worry!" Chopper charged up a beam attack and fired it at Goombado, which did a whooping 8 damage.

"Hmm…" Bow floated over to Goombado, and she smacked him with her fan five times since his defense was lowered by Ghoster. Because of Bow's Fan Smack, Chopper was low on FP.

"Gah! This is getting nowhere!" Goombado spat as he stomped on Chopper, which removed his ability. Ashley used her wand to get rid of any status ailments, bringing Goombado's Defense back to 1.

"Meh, who cares! Though… I need to heal up!" Chopper took out a Jelly Ultra and ate it, recovering 50 HP and 50 FP. C-2 Choppor aimed at Goombado and shot a blast at him. After that, Goombado came charging at Chopper, who guarded the attack. Ashley decided to use her magic to raise Goombado's attack by 3, making the group scowl at the witch girl.

"Uh oh… That's not good. We need to attack FAST!" Chopper decided to summon Mamar so she could use Lullaby. It didn't affect Goombado, but Ashley fell asleep. "Huh... So Ashley can fall asleep from this? Cool!"

Yosho laid an egg and threw it at Goombado, which knocked him back a little. However, it didn't stop him from running toward Chopper, but the office door opened, and Kent C. Koopa came in.

"Hey, Boss! We got a little problem in…" Goombado accidentally missed Chopper and fell on Kent C. Koopa instead. Geno couldn't help but laugh a bit while Bruce turned back to himself.

"Well now… You certainly fell on your own employee!" Geno laughed. Goombado was lying on the ground, so Chopper became Fighter Chopper and jumped to the big Goomba and kicked him, while Kayzee used her Heat Vision to heat him up a bit. Once he got back up, Goombado ran after Chopper, but he was able to counter it and knock him down with the help of his Fighter ability..

"Phew… That was a little close. Now…" Chopper ran toward Goombado and used a Vulcan Jab to hit him, followed by a cloud that Mallow summoned. Goombado managed to stomp on Chopper, but then he got punched and kicked by Chopper afterward. Geno took his turn by firing a Geno Beam.

"Gah… This isn't right! I'm…losing?" Goombado charged at Chopper again and managed to stomp on him to take 11 out of him.

"Yeah, but I can finish you off!" Chopper ran toward Goombado again and used a Rising Break on him, which allowed him to perform a powerful uppercut punch that sent Goombado flying back.

"_**NOOOOOOOOOO!**_" Goombado screamed as Chopper gave a thumbs up as he received 40 Star Points. He removed his ability afterward while Goombado's power was draining away. Once Ashley woke up, she noticed the potion was wearing off.

"It's not like I didn't care," Ashley groaned. "I used that guinea pig, and he got beaten. You helped me test it out."

"What do you mean? Did you actually WANT to hurt us?" Chopper asked.

"No," she responded. "But if I did, I would. I only came to this casino because I wanted to use my potion on that Goomba. I thought about using it on the biker, but I decided against it. But for now, I'm going to go."

Ashley flew out the window with her broom while Goombado slowly got himself up with a couple of bruises left on him. Thankfully, he was back to normal. Chopper jumped up a bit and got in his fighting stance.

"You're still up?" Chopper gaped. "No matter, we can still just get the Power Star from you."

"Stop for a moment!" Goombado yelped. "You've beaten me…but I'm still not going to give the Power Star away! …Unless you beat me in a little game!"

"What game do you mean exactly?"

"A game of…Rock, Paper, Mario! Yes, consider it like Rock, Paper, Scissors, where Mario's paper, Peach's scissors, and Bowser's rock. Basically, Bowser can beat Peach, Mario beats Bowser, and Peach beats Mario."

"Would it be Bowser, Mario, Peach?" Geno wondered as he scratched his head.

"No! That's how it is! Now… If you beat me, I'll give the Power Star to you. Got that?"

"Ummm... OK." Chopper nodded.

"Good. Now… Rock, Paper, Mario says shoot!"

Chopper chose Mario, which, of course, resembled paper, while Goombado used his foot, which sadly wasn't really anything. Goombado REALLY had paper, but his foot made it look like a rock.

"Ha! I win! Mario beats Bowser!"

"What? _**NOOOOOOO!**_ This can't be! I've been defeated…by PAPER! This can't be possible!"

"See? He's good with the 'no'!" Ghoster pointed out.

Goombado pushed Chopper out of the way and jumped out the window while dropping something from behind.

"Wait... Why did he just jump out of the window?" Chopper gawked.

"Well that was pretty stupid of him. Hmm? Is that…" Bow noticed the Power Star that Goombado left behind. Chopper smiled as he took the Star Rod out.

"Wow… He dropped it? Well that's good for us, then! We finally got what we needed! Hooray!" Chopper cheered as he walked over to the Power Star and allowed it to go into the Star Rod. Now its dullness was less obvious now.

**You got the fourth Power Star! Only three more remain…**

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_Making it into Nightclub Casino, Chopper and his friends managed to get the fourth Power Star, which makes them another step closer to restoring the Star Rod. Only three more remain, making their quest more than halfway over. But as they get closer and closer to restoring the Star Rod, Bowser and Maquano begin to make better plans than before. Will Chopper and his allies get the remaining three Power Stars before it's too late?_

* * *

**If you wanted to know, Rock, Paper, Mario is a duel mini-game from Mario Party 2, if that's important to you.  
**


	70. Chapter 12 Interlude

"You gotta be kidding me!" Bowser roared as he stomped his foot on the ground at the top of his castle. "So you're saying that Goombado _jumped_ out of the window because he lost to a game? How stupid of him to do that! I'm starting to run out of minions..."

"Your Angriness! You do have that captain from the Ghost Ship." Kammy reminded. "You know, **Captain Bonebeard**…though he doesn't actually have a beard. He was given a Power Star, remember?"

"Yeah… He's one of my stronger minions. He's much better than the others. I think Bonebeard may be good enough to stand up to Chopper. He's got some pirates and also his Ghost Ship is rarely seen. Well, it's only seen during nighttime."

"You're still letting your minions take care of Chopper?" Maquano groaned. "Bowser, they're just going to lose. You should know by now."

"What, you think you can do better than that? Besides, I only have two minions guarding the Power Star. Captain Bonebeard is one of my toughest…and this other one decided to come by my side. ...Oh yeah, where were you when I was kicking Bob out of your castle?"

"Oh, yeah. Bob's at Nightclub Casino..." Maquano recalled. "But, where was I? I was just…doing a little something. A little experiment that actually succeeded. I'll show you some other time. But first, I need to go get something.

Maquano floated off of Bowser's Castle and walked over to his castle and went into the hallway. But once he walked in, he heard a motorcycle.

"Oh no…" he turned around, but instead of Bob, Bowser came in.

"I saw that the idiot's coming here," Bowser informed. "I didn't want anything bad to happen, so I came in here. Let's just locked this place so he doesn't come in."

Bowser locked the door, and when they heard the motorcycle get to the front of the castle, Bob started revving it so it could get Maquano's attention. Of course, they didn't want to see Bob at this moment.

_"Hey, Maquano! Let me in!_" Bob called out from outside. _"I saw this weird witch girl and an imp in Nightclub Casino! It was really weird. But I'm back now…even though I got beaten up by Chopper!_"

"Did you hear that? He got his butt handed to Chopper. Gwa ha ha ha!" Bowser cackled. "See? He's not even good at fighting!"

"Indeed! Now let's go someplace AWAY from the door." Maquano suggested, walking up the stairs to the second floor with Bowser. They sat down in the terminal room and began to check on some stats.

Bowser saw Goombado wasn't actually dead. However, he was being taken to the Bowser's Minion Hospital that wasn't far from Nightclub Casino. He also could see Chopper holding up the Star Rod.

_"That wasn't as easy as I thought it would_ _be!_" Chopper sighed. "_We really took down Goombado! He just lost to…some game he thought of!"_

"Grrrr! He's gotten four Power Stars already? ! I'm getting sick of him already! That's why we need to take him out before kidnapping Princess Peach again!" Bowser roared. "I miss those days where I was the strongest one in the Mushroom Kingdom. I'm going to make sure those days come back when Chopper's gone!"

Maquano didn't say a word, but he knew that he would grow much stronger since some of the Star Rod's power will go to him thanks to what he did to the Star Rod. He received some of its power thanks to Bowser abusing the Star Rod to death.

"I think just to be safe… I'll send someone else to go." Maquano snapped his fingers and a yellow puddle appeared with Staris rising from it. Bowser saw how big he looked at this point.

"Whoa! That thing's…bigger than ME!" Bowser gaped. "How in the world did it get bigger than ME? It actually looks bigger than Bubba Blubba!"

"Don't you remember, Bowser? He gets stronger and bigger every time I give him a Star Spirit for him to absorb." Maquano reminded. "That's how it works for him. With all seven, he'll be the most powerful thing in the world! …Besides me, of course."

"Hold on a minute. That monster might betray you when it's fully transformed. I've seen stuff like that before from some fat egg-shaped scientist guy. An ancient being he used ended up betraying him."

"He could do that, but chances are that won't happen. I'm not an idiot anyway, so I would know if Staris would try to betray me or not." the demon knight assured before turning to the Star God. "Staris, go find Chopper. He's most likely going to go out at sea to find that Ghost Ship."

Staris nodded and sunk into his puddle and disappeared. He still wasn't happy about his previous defeats against Chopper, that's for sure.

* * *

**Outside of Nightclub Casino-**

Chopper was relieved to see that he got a new ability from the Star Rod, which would allow him to lower his enemies' attack by five, unlike Chill Out's ability. However, he stopped smiling when Kent C. Koopa walked over to him and his friends.

"Hey, listen… I guess you did the right thing by turning Goombado back to normal, but I didn't like how you did it. I guess I'll give you a little something just to pay you back." Kent C. Koopa gave Chopper a purple diamond pearl, which looked strange to Chopper as he took a look at it.

"Uh… I think that's called a **Diamond Pearl**. That thing can make your partners Diamond-Rank, which is the most powerful rank as far as I'm concerned! I had it in my pocket, and I didn't need it, so I gave it to you. You can probably take care of it."

"Umm… Thank you, Kent." Chopper put the Diamond Pearl away, confused with why he did this.

"Oh, and just because I gave that to you doesn't mean we're friends," Kent C. Koopa mentioned. "I still don't like what you did to my boss and to me! Next time we meet, be prepared for a beating!"

"IF I ever meet you again, that is..." Chopper smirked.

"That pearl is very useful, as far as I remember," Geno recalled. "Hold onto it for now, Chopper. You're going to need it."

"OK, I guess I will... But we better get going. We have to find the fifth Power Star." Chopper began to walk down the hill, but then he noticed the Ghost Ship sailing by the coast, which made him stop and go over by the beach area.

"Chopper? Where are you going?" Bow asked as she and the group. followed him over to the coast. Unfortunately, they didn't see the Ghost Ship.

"I swear… I saw that Ghost Ship!" Chopper frowned. "How on earth did it disappear like that? I'm so confused…"

"Hold on a minute. I have an idea." Ghoster used his Ghost Vision, and he actually saw the Ghost Ship. Everyone looked surprised about this, especially those who encountered it on their way to Yoshi's Island.

"Hey… That's the Ghost Ship we've seen before!" Koopla realized. "It sunk our crappy boat made of leaves and bamboo!"

"Dang it! I wanna get back at that ship!" Bruce growled before noticing an Upgrade Block. "Oh, look! An Upgrade Block!".

"Oh, interesting!" Chopper hit the block, and he decided to upgrade C-2 Choppor, who learned the move Laser Cannon, which would allow him to fire a huge laser blast at all enemies. Not only that, but he could deal 8 damage to any enemies as well.

"Aw man! Why didn't you upgrade me? I mean, you ALWAYS save me for last! It's not cool at all."

"Ya gotta quit with yer whinin' about the Upgrade Block," Yosho suggested. "It ain't gonna make things better, y'know."

"I know, but I don't want to be that last guy again!"

"Well maybe ya might be the last one to get a girlfriend! Heh heh heh..."

"Well at least I HAD a girlfriend before!"

"Oh, burned!" Parakarry laughed.

"H-Hey! Sh-Shut up!" Yosho stammered. "Wait, I'm too cool to act like that!"

"Hmm… I feel something coming from that Ghost Ship…" Geno trailed as he closed his eyes. "It feels like…there's a Power Star on board there!"

"Really? Then that must be where we need to go next!" Chopper stated. "C'mon, guys. We gotta get to Toad Town Harbor!"

* * *

**Toad Town Harbor-**

"Ah yes. This boat." Parakarry smiled as they walked over to the boat they used before. "This really helped us out when we needed to get back to Town Town from Yoshi's Island. I think we should use this!"

"Where's the other boat I gave you guys? You replaced it with this?" Toadsmeth gaped as he looked at their new boat.

"Well we HAD to…" Chopper trailed. "A Ghost Ship destroyed the old one you made…which was awful! Also, we're trying to catch that Ghost Ship so we can get the fifth Power Star."

"Oh, I knew it would be bad. It was already a crappy boat. This one is pretty good! ...Wait, did you say you're going after a Ghost Ship?"

"Yeah, but I don't think it's going to be easy going after it when we're going across the ocean. It might get away from us."

"Well, if you must know, it only appears during the night," Toadsmeth noted. "But good news, Chopper! I happen to have a secret island on the ocean that we can sail to! Yes, you'll have what you need to get that Ghost Ship! Word reaches that their hideout is at the bottom of the ocean."

"Whoa whoa whoa! Did you say at the BOTTOM of the ocean?!" Kayzee gasped. "It's probably too dark down there!"

"And how are we supposed to get down there? Not all of us can survive underwater or swim!" Mallow cried. "Is there a way to get down to the bottom of the ocean if some of us can't do those things?"

"Of course there is!" Toadsmeth assured. "There's also some kind of underwater world down there too. I don't know what exactly, but it's NOT Atlantis. I mean, there's no way Atlantis exists. It's something more interesting than that."

"I can't breathe underwater, so how is it possible to go through that place?" Koopla asked.

"You're getting a little ahead of yourself, Koopla. I have the tools you need on **Science Island**. There's a lab on there where many scientists go to for some important meetings or research. We each have our own lab there, like me! If you need to get to that Ghost Ship and get to the hideout, then I'll take you there!"

"Thanks, Toadsmeth!" Chopper smiled.

Toadsmeth got on the boat with everyone else. The professor started the boat and drove out into the ocean, where their next journey would possibly begin.

"Let's hope the Pondering Gate is working just fine..."

* * *

**Yes, the next chapter takes place...in the ocean! I don't have much to say. I should upload another chapter because the two I put up are just too short. OK? That'll be nice to start Chapter 13 now.**


	71. Out on the Ocean to Science

**CHAPTER 13**

**-Oceans and Pirates-**

Seagulls were flying up in the sky, and it was sunny out unlike Nightclub Casino. The heroes decided to take this time to relax, with Chopper pulling out a pair of sunglasses and putting them on.

"Ah, back outside," Chopper smiled. "It's been so long since we got back out to somewhere like this…but we got more people this time! Woo! It kinda reminds me of when we were going to Yoshi's Island…except we're actually not going there!"

"It's been quite a while. At least we get to relax and not do any work." Bow sighed. "Speaking of that, did we just leave the casino without telling them that we quit?"

"Of course. I told Yosho to go tell the manager that we had to go and had to turn in our uniforms." Koopla informed. "Thank god I don't have to be back there now. You _did _tell him, right Yosho?"

"Umm… Erm… I think I forgot." Yosho sweat dropped.

"What?! You forgot?!" Bow gaped.

"You were supposed to do that, Yosho!" Koopla barked. "Now we're seriously going to be in so much trouble! ...Although, I bet we'd end up getting fired anyway, which I have no problem with."

"But ya didn't tell me about that!" Yosho denied. "I was too busy tryin' to get with the ladies! Ya know, I had the sign tellin' me that I was open fer the ladies. Though… All we'll find on an island are science geeks."

"Science geeks? We're not science geeks at all, punk!" Toadsmeth objected. "My inventions have helped A LOT of people in Toad Town! It was I who found Chopper and saved him by bringing him back to my lab!"

"Hey, Professor. Did you lock your door before you left the lab?" Chopper asked.

"Uh… What?"

"You didn't lock it, didn't you..."

"Well... I guess I didn't."

Chopper: *face palm*

Mallow looked down at the water and saw a Cheep Cheep swim below the boat. He tried to grab it, but it got away. However, it jumped out of the water and gave Mallow a glare.

"Who do you think you are trying to grab me? You know what I do to people like you?" the Cheep Cheep smacked Mallow in the face with its tail fin, making the cloud boy annoyed.

"THAT!" the Cheep Cheep stuck its tongue out at Mallow and went back into the water. He decided not to make a fuss over it and relaxed like everyone else. Bruce didn't even look at the water, because he was worried he'd fall off.

"Well this is a great place to relax. After flying for a long time, I can finally sit down and relax. It feels great!" Parakarry grinned.

"Yeah, you could say that again!" Bruce agreed. "But… If I had arms, I could get around easily, but I still have an advantage to other things. I can survive any explosion! I can also break through many things after blowing up, so not everything's bad for me."

"You're probably right on that. But man, this is just a cool boat. It's big, I suppose, and it has a room for people to go in and watch TV and also has a fishing net! Though… I don't use nets. I just deliver letters."

"I guess it's a good place to relax. Though, Toadsmeth here is just driving the boat. You're doing fine over there, right Professor?" Geno asked as he took a glance at Toadsmeth.

"Uh… Yes! I'm doing just fine! No need to worry about me, uh…wooden doll." Toadsmeth assured. "I can put this on auto-pilot—if that's the correct term for it."

"Whatever you say, doc—I mean Professor. How far do we need to go exactly?"

"About… I don't know. If you see it out in the distance, you'll know when we get there. We can stop by some small islands to find some stuff if you want. How does that sound to you all?"

"It sounds good I suppose," Bow shrugged. "Are you SURE there are no giant Bloopers out here? Bloopink was big…but are there HUGE Bloopers?"

"Deep at the bottom there are. It doesn't sound so good, but you can take them out easily. Trust me, it's not hard at all."

Kayzee sat on one of the chairs to lean back, but she noticed another ship coming by. It seemed to have Koopas with a cannon on their ship. They looked like they were ready to sink their boat.

"Guys! I see something over there! There's a big bad ship coming after us! Can't we do something about it?" Kayzee cried until she realized she could get rid of the cannon on the ship, so with her Heat Vision, she melted the cannon.

"What? Aw, that's not cool!" the Koopa in charge groaned. "That Dayzee girl just melted our cannon! You know we've spent over ten hours making that thing! No matter… We got our other cannon!"

"Well yer gonna get some of this! Grrrrrrgh!" Yosho looked constipated for a second and laid an egg with red polka-dots. He picked it up and threw it at the cannon, making it unable to be used.

"Huh? Boss, our cannon's not working!" the cannon Koopa alarmed as it tried to fire at them.

"Oh, forget the cannon! Just get on the boat!" the ship sailed over to the boat, allowing the Koopas to get on. The Koopa Captain took out a cutlass and tried to attack Chopper. Luckily, Chopper jumped out of the way and knocked the captain to the floor with a stomp, dropping the cutlass.

"Hmm…" Chopper inhaled the cutlass, and when he swallowed it, he had a black captain's hat with crossbones, an eye patch on his left eye and a cutlass.

"Holy… Am I **Pirate Chopper**? I look like a pirate. Maybe I can do something." Chopper opened his mouth, and a cannon came out, leaving his friends guffawed for a minute.. He fired a cannonball at the Koopa Captain, and who got knocked into the ocean.

"Wh-What the heck?!" Bow gaped. "How can a cannon stick out of your mouth?!"

"I guess anything's possible," Ghoster remarked.

The other two Koopas were about to attack, but C-2 Choppor used his Laser Cannon to completely sink the ship. While he didn't enjoy it, it was the only way to stop them.

"Whoa, thanks, C-2 Choppor. I thought we'd be in some trouble there." Chopper thanked as he saw a small island up ahead. They stopped there for a moment and jumped off the boat.

"You guys can go on that island," Toadsmeth declared. "I'm going to stay here where I'll be safe. Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

Chopper, Koopla, Bruce, Bow, Mallow and Geno got off the boat and explored the small island. A palm tree over by a bush was the first thing they noticed upon coming here.

"I wonder what's up this tree." Chopper climbed up the tree. He didn't need his Pirate ability on, so he took it off for now. He found a coconut that he managed to knock down.

"Hmmm… What's this?" Bow pushed a small rock aside and could see a hole. It was dark, so they couldn't tell what was down there.

"A hole? What could be down there? Only one way to find out…" Koopla jumped down the hole, followed by the rest of the group on the island. They found themselves in an underground room with a door up ahead. They could see that they landed on a spring and found themselves by a door.

"What the… This is odd. Where the heck are we?" Chopper began to scratch his head in confusion, but he didn't care. He walked up to the stone door ahead, which opened on its own.

"Wow, this place is just WEIRD…" Bow trailed. "I've never seen a place like this. Chopper, I can stay close by you if you need it."

"No thanks…" Chopper didn't want to remember about what happened at Lumberjack Mill, so he moved on. Walking into the next room, they found some pillars and also an Upgrade Block.

"Ah! Finally it's my time to get one!" Bruce declared, but Chopper chose to upgrade Geno instead which made his attack power go up to 8 and also learn the move Geno Flash, which would allow him turn into a cannon and shoot a large ball of energy that could deal 12 damage to any enemy. Overall, it's the strongest ability of any partner.

"Hmph… That Diamond-Rank has really made me strong." Geno noticed. "I feel like I've been fully powered up or something."

Bruce walked over to the pillars around, and he saw that they could be blown up. "Chopper, I can probably blow these up, so go ahead and throw me at the pillars!"

Chopper noticed also in the middle of the room that there was a Dayzee Statue. One that they've seen in a cavern when they were in Flower Plains.

"A Dayzee Statue here?" Chopper blinked. "Well, we can always take this thing out. We've gotten stronger, so we should be able to take this thing on."

The Dayzee Statue moved and ran over to Chopper and his friends. Chopper got his Sword ability as he noticed the sword it had.

"All right… Let's see how we do. It still has 40 HP, so it shouldn't be any biggie." Chopper swung at the Dayzee Statue, and Geno followed up with his Geno Beam. The Dayzee Statue ran towards Chopper and it swung its sword at Chopper, which hit him. It didn't do so much damage, considering that Chopper had gotten stronger in the past.

He used his D-Down Slash on the Dayzee Statue afterward, piercing its defense. Once Geno attacked with his Geno Beam, it was more than halfway beaten already. Chopper guarded the Dayzee Statue's next attack with his sword and swung back as soon as it tried to attack, knocking it back.

"Yep, that's how you do it!" Chopper smiled as Geno attacked with his Geno Beam, leaving it with 3 HP. The Dayzee Statue made a simple attack, but Chopper managed to finish it with one slash, which destroyed the statue and gave Chopper 18 Star Points.

Now that that statue was taken care of, Chopper threw Bruce at the pillars, and he blew them up. Nothing was under them except for coins and also an Ultra Shroom. There was no other door, so all they could do was return to the surface and back on the boat.

* * *

**Surface-**

When they got on the boat, Yosho was the first to speak. "So, did ya find anythin' on the island? We saw ya fall in a hole, but then ya'll came back up. What was in that place ya fell in?"

"Nothing except for a Dayzee Statue," Chopper answered. "Looks like there are more than just one, apparently."

"Dayzee Statues? I think they work for Bowser." Kayzee pondered. "They try to stay still so they can attack someone when they get close, but I'm sure you can take them out now, since you're stronger."

"Yeah, we just did... Anyway… We better get going. Toadsmeth, get the boat going again!" Chopper jumped onto the boat, while his friends joined him.

"I wonder how far we'll be now. This ocean is huge, but what IS here?" Mallow asked.

"We'll find out when the time has come," Ghoster answered as they took off for Science Island.

* * *

**Some time later-**

"How much further until we make it to Science Island?" Chopper asked. "It's getting pretty boring here. I feel like I want to take a nap or something."

"Then why don't you go into that room that's on the boat," Toadsmth suggested. "There's a TV in there and other nice things. You should go in there and take a look for yourself. I only saw a sofa, but you can relax on that."

"OK…" Chopper walked into the room where it was a little dark and lied down on the sofa. Yosho came in the room and sat on the sofa and took the TV remote. There was also a Nintendo 64, which had Mario Party 1, 2, and 3. Not only that, but there was the Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask cartridges on the ground as well. Yosho didn't come to play those games though. He wanted to turn on the TV and go to a channel where there were a lot of women on there. Attractive women to be exact. There were some attractive Yoshis, Cheep Cheeps, and more, which made him drool.

"Oh man… All of these ladies are just so cool. I'm so glad that there's a TV here." Yosho swooned. "If only there was a computer, I wouldn't have to go through stupid commercials!"

"Hey, Yosho, what are you doing?" Mallow asked as he came in the room. "How about we play some Mario Party?"

"Uhhh… You didn't see anythin' on that TV screen, Mallow!" Yosho yelped. "But seriously, this is a bad moment! I was busy lookin' at some chi- I mean sittin' here for no apparent reason!"

"How could you be sitting down for no reason? Anyway, Mario Party's there! We should play the game! Get Chopper up so we can all play the game! …Though we need a fourth player to play the game."

"I'll go!" Yosho nudged Chopper a little to wake him up and went outside to get Koopla.

"What do you want?" Koopla asked as Yosho explained. "Wait… Mario Party? Why didn't you say so? Mario Party's a great game! C'mon, I want to play that game!" she ran into the room and got on the sofa.

"Huh? Where's Koopla going?" Bow asked.

"Probably going to play a game in there," Geno answered. "Yes, I saw some video games in there. I'm going to take a look myself."

"Video games? Oh, count me in!" Ghoster floated into the room while Geno followed him. They already started Mario Party, with Chopper choosing to play as Mario, Mallow choosing Luigi, Koopla choosing Donkey Kong and Yosho choosing…Yoshi, of course. They were all competing against each other, but mostly if there were two teams, it would be Chopper and Mallow vs Koopla and Yosho for the most part.

"Oh yeah! I won that game!" Mallow fist pumped. "Let's see how you guys beat me now! I'm already in first place!"

"Well we'll see about that!" Chopper played one of the mini-games and won it that time. Chopper and Mallow were doing the best, while Yosho was doing the worst out of them all.

"Oh come on! How am I losin' so easily?" Yosho guffawed. "This doesn't make any sense! God, I must really suck at this game! How are ya all beatin' me in this game? I used to be so awesome at this!"

"Yosho, how come you didn't choose to play as Peach?" Koopla wondered. "I mean, you like the ladies, and wouldn't you have chosen Peach because…"

"Yer not goin' to finish that sentence. I chose Yoshi 'cause I AM a Yoshi. I'm the coolest Yoshi alive!" Before they could continue on, Bow flew into the room.

"Guys, we're right near Science Island. We don't have time to play this game." Bow turned the game off and grabbed Chopper's hand.

"Hey! Bow, what are you doing?" Chopper asked.

"We're just going to Science Island. I'll help you out of here." Bow smiled as she dragged Chopper back outside.

"Well looks like we don't get to find out who will win," Geno shrugged. "But that's not a big deal. I suppose everybody won."

"I'm disappointed that I didn't get to play," Ghoster sulked. "I wanted to play the game so BAD! But, maybe we can get back to the game after going through Science Island."

Chopper walked over to Toadsmeth, who turned to him. "Good news, Chopper! We've finally made it to Science Island, the island where scientists go! Are you ready for some science?"

"Am I ready for science? Uh… No. I don't really like science that much. It's boring." Chopper responded. "Thank goodness my best friend isn't a scientist - though he has to use SOME chemicals for his invention. At least he's not boring, though."

"We should get off the boat right now. We'll be able to get the tools we need to go down into the water…and find the Ghost Ship." Geno announced.

"We'd have to wait for night to come in order to catch that Ghost Ship. But right now, we should go into the lab." Toadsmeth got off the boat and walked on the short green grass. There was a ladder going up to the big lab.

"A ladder! Dang it, it's one of my few weaknesses I have!" Bruce pouted. "Now how am I going to get up here?" However, Bruce then felt himself being grabbed by Yosho's tongue, who began to climb up the ladder to the gray building with the Bob-omb in his mouth.

_"He better not blow up inside my mouth..."_

Everyone else began to climb up the ladder except for Parakarry, Bow, C-2 Choppor, Kayzee and Ghoster. As soon as they reached the top, Yosho spat Bruce out and panted.

"I really hate doin' that," the Yoshi grumbled. "I wish ya had arms so I didn't have to take ya around places. It annoys me so much!"

"Well it's not my fault I have no arms," Bruce retorted as he walked through the door with his friends. The floors, walls, and the ceiling were a white color, and there were many science tools, like an Erlenmeyer flask with a science Koopa putting chemicals in it and also a science Goomba using something called a Food Urinal, which lets you order food and go to the bathroom at the same time.

"Hey, Yosho, you're not going crazy over the females here. What gives?" Parakarry wondered.

"That's 'cause they're not the ladies that I want to be with," Yosho replied. "I bet they're all geeky, and I don't like geeks. Ya know what I'm sayin', right?"

"Yeah, sure…" Chopper rolled his eyes as he walked around to check out the place. Toadsmeth wanted Chopper to follow him, so he followed him to a door to where his lab was. They saw a tank with a Clubba inside of it, a bed for Toadsmeth to sleep in and also a table - and not to mention a window with a telescope!

"What's that telescope by the window?"

"Whuh? Oh, that? That's my Hearoscope." Toadsmeth grinned. "With it, I can hear things from long distances. It's really works! Go ahead and try it!" Chopper shrugged and he went ahead and used it.

"I can hear…the cosmos? Heh… This thing's pretty good!" Chopper smiled. "I can't wait to show this to Peach! She might like this!"

"What? For god sakes, Chopper! Don't take it out of here! What are you trying to do, kill us all? That can only stay here! If I took it anywhere else, we may all cease to exist!"

"Wait… We'll all cease to exist? How is that even possible?" Bow gawked.

"I'm only kidding, Bow. We're not going to cease to exist. But seriously, don't take it. I need to keep it here. The scientists even told me that it needs to stay here or else I might lose my job - which is something I don't want." Toadsmeth walked into his closet to find some equipment. "Ah, yes! Here it is! Just what I was looking for!"

Toadsmeth got some oxygen equipment for everyone and some diving equipment for everyone as well and gave them to them.

"Professor, we all don't need this equipment," Chopper objected. "Some of us can breathe underwater. Bruce, Bow, C-2 Choppor, Ghoster, Geno, and I don't need this. The others, however, need it."

"Oh? Well then, I guess you don't need it..." the professor frowned. "Koopla, Parakarry, Yosho, Kayzee, and Mallow… Take this diving equipment so you can survive underwater. You're going to need it to find what's around you. It's going to be dark down there, so take these lights with you."

Toadsmeth gave everyone some underwater lights so they could see at the bottom of the ocean. Afterward, he headed over to the door.

"Where are you going, Toadsmeth?" Chopper asked.

"Oh, me? I'm going to go to your boat and upgrade it a little! My fellow scientists will help me with this. Don't worry, it won't take long. At least I HOPE it doesn't take me a long time to finish…"

"So what do we do while you're doing you're uh…thing?"

"It's simple. Just stay here until I'm done. Don't worry on how long I take. I'll make sure it's the best thing that's been made!"

"But he asked what you're going to do with the boat," Bow stepped in.

"Please answer us, and we won't ask you about it again," C-2 Choppor demanded.

"That…is a secret! Sorry, but I can't tell you right now. I'll tell you when I'm done. So just be a little patient."

And with that, Professor Toadsmeth walked out of the lab with his fellow scientists to go fix up the boat a little.

* * *

**Nighttime-**

"Oooog! Almost there!" Toadsmeth was trying to fix some of the screws and even tested it out just to be safe. Luckily nothing bad happened so he was safe…from getting yelled at Chopper and his friends.

Chopper and his friends were still waiting in Toadsmeth's lab on Science Island. Some of them actually fell asleep. Chopper was so tired of waiting, which made him fall asleep. Yosho had a snot bubble, and it made Kayzee stay away from him. They've been waiting all day, and it was already nighttime.

"Good news, everyone! It's done!" Toadsmeth announced as he entered his lab. Yosho's snot bubble popped, waking him up, as well as anyone else who was sleeping.

"Whoa whoa whoa what? It's done already?" Chopper looked at the time and then looked outside.

"Wait a minute… How come it's eight o'clock?" Ghoster wondered. "You said it wouldn't take long! Were you wrong, professor?"

"I thought it wouldn't take long, but it seems I was wrong," Toadsmeth sighed. "I apologize for the long wait, though. But now you can check out the new boat that you have! Come!"

Chopper and his friends followed Toadsmeth out of the lab and went onto the dock and saw their boat, which didn't have any changes to it.

"It looks the same as before," Chopper face palmed. "You're telling us that you wasted all your time doing nothing? Come on! That's not right!"

"Hold on… My scanners are giving me something odd. This boat…is no ordinary boat now." C-2 Choppor informed, looking suspicious.

"What are ya talkin' about, Choppor? The boat looks the same as before!" Yosho objected. "I think somethin's wrong with yer scanner. I think Toadsmeth needs to fix ya."

"No, there is something different with it," C-2 Choppor got on the boat and saw a red ! switch. He shot the switch with a blast from his gun. Suddenly, it transformed into a submarine with Chopper's face on the sub.

"Whoa… That thing's also a submarine? That's…pretty cool!" Chopper smiled. "Now we can go down into the depths of the ocean! YES! ...And not to mention my face is on it."

"That's something I could look at all day," Bow blushed.

"You like it? I knew it would get your attention." Toadsmeth smirked. "I call this boat… The **Chopperboat 3000**! Why does it have your name in it? Well, because you technically own the boat."

"Chopperboat 3000? Errrr... Kind of a strange name, but I guess I'll go with it..." Chopper trailed.

The submarine turned back into a boat, and C-2 Choppor walked out of it. "It's…really nice, to tell you the truth. It's not even dirty."

"Really? Then that should be good…if anyone doesn't like a boat to be all dirty and disgusting." Bow sighed. "I think traveling on the boat should be just fine!"

"So are you coming, Toadsmeth?" Chopper asked.

"No, Chopper. You and your friends will have to go without me at this moment. That Ghost Ship might be anywhere now that it's nighttime. I suggest that you look carefully and have Ghoster look around to see if the ship is there. While you're at it, go check some islands that you find around. I think there might be some stuff there for you."

"Umm… OK, thanks for the tips. Ghoster, check for anything with your Ghost Vision. If you see the ship, give us a warning. Surely we can get to it…but what do we need to get there?"

"Oh! Take this with you! It's a magical map that can tell you where the Ghost Ship is. With it, you can go to it without any problems." Toadsmeth handed Chopper a map with blue ghost pictures on it. He took a look at it and noticed the island it was on.

"It shows its location to be by a square-shaped island."

"Ah, so the ship is at the island up ahead! You see, Chopper, that map is the key to letting you see the Ghost Ship during the nighttime. Be careful… When you're in the area the Ghost Ship is, it'll be dark and stormy - something you might find obvious when you see it."

"Thanks, Toadsmeth. OK, guys… Let's go! Hold on… Who's going to drive the boat? I can't drive because I'm not old enough…"

"I'll drive it!" Yosho declared. "Ladies love a man who drives a boat anyway, so I'm yer man to do it!" he got on the driver's seat and used the keys to turn the boat on. Once he hit the pedal, the boat began to take off.

"Good luck, Chopper! I hope that Ghost Ship doesn't destroy you!" Toadsmeth called out waving goodbye to Chopper. Afterward, he rushed back into the lab, worried about the Ghost Ship that could show up.

* * *

**Out at sea-**

"Yosho! Slow down a little! We can't just keep going incredibly fast! You'll kill someone!" Chopper cried as he was holding onto the seat for dear life.

Yosho slowed down, and Chopper hit the front of the boat. Thankfully, he was able to get back up and sit back down.

"Sorry 'bout that. I didn't know ya wanted me to slow down." Yosho apologized. "I just wanted to find that Ghost Ship. If yer hurt, then please fergive me, but try to fasten yer seat belt so we can get movin'."

They were continued to move, and Mallow leaned back on his seat, trying to get some sleep, but when he opened his eyes a little, he saw an island shaped like a square.

"I see the island! We should stop there first!" Mallow cried.

Yosho stopped by the island, and Chopper was the first to get off. He saw some steps on the island going up to a statue.

"I wonder what's over there…" Chopper wondered as he ran up the stairs and saw a statue of some kind of pirate with something carved by the rock. The pirate looked like a Koopa with a cutlass, no beard, and had and eye patch and black boots.

"What's this? I think it says something on this rock. Let me see…" Chopper pondered as he began to read.

_Captain Koopbeard was one of the greatest pirates to ever live. He was so great with his achievements that he had gotten so much treasure with his strategies for finding treasure. Square Island was where he died when he got stabbed by one of his own crew members, who took all of his treasure afterward. It was said that it was his first mate. There's a rumor to this day that he roams around during the night and causes storms around the ocean. All that remains of him is his skeleton, which is what's said to be his haunting spirit to destroy all those who come near him. He and his crew are said to be on a Ghost Ship, which will destroy all those that they see._

"This is interesting… So the captain is on that Ghost Ship? If he has that Power Star, then he must be working for Bowser!" Chopper saw the sky covered with clouds and also saw that it was storming. However, he didn't feel any raindrops coming down.

"Chopper! Come quick! The Ghost Ship is here!" Ghoster cried as Chopper ran back to the boat. There, they could see the Ghost Ship sailing by, almost making Yosho poop his pants.

"Are you going to do something Yosho? Go to the Ghost Ship!" Bow cried as Yosho bit his lip and hit the pedal, making the boat go toward the Ghost Ship. The ship has some kind of blue flames around it and was transparent.

"Oh boy… I can't believe I'm doin' this…" Yosho gulped.

"Don't worry about it, Yosho. Just go to the ship." Parakarry assured as Yosho ended up getting close to it. But once the boat touched the ship, it phased through it. But, Chopper's vision began to fade away, as if something was starting to occur.

"What the... What's happening to by vision?!"

While that happened, the pink wisp began to float over the boat and noticed Chopper disappear. Sadly, it couldn't get to him, so it needed to go for someone else. It looked at Chopper's friends, but it stopped right at Geno.

Yosho stopped the boat when he noticed Chopper disappeared after phasing through the boat. "Guys, where's Chopper?"

"I can't find him anywhere! Where do you think he went?" Bruce asked.

"I think…he got on that ship!" Koopla deduced. "We didn't have the Ghost Ship map, so it did nothing for us, but since he had it, something must've happened to him instead!"

"That sounds like it may be true," Geno agreed as the wisp floated over the boat and dropped some powder, making everyone but Geno fall asleep.

"Hmmm? Why hello there, strange wisp." Geno greeted as the pink wisp flew down to him. "What are you doing here?"

_"Hello there... Allow me to show you the past..."_

"What the…! What are you doing?" the wooden doll gaped as the pink wisp blinded him, making his sight fade away. "And what are you? !"

* * *

**Star Haven, past-**

When Geno opened his eyes, he found himself in Star Haven, where he could see all the Stars flying around. It felt like everything was all fine. Geno rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't imagining things.

"Is this Star Haven? But how did I get here? This is confusing…" Geno walked across the bridge, where he saw stars shooting down. He could see the shrine where all the Star Kids were playing at. They looked like they were having a fun time.

"Wow, this looks like I was taken five hundred years ago. I remember this place..." he walked up the stairs of the shrine and saw the core Bow saw before. Its green eyes looked at Geno.

"Is that you, Staris? Are you…evil right now?" Geno wondered. Luckily, Staris didn't attack him. Geno noticed a wooden doll by the core. It was the same exact doll Geno was using. Another thing that appeared was a small Star.

"It's you…" Geno gaped. "Wait, no… It's...myself. I remember I was here before, and I used to keep Staris company. I remember those good old days…"

Geno noticed a ship flying over Star Haven. Looking down from Star Haven, Geno could see the old Toad Town and the old castle. Afterward, he looked back at Staris.

"Staris… I would like to ask you a question. Or…a favor. Five hundred years later in the future…the evil King Bowser will…"

However, Geno's vision of Star Haven began to fade, which made him feel shocked. "_**No! **_I can't go now! Staris! I need to tell you something! Bowser will take the…"

* * *

**Out at sea, present-**

Geno was back on the boat, but before he could do anything, he fell asleep on the boat. The pink wisp, who's actually female, floated over the group, a little irritated.

_"I already went through five people, and I still can't find anything!"_ the wisp groaned._ "They would find a vision of Star Haven, but I need to find the boy! If I can only get to him, there's a possibility he can help me! He's my only hope of succeeding." _

The pink wisp flew off to the stars. She couldn't find who she was looking for, but she was willing try some other time when the time was right.


	72. Under the Sea

When Chopper got up, he noticed that he was in a small room with a dark brown floor and wall and a ladder going up to a doorway. Past the walls were some creepy ghosts. He jumped down from where he was and landed onto the ground. Chopper looked around and noticed his friends weren't around.

"Hello? Guys? Are you in here? I thought we would all get inside of this Ghost Ship!"

Before he did anything else, he took out the Ghost Ship Map. It was glowing a light blue color, indicating that he was inside the ship. The only thing that worried him was what his friends were thinking. They must be all worried about him!

"This is so weird… I'm all alone in this place. OK, I don't need to panic. I've gone through places on my own before. I'm sure I can handle this easily!" Chopper saw an old wheel on the ground, so he inhaled it and got a red backwards cap. Up ahead he noticed some Dry Bones appeared with a blue glow around them and were a little transparent. He gaped when he saw ten of them.

"Uh oh… This isn't good. Wait, what am I saying? I can handle this!" Chopper turned into a wheel and rammed into all ten, making them fall apart.

"Yar… He really got us, mateys…" one of the Dry Bones moaned. They were wearing bandannas like most pirates and carried cutlasses that landed on the ground due to falling apart. They were different like other pirates, because they could use other thinks like jetpacks. Chopper climbed up the ladder afterward and saw the Dry Bones come back together like they were floating, which made him shocked. He immediately dropped down from the ladder.

"Oh, I completely forgot that Dry Bones don't get defeated so easily… Oh man… Wait!" Chopper removed his Wheel ability and became Fire Chopper. With that, he spewed fire and burned them down.

"Man… This Fire ability should be useful." he climbed up the ladder and went through the doorway to find a small room. There was a Save Block and also a jetpack on the ground. Chopper hit the Save Block and removed his Fire ability to inhale the jetpack. He swallowed it, and he had a jet plane helmet with jet-plane wings and a large jet on the back. He also got shades that drop down to protect his eyes.

Walking into the next room, he found some platforms that were floating in a big room with some ropes to swing across. His jet has fuel and could only use it to fly over to the ropes to swing to another platform. Though, while on the ground or on the rope, his fuel will replenish, which sounded nice. Below Chopper were some Dry Bone Pirates. He ignored them and hovered over to the platform so he could replenish his fuel.

"Man, I never knew this ship had some much to it." Chopper realized. "It's kind of small when you look at it. But when inside…it's pretty big."

He grabbed the rope to swing onto the next platform and grabbed a rope to the north to land onto another platform. Getting to the other side, the door was sealed, but when he charged up and rammed into the door, he broke it. He found a Heart Block in the next small room, so he hit it to replenish all of his stats.

"It stinks my partners aren't here to help. I hope I will be able to see them soon. But right now, I gotta go get that Power Star!" Chopper removed his power and went into the next room, which was pretty big. He went down the stairs and by some stairs up ahead, the Dry Bones Captain was there with other Dry Bone Pirates.

"Well well well… It looks like ye managed to show up to me headquarters. Yer lucky ye got that map to help ye here. If ye didn't have it, ye'd be walkin' the plank, that's fer sure!" Captain Bonebeard turned around with his cutlass on one hand and his hood on his left hand. He was wearing a captain's hat and also a wheel on the back of his shell that could be used to steer a pirate ship. He wore an eye patch on his left eye while his right eye revealed a blue glowing pupil.

"So you were the captain that got stabbed in the back by his first mate," Chopper realized. "I had a feeling you were, because you got some ghost aura around you."

"Yar har har har! Ye'd be correct, Chopper! Me name's Captain Bonebeard now! I be one of Bowser's strongest minions! And I assume yer here fer me Power Star." Bonebeard cackled as he took out the Power Star.

"There it is!" Chopper was about to go up the stairs, but three of his pirates stood in the way with their cutlasses ready.

"If yer tryin' to get me Power Star, I wanna see how ye can do against my crew! Take out yer cutlass now and fight them! …Or else ye'd be walkin' the plank. It's yer decision…"

Chopper became Pirate Chopper and took out his own cutlass. "I'm not walking any plank! I'll take your crew on! Just watch me!"

"Arrrrrrrrr! Yer in fer it now! Yo ho ho ho ho!" the Dry Dry Pirates said in unison as they began to swing at Chopper, but luckily, he jumped out of the way.

"You want a load of something? Well then get a load of THIS!" a cannon appeared out of Chopper's mouth, and he fired a cannonball out, knocking the Dry Bones into pieces.

"Ha! Take that!" he smirked, but not for long, since the Dry Bone Pirates had a tornado around them that turned them back to normal, making Chopper step back as the Dry Bone Pirates cackled. "Can all Dry Bones do things like that? I know the ones in Bowser's Castle just rose up instead of doing that. Wait… You're like ghosts, though."

"We're all like ghosts, Chopper!" Captain Bonebeard grinned. "But enough belly gaggin'! Me fellow pirates, take Chopper down, and he'll walk the plank! …And then we'll get his friends after that. Doesn't that sound swell, crew?"

"Yar har har har har!" the three pirates raised their cutlasses up, which allowed Chopper to run toward them and swing at them with his cutlass and then jump back. Still, it did nothing to them.

"Oh, screw this! If they're going to be pirates, then I'll be the exact opposite! I'll be what I think is better!" Chopper removed his Pirate ability and became Ninja Chopper before pulling his kunai knife out.

"What? A ninja versus three pirates? Are ye outta yer mind?" Captain Bonebeard gawked. "Ye really think a ninja stands a chance against a pirate? HA! Pirates are much better than ninjas, you know."

"No way! Ninjas get to use some cool weapons! Not to mention I'm stronger as a ninja, since I can pierce through defense! Plus, pirates smell, and they have this deck called the poop deck! Why is there such a thing called that? Do you pirates poop on it?"

"Er… That's none of yer business, Chopper. Yer not gonna be hearin' anything like that from us, that's fer sure! But enough of yer talkin'! Crew! Finish the job!"

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper threw shurikens at the Dry Bone Pirates, whiched knocked their arms off, but came back on. Nope, it wasn't working on them, so that was a big problem.

"Hold on a minute…" Chopper began to focus, and he unleashed fire on the ground, which burned the Dry Bones and destroyed them. "I wonder why fire never worked on Dry Bones before..."

"Damn it! How did ye manage to take me crew down? !" Captain Bonebeard guffawed. "No matter… Those are just three of 'em! I got more where that came from!" the captain whistled as a bunch of pirates came into the room with their cutlasses at Chopper.

"Uh oh… This isn't good." Chopper sweat dropped, but when he looked up, he saw a rope he could grab. _"That might help me!" _

The Dry Bone Pirates swung their swords at Chopper, but he jumped up and grabbed the rope. He began to swing toward Captain Bonebeard to grab the Power Star. He managed to get up to the top of the stairs and ready his kunai.

"All right, hand over the Power Star and nobody gets hurt!" Chopper declared before Captain Bonebeard however swung at Chopper with his cutlass, knocking Chopper's kunai away,

"I know what will be better!" Chopper removed his Ninja ability and became Sword Chopper. He swung at Bonebeard and kept parrying his attacks. Basically, they were having a big sword fight.

"Shiver me timbers! Crew! Gimme some help here!" Captain Bonebeard cried. His crew listened and began to walk up the stairs to get to Chopper, but he fired a Sword Beam to knock them back.

"All right, now is when I defeat you and get the Power Star for the Star Rod!" Chopper rushed toward Captain Bonebeard, who was ready to block his next attack. But he stopped when he heard some kind of ghost laughter, which made him yelp.

"Yar har har har har har! Well well well! Look what time it is! It's becomin' daytime already?" Captain Bonebeard grinned. "Well now… This is when we depart!"

"What do you mean?" Chopper asked as he noticed everything began to fade away. "No! Not right now!"

* * *

**Chopperboat 3000-**

Chopper slowly got up and realized that he was back on the boat. However, the bad news was that it was daytime, and because of that, the Ghost Ship was no longer around.

"Aw man! I was so close!" Chopper clenched his fists and anger and slammed on the wall. Luckily, everyone was awake. Bow happened to be the first to go to him.

"Where were you, Chopper?" Bow wondered. "You suddenly disappeared when we got close to the Ghost Ship. Were you…inside of it?"

"Yeah, I was in there, but I was so close to getting the Power Star! I had it right there! Guys… What were dealing with…are some Dry Bone Pirate Ghosts."

"Ghosts? We're finding more ghosts around here?" Ghoster smiled. "Well that's pretty cool. I guess I'll have to help once again."

"No, it's not like that. We can still hurt them, since I managed to beat up some Dry Bones, but they're not as easy as you think. Their captain is Captain Bonebeard, and he was once a famous captain that got killed by his first mate. It's not a very nice story, if I tell you the whole thing."

"So we're dealing with some pirates? Since you didn't beat them, we should go down deep to the bottom of the ocean and look for them." C-2 Choppor suggested. "I'm certain we'll find them down at their hideout."

"Yes, that's a good idea. Since we got the equipment, we can go down there! Let's do it!" Chopper declared until he noticed Geno looked a little...different. "What's wrong with you, Geno?"

"I saw…some kind of vision during the night," Geno stammered. "Some wisp went to me and showed me Star Haven in the past. I was confused, but I saw myself as a Star, and also Staris. I was starting to remember all of that."

"That's exactly what happened to me," Bow recalled. "I found myself at some shrine from some wisp. Chopper, you need to believe us."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Chopper stated. "I'm sorry, but I need some proof if it's actually true. Let's go down into the ocean now."

"I really saw it before…" Kayzee added. "Now C-2 Choppor, Koopla, Bow, Geno, and I saw this. I wonder who might see this vision next…"

Chopper walked over to the red ! switch and whacked it with his hammer. Now they couldn't be seen from the outside except for three windows, and it turned into a submarine. The inside looked the same, but there were radars now.

The Chopperboat 3000 went down into the water, and it began to head to the bottom of the ocean. As they dove down, they looked outside and saw mostly coral, Cheep Cheeps, small Bloopers, and even shark species. However, they couldn't pay attention to that when the submarine was diving at an incredibly fast pace.

"Whoa, it feels like we're going really fast!" Chopper gaped. "Yosho, how fast are you going exactly?! Can't you slow down just a bit? Some of us might hit the front of the submarine!"

"Sorry, Chopper. I'm not makin' this thing go fast!" Yosho replied. "The submarine seems to be doin' it on its own! I can't do anythin' about it, kid! But most of all, I'm not even drivin' this thing!"

"Wait… You're not driving the submarine?! What are you, a moron? Get back to driving that thing already before we all die!" Koopla cried.

"OK! OK! OK! I got it! Don't try to yell at me or anything!" Yosho rushed to the driver's seat and attempted to drive. "I'm drivin' the submarine! Everything's goin' to be… Uh oh… This ain't good. We're…goin' down!"

"_**EEEEEEEEEEK! **_No! We're going to die!" Kayzee cried. "I didn't want it to end like this!"

"I don't think we're going to die," Chopper assured. "I mean, we already have two ghosts, but there's no way the REST of us is going to die. You might want to think more before trying anything."

"How worried should we be, though?" Bruce asked.

"Don't ask me! I'm not driving!" Parakarry retorted.

"Guys! We might need to brace ourselves! Stay calm and get ready for impact!" Geno suggested before the submarine hit the ocean floor. Surprisingly, there wasn't any damage done to the submarine. The power didn't go out, but Chopper was holding onto Bow in fear. Once he noticed this, he let go of her and noticed her blushing.

"Oh, Chopper... You shouldn't have!" Bow smirked.

"That…didn't happen!" Chopper retorted as Bruce and Mallow looked out the window.

"Hmmm… It doesn't look bad out here." Mallow noticed. "There's just Cheep Cheeps swimming by. Nothing bad at all. It might be safe to go outside and swim, even though I don't like swimming."

"Don't worry, Mallow," Bruce assured as he walked over to the equipment. "With this equipment, you can swim underwater. You're not the only one who can't swim anyway. I don't know how to either."

Parakarry walked over to the diving equipment and grabbed a diving suit, an oxygen tank, goggles, and flippers. "Well now, looks like we'll have to get into these. Actually, only the people who can't breathe underwater need this."

"I better get mine on right away," Koopla said as she got in the dark blue diving gear while everyone else but Chopper, Bruce, Bow, C-2 Choppor, Ghoster and Geno got into theirs too.

"Haw haw haw haw! Oh man, look at yourselves!" Ghoster cackled. "You look so stupid in that diving equipment! Man, if I had a camera, I'd get it out and take a picture!"

"Ghoster, they need those diving suits in order to survive underwater," C-2 Choppor informed. "It's not their fault that it looks dumb on them."

"Yes, that's true. Thank goodness I'm not in that diving suit. It probably wouldn't fit on me anyway." Bow said as Chopper walked over to the door.

"OK… We gotta QUICKLY go out so this submarine isn't flooded. OK? Ready…and GO!" Chopper quickly opened the door and closed it afterward to get outside. He was standing on the sand at the bottom of the ocean.

Everyone else managed to come out, and they saw where they were. They didn't see much around them, but hopefully they would eventually find something that will give them a hand. Chopper walked around and saw how slow he was underwater.

"Well walking around underwater is pretty annoying... I'm slower under here! And we're so deep down in the water!" Chopper frowned as he tried to swim instead. "I guess we're faster when swimming.

"Hey, it's not so bad down here. It's actually…pretty neat!" Koopla commented. "I could stay down here all day! Thank god we're not her during the night, or it wouldn't be such a good place to be underwater. Personally, it's not safe to be underwater at night. Not safe at all."

"Hmmm… Yes, I agree with you." Bow nodded. "But for now, let's take a look at what we have around here."

Chopper began to swim around to see if there would be anything interesting. He found an orange starfish with a kissy face, which could make them have a heart come out and hit someone to make them confused.

"Whoa, heads up, guys! This starfish doesn't seem so safe!" Chopper took his hammer out, ready to attack it, while the starfish shot out a heart, which began to shoot toward Chopper. Geno shot a star at the heart and it got destroyed. He fired a Geno Beam after that to defeat the starfish. They were called Starkisses after Toadsmeth identified them. There were also Goomdivers, which are Goombas with diving masks and Puffer-Cheeps, which could puff up and reveal spikes. They could also poison anyone if they touch them or if someone touched it.

"Man, there are A LOT of enemies here. I didn't know there were so many to be seen. Wow…" Parakarry trailed as he noticed his wings were useless.

"This diving gear is so uncomfortable!" Kayzee whined. "And I can't even fly under here either!"

"Man, if I could take off my oxygen mask, I would get with one of the Starkisses!" Yosho smirked. "I mean, they'll go fer anyone, right? I'd like to go fer one of 'em!"

"They can CONFUSE you when they try to kiss you, you know," Chopper face palmed. "Gosh, how much of an idiot can you be? I don't want you to be a moron or anything, but try to be a little smarter, OK?"

Chopper swam to the next big area, which had Bloopers and Cheep Cheeps swimming around. Manta Rays were also around, which had the ability to zap anyone that touches its stinger. However, their rings were enough to recover someone's HP.

They all swam around to find anything of interest. C-2 Choppor checked for anything hidden and found a yellow ? block a above them. Chopper hit it anyway and noticed how high he jumped when using his Tornado Jump.

"Whoa, that was pretty cool! I can hit anything that's too high for my normal Tornado Jump!" Chopper smiled. "That sure is something that I can use! Now… Let's see what else is around." he saw some cracked rocks around the area they were in, so he let Bruce blow them up., revealing some coins.

"OK, let's check what's in the next area." Chopper swam to the next area and noticed the next pathway had a Rainbow Block in the way. When he swam over to the block, he got his Ultra Hammer ready and gave it a smash. Sadly, it didn't work.

"What the… It didn't work!" Chopper gaped as his hammer bounced back and hit him in the face. "Choppor, what is this thing made out of?"

"This is a Rainbow Block, and it's made out of the most powerful substance in the universe," C-2 Choppor informed. "It's even stronger than a Metal Block. Yes, it's THAT powerful. You need a special kind of Hammer in order to smash this."

"A new hammer? Oh man… How could we find one? I don't see any hammers around here..."

"There's one over there, Chopper. We should go that way." Bow suggested as she pointed down to the pathway south. Chopper nodded, so they went down that way, but what they find there was an area with some bubbles going up and also some giant tentacles down in the sand.

"Be careful, we need to get past those tentacles," Geno warned. Chopper nodded, and they all swam past the tentacles to the next area. The next area was actually a little deeper down, and it seemed to get a little darker, so C-2 Choppor turned his light visors on.

Down at the bottom, they could see a big chest that looked as if there was something interesting inside.

"Go ahead and open it, Chopper. I'm sure you'll find something." Mallow smiled.

"Don't worry, Mallow. I'm doing that right now." Chopper assured as he walked over to the chest and opened it. He grabbed the item and held up a red hammer with an orange trim. It wasn't just any ordinary hammer. It was the Diamond Hammer. The ultimate hammer.

**You got the Diamond Hammer! Chopper's attack power of Chopper's Hammer and Copy Abilities increases! On top of that, you can now destroy Rainbow Blocks!**

"Wait… This Hammer can destroy Rainbow Blocks? I'll take it! Screw the Ultra Hammer!" Chopper declared as he tossed the Ultra Hammer into the chest, and looked at the shining Diamond Hammer.

"Wow… That looks really nice." Bow smiled. "That red color reminds me of my bows. At least you have something you'll remember me for."

"Um… Yeah." Chopper noticed a tunnel that was being blocked by a Rainbow Block, so he smashed it into pieces, which happened to work.

"Now THAT'S a powerful Hammer," Geno gaped. "You're going to keep that one, Chopper. …Until you ever get a stronger Hammer."

"Yes, now let's get back to where we were," Bruce suggested. Everyone agreed and went through the tunnel, where they found a current going upward, so they took it up and returned to the previous area where the Rainbow Block was.

"And now to smash this thing!" Chopper declared as he brought his hammer down on the Rainbow Block, which happened to work.

"There we go! Now let's get a move on!" Chopper put his new Diamond Hammer away, and they began to swim to the next area. Let's hope they don't find anything or anyone familiar…

* * *

**Next area-**

"Man, we've been swimmin' fer a long time, an' we still don't find anythin' interestin'!" Yosho groaned. "All we found were two shells, an egg, and a hammer that Chopper can only use. This sucks balls! When will there be anythin' good around here?"

"We just went past the area where I smashed the Rainbow Block," Chopper noted. "Why are you complaining right now? We barely went through anything! And people say I'm the impatient one... Though, you're just impatient with ladies. ...Come to think of it, why do you even do that in the first place?

"That's a long…and tough story. I'll tell ya when I think the time's right. I wanna make sure that everyone can understand me first before I do any explanin'. That's what we Yoshis are like anyway. No, not the hittin' on the ladies thing."

"You don't have to tell us," Kayzee assured. "If you're going to keep a secret, then you can't tell anyone. That's how secrets are."

"Hmmm? My scanners are showing me something…" C-2 Choppor noticed as he was detecting something with his scanners.

"You're finding something? What is it, Choppor? Anything bad?" Chopper asked.

"Negative."

"Well that's good. We should just get going for now. That's all we can do to avoid danger." Chopper began to swim toward the next area. It wasn't big compared to the other areas, which was just fine. There was seaweed that he could swim onto and also some tornadoes.

Chopper went to a tornado, and when he used his Speed Dash, he ended up spinning, which brought him above the tornado. He saw a floating platform above him, and when he landed on it, he opened the chest which contained a D-Down Jump Badge, so he took it and he put it away. After landing back onto the ground, they swam to the next area, which had a lot of spikes on the ground.

"Whoa… That's a lot of spikes. I didn't expect to be so many." Bruce gaped as Parakarry grabbed him so he wouldn't hit the spikes and began to swim over them.

Mallow looked at the spikes through his goggles. "Wow, those sure look pointy… I feel like I could pop from touching them!"

"You have the equipment to swim around, Mallow," Koopla assured. "You're going to be fine."

"These spikes look dangerous, but I don't have to worry about them. They can't even harm me!" Bow slightly cackled. "…Well, if I become transparent, that is."

"Hey, you're not the only one," Ghoster added. "I'm a ghost, and I don't need to worry about them either! Don't say it's just you!"

"Leave it be, Ghoster. We're not going to get into an argument. That's not going to make things turn out well. Just let it go." Geno suggested until he realized something. "Wait a minute… I'm made of wood, and I'm still down here at the bottom of the ocean. How on earth am I not floating back up? I'm so confused right now…"

"Maybe it's because you're at the bottom," Koopla shrugged. "I don't exactly know, but who really cares. It's probably logic anyway."

Chopper swam over the spikes and saw some of the enemies around him. He ignored them for now so he could keep on going. Everyone else ignored them after fighting a couple. When they got to the pathway to the next area, things started to change.

"Uaaaaaaaaaah! I finally got you, Chopper!"

"That voice..." Ghoster trailed. "I think we heard that voice before..."

They looked up and saw Jr. Troopa with an oxygen mask swimming down. He also had water jets to help him swim his way down.

"Oh no… Not Jr. Troopa." Chopper groaned. "I thought he'd be here after getting the Power Star…as he usually appears."

"Huff huff… Finally!" Jr. Troopa panted as he floated above the spikes, despite him slowly descending onto them. "I managed to find you! That Toad geek guy was right! You ARE down here! I was lucky enough to steal some diving equipment so I could track you down! And then…"

He felt his butt being poked by the spikes, making him rocket up in pain.

"_**YEEEEEEEOUCH!**_" Jr. Troopa cried as he landed landed right by Chopper. What everyone found strange was the fact that Jr. Troopa had no diving gear on.

"Ouch! Stupid spikes! Now I'm REALLY mad! I'll take it out on you, since you're the only one here! I'll finish you this time!"

"Oh, please…" Chopper sighed. "Every time you say that, it always ends the same as everyday. You should've realized that by now."

"Shut up! I've got something better! Watch this! _**More power!**_" Jr. Troopa hovered up with his water jets and was holding his spear sideways, which literally made him shielded by anything. He also had a spike on his head to make things a little more interesting.

"Oh, yeah! You thought I wouldn't be prepared this time! Well, take a look at this! I'm fully protected! Wah ha ha! You're going to get it now!"

**Tattle: **_Whoa! Look at Jr. Troopa! He's got himself protected there! That can't be good… Max HP: 140, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 2. He can attack in many ways, using that water jet on you, and also that spear. I think you underestimated him… It seems like he means it now. But I'm sure you can do this! You're Chopper!_

Chopper became Pirate Chopper and took out his cutlass, but he didn't use his cutlass. He fired a cannonball at Jr. Troopa from the cannon in his mouth, which made Jr. Troopa dazed.

"OW! What was that? ! That HURT!" Jr. Troopa cried as Geno fired his Geno Beam afterward. Jr. Troopa got in his shell and charged toward Chopper with the spike aiming at him. Luckily, he guarded the attack before he could take serious damage.

"Phew… That was close." Chopper sighed as he fired another cannonball at Jr. Troopa, while C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Jr. Troopa, dealing 8 damage. However, this time Jr. Troopa did something different. He shot out a bunch of bubbles from his mouth at Chopper, who took out his cutlass and popped some of them. Unfortunately, he got hit by two of them, which made him take 6 damage.

"What was that? You just shot out a bunch of bubbles…"

"I managed to learn a technique like that!"Jr. Troopa grinned. "I just shoot bubbles from the air mask. Plain and simple as that!"

"You didn't have your oxygen mask on when you did that…" Bow corrected as Jr. Troopa realized that and put it back on.

"I have no comment..." Parakarry trailed.

Chopper used a move called Super Cannon, which made him fire a bigger cannonball at Jr. Troopa, which did 8 damage, though it could actually do 10 damage.

"Oh, forget this! I'm going to lower his defense!" Ghoster made a Ghost Ball and fired it at Jr. Troopa, leaving him with 100 HP and a lowered defense.

Jr. Troopa threw his spear at Chopper, but he used his cutlass to block it. Unfortunately, it got knocked away, making him unsatisfied.

"Oh, forget it. I'll use my Jet ability." Chopper removed his Pirate ability and became Jet Chopper. Jr. Troopa went back to grab his spear and readied himself. Afterward, Chopper charged up and flew toward Jr. Troopa, but he stopped and fired some kind of light blue laser from his helmet at Jr. Troopa, dealing a good 8 damage.

Geno once again fired his Geno Beam at Jr. Troopa. Since they could do the most damage, everyone decided to step back and watch.

Jr. Troopa managed to successfully hit Chopper with his spear, taking 11 out of him. However, that didn't stop Chopper from becoming Wing Chopper and shooting a feather at Jr. Troopa.

"I should give my Geno Flash a test. It's a good time to do it right now." Geno declared as he turned into a cannon and fired a huge blast at Jr. Troopa. The blast had a face that looked like Chopper, which soon exploded afterward, dealing a a massive 12 damage.

"Yeow! What was THAT?!" Jr. Troopa exclaimed. "That was one big explosion! But I'm not letting a cannon defeat me! NEVER!"

"Very well, then I won't use that ability," Geno declared as he turned back into himself. Jr. Troopa got mad and rammed into Geno, knocking him down. "Oof! I should've seen that one coming…"

Chopper fired some more feathers at Jr. Troopa to deal a little bit more damage, and then Bow took our her fan and smacked Jr. Troopa five times. The baby Koopa charged at Chopper and used his spear on him as Chopper quickly shook his head from taking damage. He then realized something. Jr. Troopa's underwater.

"Hold on a minute…" Chopper fired a feather at Jr. Troopa first before deciding on what to do. "He can be hit by electricity since we're underwater!"

"You're right! Let me make my attack now!" Mallow used his Shocker to hit Jr. Troopa and, though it usually did 9 damage, it did 11 damage, since electricity affects water.

"Shoooooot! This isn't over yet!" Jr. Troopa cried as he used his water jets to rammed into Chopper, who lost his Wing ability thanks to him.

"Aw man! You knocked out my Wing ability! Not only that, but your defense is back! That's it! It's time for my Ninja ability!"

Chopper became Ninja Chopper and jumped on Koopla's head to throw two shurikens at Jr. Troopa, which hit him directly.

"Hey! Why did you jump on MY head?" Koopla asked.

"Well sorry! I'm used to jumping on Koopa's heads!" Chopper answered as C-2 Choppor fired a blast at Jr. Troopa and left him with 11 HP.

"Oh no! I can't be done yet!" Jr. Troopa gulped as he noticed his HP was low. He used his jets to ram into Chopper again, who was able to guard it with his Hammer.

"All right, let's finished this up!" Chopper had Jr. Troopa blocked with his hammer, so he whacked him away with that, and then C-2 Choppor fired a blast that hit Jr. Troopa and his jets.

"Oh…NOOOOOO! My jets are going crazy!" Jr. Troopa cried as he flew upward in the ocean and left some Star Points. 36 to be exact, which gave Chopper a level up. He chose to bring his FP to 60.

"Well there goes Jr. Troopa. I feel kind of bad for him now, but oh well..." Chopper trailed as he removed his Ninja ability and swam to the next area. Geno got up and followed, as well as his friends. They found a big ship up ahead, which looked like it was an old one that crashed down many years ago. They couldn't see anything past the ship, since it was large..

"That ship… That used to be around five hundred years ago." Geno recalled. "It's an old Hellspawn ship."

"A Hellspawn Ship? Are you sure?" Chopper wondered. "Well we're at the front door, so maybe it's best if we went inside. It's probably already flooded in there too, but I suppose it's safer than being out here. What do you thin, guys?"

"I suppose it's a good idea," Bow nodded, along with everyone else. "I'd like to see what's in there anyway."

"Great! Let's go in!" Chopper walked over to the door and saw that it was still active, so he pressed a button, and the door opened up on its own. Everyone went into the ship, hoping to find something interesting inside.


	73. Regaining Memories

Though the ship was still active, there wasn't anything around to be seen. The interior looked like a light gray color. The water wasn't really that deep in the ship, and most of the rooms don't have water. The ground was a shiny light gray color with a black stripe on the ground. There were a lot of doors, and they were like the ship entrance, which opened up on its own. What was nice was that no one else was around, and the fact that there was oxygen in the ship.

"Whew… Thank goodness we can breathe in the ship!" Parakarry sighed in relief as he and the others took off their oxygen masks. "It feels so good to be out of water. I mean, it's not bad, but I prefer the land. We're all mostly best when we're on land."

"Some of my species lived in water on my birth planet, so that's why I'm able to breathe," Chopper explained. "Though, I only stayed on land, but that's just me. I don't know what else happened in the water, since I didn't live down there."

While they were talking, Bow looked at the ship, which looked kind of clean…for a crashed and abandoned ship.

"This ship looks like it's in perfect shape. It's very weird for an old ship to be in this kind of shape... Wait, could that mean that…" Bow's eyes widened when she heard some pirate sounds coming from the ship. "I heard something, guys. I think we need to find a safe place to hide."

"We didn't hear anything..." Chopper trailed.

"Oh, there's a noise?" Ghoster asked as he tilted his head. "I didn't hear anything... I'm sorry I didn't hear it, Bow. Can you forgive me?" he held his hand out, ready to shake the girl's hand.

"OK, I forgive you…I guess," Bow grabbed Ghoster's hand, but she felt a shock, which made her notice the buzzer Ghoster had with him.

"Haw haw haw! You fell for it! See? Without Hauntost, I'M the real ghost prankster!" Ghoster cackled. "I'm the best there is! No other ghost can do better than me!"

"Grrrrr! You'll see what happens when you try to mess with me!" Bow growled as she threw Ghoster in a small room through one of the doors and smacked him with her fan.

"Cut it out, Bow! It was a joke! ...No, don't give me a smack that's _WORSE!_" Everyone cringed as they heard Ghoster's yelps.

_"Well, now I know that I shouldn't make a girl angry…"_ Chopper thought._ "THAT was scary… Why is it bad to make a girl angry? Well… Kayzee got angry after her doll got hurt, Koopla got angry at me saying she would hurt me if I picked the wrong…Koopla, and THAT."_

"OK, I'm all done now," Bow smiled as she came back in the room while Ghoster came back with a bunch of smack marks on his face, giving Chopper a glare.

"You better try to keep your little girlfriend under control, kid!" Ghoster growled as he flew past him.

"But she isn't by girlfriend!" Chopper retorted as he turned to Bow. "Look, Bow... I think you should lay off the smacking on others. It's not going to make anything better..."

"Oh, don't worry about it, Chopper. I'm not going to smack you. I have no reason to." Bow assured. "It's just that _someone_ was just asking for it..."

"But... Is it the right thing to do?"

"Shhh! Everyone stay quiet." C-2 Choppor alerted as he heard a noise. "There's something outside. We need to hide in one of the rooms."

"Or better yet…" Bow made everyone transparent to avoid being noticed.

"Yeah, this works. They won't see us this time!" Koopla smirked until Bruce nudged her to quiet down.

"Shhhhhhhh! They'll hear us!" Bruce said as they heard the footsteps. Outside of the room, two Dry Bone Ghost Pirates walked past them. They seemed to be talking to each other and arguing.

"OK, listen 'ere. Chopper was meant to come down here to get to our hideout." the first Dry Dry Pirate explained. "But, I don't see him around here. Don'tcha think he should be here somewhere in this place, Pete?"

"Yeah, John. But I see him nowhere. Shiver me timbers… This may be tough lookin' fer him." Pete sweat dropped. Ya wouldn't think he'd still be in the ocean? Maybe he got stuck."

"Hmm… Maybe. We should go take a look over there. I'm sure he's drownin' right now…like he should! Yar har har har har har!" Both Dry Bone Pirates laughed and began to head down into the water and out of the ship.

Afterward, Bow made everyone visible as they walked out of the room. There was a bed there, but Chopper didn't need to use it right now, due to already being fully recovered after leveling up from the battle against Jr. Troopa.

"All right, I guess it's safe to keep going," Chopper stated as he walked through the hallway of the crashed ship, seeing all the doors they could go in, but he ignored them and walked to the door up ahead. The main door, to be exact. They only found themselves in a small, round round room with a duct to the north being block by a Rainbow Block. The door ahead didn't seem to be active. Mallow tried to open it, but he had no luck.

"It's not going to work," Mallow frowned. "I don't have the strength to push this thing open. Geno, maybe you can blow the door open."

Geno looked at the door and saw it was a dark color before shaking his head. "This door can probably stand up to my Geno Beam. There's no chance of it going through the door."

Kayzee looked at the Rainbow Block and tried to destroy it with her Heat Vision. After realizing it didn't work, she flew over to Chopper.

"Chopper, look! See that Rainbow Block? Maybe your hammer can smash it!" Kayzee noted. Chopper noticed it, so he walked over to the block and smashed it, revealing a small duct.

"Whoa… That's too small for us to fit in!" Yosho noticed. "As if walkin' around in this divin' equipment is so great. I hate wearin' this on land!"

"I agree. This diving equipment doesn't feel so great out of water." Koopla agreed. "It's not so bad in water, but it's so damn uncomfortable right now!"

"Calm down. I can probably fit in here." Chopper assured as he walked into the duct and turned to everyone else. "So who else is coming with me?"

"I can probably fit in there," Mallow announced as went in. Bow and Kayzee went in too, as well as C-2 Choppor, but he decided not to come with them. He had his own reasons for not going.

"Well, at least I'll be going through here with you," Bow said as she looked at Chopper and blushed while hearts appeared over her head.

"I never see you like that..." Chopper noticed. "Is this because of what I did for you back in Star Hill?"

"Maybe... That just made me like you a lot more, that's all."

"I hope that doesn't lead to more kissing," Chopper gagged. "Well, anyway, moving on..."

The duct didn't have much, but there was some light in there. They went down south and then to the right. Sadly, they couldn't find much around them, which wasn't helpful.

"Why can't we find anything around here? All we can find are wires. There's gotta be something around that we can use." Chopper pondered. "But what exactly can we find? This is so confusing…"

"What about this?" Mallow noticed a switch by him and pulled it, and suddenly, the power to the door in the small room turned on, leaving Chopper surprised.

"Oh, so that switch did the trick, huh? We might as well just go back." When they made their way out of the duct, they met back with the others, who noticed the door was unlocked.

"Looks like that does it," Geno opened the door, and he saw that there was rubble in the way, so he blasted it with his Geno Beam, allowing them to proceed onward. They found a meeting room that was empty in the next room with nothing hidden around.

"There's not really anything around here. I wonder why…" Bruce wondered as they went into the next room, which seemed to be going down a little, showing some sand and water.

"What room is this? I can only see crates in here." Chopper noticed. "It must be some sort of storage room of some sort."

"And there's water. I guess the rest of this ship is flooded. It shouldn't be bad fer right now now." Yosho put his oxygen mask back on and went down into the water, where it was getting deep. Chopper shrugged and walked into the water, as well as everyone else. They found a door in the water, so they went in there to go into another hallway to find an exit up ahead and some other doors. It must be the way out of the ship!

"We're already at the ship's exit already? Well, I guess that crate room was big, but this is it? OK…" Chopper looked in the other rooms, where there were beds. He looked in one room where there were a lot of weapons. They ignored that for right now, considering that they don't like using weapons.

"There isn't anything around here. All we can do is just leave this ship." C-2 Choppor suggested as they they took the exit out by the cockpit. But the amazing thing was, once they got out, they saw a large underwater place lab up ahead. It was down a hill, but they swam over to it.

"Oh my gosh… That place looks HUGE!" Kayzee gasped. "I never knew that there was something like that over there! We better get there!"

"It's really cool, so we better. There might be something in store for us there too." Chopper began to swim quickly toward the lab. When they got a closer view of it, they noticed it was a gray color with a couple of large glass windows. From what they could see, there wasn't really anyone around.

"Wow, look at this lab. Maybe this is the place that no one has seen." Bruce recalled, remembering what Toadsmeth said before. "It's like we're the first people to discover this place!"

"If we're going in there, that means we gotta go on land again," Koopla groaned. "Oh boy… I'm not going to like that. The suit's very uncomfortable when we're not underwater. If there's some water in the lab, I wouldn't mind at all. Heh. Funny. Me wanting to go underwater when I'm a land species."

"I'm glad I'm not in one of those diving suits!" Chopper smiled. "I probably wouldn't be able to fit in one anyway because of my shape, but we all have our weaknesses…with suits, that is."

"Heh heh… Yes, that was a little funny I suppose." Geno slightly chuckled. "No, not REALLY funny, but it gave me a good laugh or two."

"OK… So now that we discovered a huge lab place, what the heck do we do now? Do we go inside, or do we just swim around it." Mallow wondered. "Personally, I would just go inside of this place. It might have a lot for us to do, and I think it will be interesting."

"I was going to say we were going to go in here," Chopper frowned. "But, you seemed to have already decided to us, Mallow. Now I can at least keep my mouth shut for a little bit!"

"I have a feeling that the lab will have a lot more than what else we've seen," Bow pondered. "Then again, it's OK for us to go into a big place." Chopper nodded in agreement and swam over to the entrance, which seemed to open up on its own.

"Holy… It opens up on its own like the Hellspawn spaceship! Man, this place looks so futuristic! I don't think there's ever been a place like this in the Mushroom Kingdom. I'm sure there's better technology on my planet, though…" they walked into the lab, with Yosho walking in last, but he looked at the door.

"Man, it's like one of those movies Star Mushro-" the door fell on top of Yosho's head, making him yelp, "OW!" as he finally lay on the ground, but Kayzee was able to drag him away from the door so he would also be inside. They could see the ground was a light gray and on the walls were some kind of force field cells with some Koopas in them. There was no water in the cells, though, so they're not drowning.

"Hey! Are those people that just came in?" a Koopa gaped. "There hasn't been anyone in so many years! How is this even possible? We need the guards to see this! Hey, Guards!"

"Ignore them, guys…" Chopper suggested as he swam past the force field cells with his friends. They swam over to the elevator which had a button only pointing up, showing that they were on the bottom floor already.

"I guess our only option is to go up," Bow pressed the up button, and the elevator door opened. They all went into the elevator, where Chopper saw the elevator only went from B1 to Level 1.

"OK… Then we'll go up. Somebody punch it." Chopper suggested as Ghoster punched the button, but sadly, it didn't work.

"Ghoster…" C-2 Choppor trailed.

"What? He said to punch it! Oh, fine…" Ghoster pressed the button instead of punching it, making the elevator go up. They could see the ocean, since the walls surrounding it was glass. Bullet-proof glass to be exact. They noticed while going up the elevator, they were out of the water, meaning only B1 had water in this place.

The elevator door opened, and they all came out. The hallway was shaped like a plus, with an elevator door to the left - which was locked, so there was no chance of them going through there at this moment.

"Hmmm… Let's see what's here." Chopper walked around in the hall, but he saw a ball rolling towards them. It suddenly transformed into a C-2 Robo with actual arms that could transform into guns and three robot spider legs.

"Whoa… What are those things?" Chopper stepped back a little, but he became Wheel Chopper and rolled right into it. Sadly, the C Robo whacked him away with ease. Mallow jumped up a little and destroyed the C Robo with a Thunderbolt from a stormy cloud. Chopper turned back to himself and got back up, removing his ability.

"I guess using that Wheel attack was a big waste…" Chopper pouted as he walked down to the southern room to find a round room with a car-like object with a missing wheel.

"Hey, Chopper! Try usin' yer Wheel ability on that thing!" Yosho suggested as Chopper became Wheel Chopper once again and became a wheel to go onto the car, which made all four wheels move. A chest landed on the ground, and Chopper removed his ability to get it afterward. An Elevator Key was in there, so they left the room to unlock the elevator to the left.

"OK now… Let's just go in." Chopper went in the elevator with his friends and pressed the Level 2 button, which brought them to the second level. When they came out of the door to the left, they noticed Popple and Rookie running into the door to the north. They all looked shocked by this, so they followed them to the north door into a large room with glass windows and some way out on the ceiling.

"All right, now that we got the jetpacks, we can beat it!" Popple suggested as he put the jetpack on his back and he got ready to get out through the escape area. Rookie got his on and was ready to get out too.

"You're amazing, Boss!" Rookie complimented. "The treasure we found just fell down through the ceiling!"

"Yeah, it was amazing! Having treasure fall down right in front of us is lucky, see? Yeah! That's right! Verrry lucky! Only Popple the shadow thief could get such results, see?"

"Right on, Boss! I have the treasure safe and sound!"

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" Mallow asked. The two stopped readying their jetpacks and turned around, looking shocked. Well Popple looked shocked the most. Rookie yelped a minute before giving the group a glare.

"Rookie!"

"Yes, Boss?"

"Uh-Unless my eyes are screwy… _Look there!_" Popple yelled, pointing at Chopper. "It's the pale green drip and his friends that keep following us around!"

"Yep, it's us!" Chopper spun around and he made a pose, which made Bow giggle a bit. "Oh, geez... Does this mean everything I do will make Bow blush or something?"

"Chopper... Not now..." Mallow whispered.

"Oh, OK... Yeah, we're here! We just like to follow you." Chopper said sarcastically.

"Well, boo! Boo to you, I say!" Popple cried. "Why does this always happen! This isn't funny, see? Rookie!"

"What do ya need, Boss?" Rookie asked.

"These numbskulls seem to like the old ring-a-ding-ding! Time to scrap again, see?"

"Sure thing, Boss!" Rookie took out his two poison swords and got ready to battle.

"It seems that leaf still doesn't remember anything…" Geno trailed. "Maybe we can still get his memory back if we hit him enough."

"I know, but he's been Rookie for a while!" Chopper cried. "When will he be Trinado? I liked calling him that name!"

"Trinado? Is that his name, might I ask?"

"Yes, I've faced him before, and that's his name. But, let's just fight them right now instead of talk."

**Tattle: **_Did Popple say he has treasure? Wow, he managed to get it this time. Max HP: 100, Attack Power: 10, Defense Power: 1. He finally got some defense points, so it may take a little bit to beat him down. He might take out some kind of laser gun and fire it at you. He must've found it in the lab. He'll still steal what you have as well, so be careful._

**Tattle: **_So he DOES have amnesia! I was thinking he did. That blue does NOT fit him very well. Max HP: 120, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 2. Watch out for his Solarbeam attack. It's very deadly, and it can deal a lot of damage to you and even hit your partners. Like I said before, take him out first. He seems to have gotten beaten by you A LOT of times, so maybe you can get his memory back._

Chopper became Fire Chopper, since his fire attacks could do a lot to Rookie. He spewed out fire at both Popple and Rookie. Since fire could do +2 damage to grass and leaves, it did 8 damage. C-2 Choppor aimed at Rookie and fired a blast at him, which damaged him, but he was able to get himself back up after the attack.

"Rookie! Are you all right?" Popple asked.

"I'm fine, Boss! Now let's take care of 'em!" Rookie grabbed Popple and threw him at Chopper. He managed to guard the attack, though Popple got hurt by Chopper's flames. Afterward, Chopper spewed more flames out at Popple and Rookie, leaving the two to cringe.

"The fire burns!" Rookie winced.

"Quit whining and take it like a real thief!" Popple retorted.

"All right, time to see what my Geno Flash can do on multiple enemies…" Geno transformed into a cannon and fired at both of them, making a huge explosion from the ball of energy. Popple ran toward Chopper afterward and stole an Ultra Shroom, making Chopper gasp.

"Hey! Give that back right NOW!" Chopper was going to attack, but Rookie swung his poison sword to perform a poison slash come toward Chopper. He managed to guard against the attack, luckily.

"I can probably make him drop it," he shrugged as he spewed fire at the two, making Popple drop the Ultra Shroom and Rookie cringing once again.

"Ouch! It REALLY hurts!" Chopper turned his head to Koopla to make an attack, who nodded and used her Fire Shell to strike the two thieves.

"It's not doing anything! Rookie's not getting dizzy." Koopla noted as Chopper sighed and got ready to defend himself.

"I wonder why they're trying to focus on Rookie instead of me," Popple wondered. "That's rather confusing… But who cares? Rookie! It's time for our next attack!"

"Got it, Boss!" Rookie grabbed Popple and swung at Chopper, knocking away his ability, leaving him dazed.

"OK, we really need to hit him. I'll just jump on him." Chopper declared as he began to use his Power Bounce on Rookie, stomping on him twelve times, leaving him a little dazed before recovering easily.

"Ow! Why are they attacking me so much? It's annoying!" Rookie growled as Parakarry got in his shell and hit Rookie in the head. "STOP IT!"

"Rookie! Use that attack!" Popple shouted.

"Oh... I got it!" Rookie nodded and surrounded Popple with poison. With that, he kicked him toward Chopper, who gasped and covered his eyes.

"Oh no you don't!" Geno fired a star at Popple, which made him stop, and the poison around him went away. The shadow thief got himself up and growled at the wooden doll.

"Boo, I say to you, wooden doll! Boo I say!" Popple roared. "You ruined a perfect attack, see?"

"We can still do this!" Chopper panted. "I won't give up until Trinado's memory is back!" he ran toward Popple and he jumped over him to stomp on Rookie's head twelve more times, leaving Rookie dazed again.

"Grrr! What's going on with my head?" Rookie moaned. "I'm starting to remember some things… I can see…a jungle…"

"Rookie! Quit messing around! You work for me and ME only! I'm not going to let you get your memory back!" Popple snapped as he stood in front of Rookie. "Hey! Numbskulls! If you want to hit Rookie, then you have to get through me first!"

"No! He needs his memory back!" Kayzee cried. "…But why are we trying to make him remember who he once was?"

"Let's just say…he's suffered amnesia too long," Chopper briefly explained. "I don't think anyone deserves to have it. No, not even Maquano deserves it."

"Oh… I see." Kayzee used her Heat Vision to hit Rookie, making him take 8 damage. Popple rammed into Chopper to leave him dizzy, while Rookie was left confused for a moment.

"Uhhhh... This whole jungle thing's feeling weird to me..."

"Rookie! Get your act together!" Popple snapped as Rookie jumped a little. "You're supposed to be fighting, see?"

"Er… Right, Boss!" he walked over to Chopper, and when he looked at him, he seemed to remember something.

"You still remind me of something…and really, it doesn't make me happy! It makes me angry!" Rookie swung at Chopper, but he jumped out of the way and began to Power Bounce him once again. He got to stomp on him twelve times once again.

C-2 Choppor aimed at both Popple and Rookie, and used his Laser Beam on the two of them. It did a good 10 damage to both of them, since it helps ignore defense. Popple took out a laser gun from his sack and aimed it at Chopper. He fired a blast at him, but he was able to defend himself from it with ease.

Rookie growled as he jumped over Popple and was about to swing. Luckily, Geno fired a Geno Beam at him, which knocked him away from Chopper.

"Chopper… You know what to do." Geno noted. "Give him one more whack with the hammer. You want him to regain his memory, so your Diamond Hammer should do it."

"Of course," Chopper pulled out his Diamond Hammer, which was shining in the room. "This is the most powerful hammer, and I'm sure it's good enough to work on Rookie. No, not Rookie. Trinado. That's his name."

Chopper ran toward Rookie with his hammer ready to hit him. Popple stepped in the way, attempting to defend Rookie. Unfortunately for him, Chopper was able to stomp on Popple twice and then he bring his hammer down on Rookie.

"_**OOOOF!**_" Rookie fell to the ground in defeat as Popple gaped.

"Rookie! NO!" Popple turned back to Chopper, angry. "I… I surrender! Here! Go ahead and take your Star Points!" he threw 31 Star Points to Chopper as he blinked.

"Rookie…" Popple trailed as Rookie got up.

"Boss… What happened?" Rookie moaned. Popple's sad look changed to an evil grin as everyone else looked disappointed.

"Hold on… I think I know what might happen." Genopaused.

"Oh no! It didn't work?" Bow gasped. "How did it not? That hammer should've worked!"

"We're outta here, see? Popple the shadow thief wins once again!" Popple cackled as he used the jetpack to get out, as well Rookie. However, they took separate paths up to the surface, which made Popple confused.

"Rookie! Where're you going?

Unfortunately for Popple there wasn't enough fuel in his jetpack, which caused it to stop working and make him fall down into the sea.

"Rookie! Help meeeeeeee!" Popple cried as Rookie began to blink for a couple of seconds. For some reason, he was starting to remember something.

"Hold on a minute…"

* * *

_Trinado was at the castle in the jungle area of Clara at the bridge with poison down below. He was sitting at the other side of the bridge, waiting for Maquano to come to him. After a bit of a wait, he saw Maquano cross the bridge and go to him. _

_"Trinado, I need you to go to Forever Forest in the Mushroom Kingdom," Maquano ordered. "You must stop Chopper from acquiring the third Star Spirit!"_

"_Got it, Lord Maquano! I'll head there right now!" Trinado nodded as he walked over to the computer and typed in his destination. He went to Forever Forest, but he ended up appearing over it.  
_

"_Uh oh…" _

_Trinado fell to Forever Forest and hit his head hard on a rock before he was lying on the ground.  
_

"_Hmm? What's this?" Popple noticed Trinado all dizzy, and he helped him up. "That green doesn't suit you well. I've got something better!"  
_

_He pulled out a blue mask and put it over Trinado's face. "There! That looks a lot better!"  
_

_When Trinado woke up, he noticed Popple standing in front of him. "Huh…? Who're you? In fact, who am I?"_

"_Huh? I'm Popple, see? I'm the shadow thief from Beanbean Kingdom. No, you're not in Beanbean Kingdom. You're in the Mushroom Kingdom. I was the one saved your life, see?"_

"_My life? Well, Popple, thank you so much. I suppose you're my boss, right?"  
_

_Popple paused for a moment and grinned afterward. "Why… Yes! That blue on you shows that you're with me! You're my sidekick, Rookie! You may call me Boss if you want!"_

"_OK, then, Boss! So… What would you like me to do with you right now?"_

"_Well… We gotta find some treasure! That's why I'm the shadow thief, see? We can start by going to Bubba Blubba's Castle!"_

"_Sure thing, Boss! I'll be right behind you!"_

* * *

"I… I know who I am now… My name's not Rookie…nor is Popple my boss. I'm…_**the evil Leaf King Trinado!**_"

Trinado immediately ripped the blue off of him, looking a bit enraged. "How could this whole time I was working with a BEAN? Well, those days are OVER! He's on his own, and I was a guinea pig! I'm going back to my castle, and I'll be ready to fight Chopper this time!"

Unlike Popple's jetpack, Trinado's brought him into space, but he didn't care. He started to make his way back to Clara.

* * *

**Back in the lab-**

"Man, it feels like that blow on the head didn't necessarily get his memory back… " Chopper trailed as he walked over to the window. "I wonder what's going to happen now. Do we still need to find them again and hit Trinado's head?"

"I have a feeling that Trinado is just fine," Geno assured as he walked over to the window as well. "I believe that blow on the head might've done something. I can feel it."

"Are you saying that he got his memory back? You saw him get up! There's no way Trinado's memory came back."

"A Star can feel something in anyone. I felt something while they were leaving the lab. Trinado even said who he REALLY was. Chopper, that work wasn't all for nothing. You DID something there."

"Really? I suppose all my work wasn't in vain. But what are we supposed to do now?"

"We still need to go to the pirate's hideout. Don't you remember, Chopper?" Kayzee recalled as Chopper jumped a little.

"Oh, yeah! We need to go there! Ya didn't forget about that, right Chopper?" Yosho asked.

"I didn't forget THAT," Chopper replied. "Why would I ever forget something like that? I mean, REALLY! I never forgot about the Power Star. I swear! Anyway, we should just get out of this room right now."

"That sounds like a good idea. Let's beat it before anything bad happens. …Or worse." Koopla suggested. They left the room, but once they left, a strange yellow watery creature swam by the window.

Chopper ran out of the room and was running toward the room to the south, but two C Robos appeared. One was holding a key, so Chopper tried to jump on it. Sadly it didn't do anything.

"Whoa, these things are tough," Chopper shot a fireball at it, and it blocked the attack. C-2 Choppor began to fire some shots at them, which worked against them and knocked them back.

"Stay back, everyone!" Geno got in the front and used his Star Gun to fire a Geno Beam at the two C Robos, destroying them. Geno blew the smoke off his Star Gun afterward.

Chopper grabbed the key, and they went into the south door. There wasn't much in this room except for an Upgrade Block. Bruce immediately jumped up and down, trying to get Chopper's attention.

"Hey, Chopper! Let me have the Diamond-Rank!" Bruce begged. "You know you want to upgrade me! I probably have the most powerful bomb attack EVER! You REALLY want to upgrade me!"

"How about…Ghoster!" Chopper hit the Upgrade Block and upgraded Ghoster to Diamond-Rank, who could now use the move Psychic Up, which could boost Chopper's Defense up by 4 with his psychic abilities.

"Man, this feels like a pretty cool move!" Ghoster grinned. "Boosting your defense up by 4 is a pretty good thing against some of the enemies. If you ever need your defense boosted up, just tell me, and I'll do it!"

"I wonder what my new attack will be when I'm Diamond-Rank," Bow wondered. "I sure hope it's a useful move…besides just doing 1 or 2 damage to an enemy. I would LOVE to make an attack that would prove to be useful."

"I hope you get a good attack too," Chopper agreed, "Your Fan Smack is REALLY good, but if you got one attack that can ignore defense, then that would be awesome."

"Of course it would," she stated.

"Aw come on! Not me?!" Bruce whined. "This stinks!"

"Maybe you just need to not say that all the time," C-2 Choppor suggested. "You keep saying that too much, and Chopper's only going to ignore it. You just need to not say that, and he might consider upgrading you. Right now, he's upgrading the ones who are useful."

"Hmmm... I guess you have an idea there, Choppor."

They left that room and went to the elevator door to the right. Chopper unlocked the door, and they went in to go to the third floor. There wasn't much around when they reached the next room. The elevator to the left wasn't locked, but the two other rooms would give you an item or Badge. They decided not to go into those rooms and took the elevator up.

The top floor, which was the fourth floor, has glass walls. They could see a pirate hideout up ahead. It looked like some big building-like area. They thought it would be a cave, but they were wrong.

"The Pirate Hideout is up ahead! We're getting close!" Mallow cheered as they didn't see any doors around. The top floor was just going straight to another room. Once they went into the next room, they saw the room's wall and ceiling was round, and they could see the hideout at a better view.

"There's the hideout, but how do we get in there?" Chopper asked as he hit the Save Block and Heart Block first before getting a better look at the hideout.

"Hmmm… I don't know what to do here." Parakarry frowned. "We'd have to go all the way back to the bottom of the lab. But what else can we do?"

"Maybe we can find a secret passage to let us go through," Mallow suggested. "That's just me, though. I don't think there's a secret passage, unfortunately…"

"Well we'll find something. I mean, what could possibly go wrong with this?" Chopper wondered as he turned around and saw Staris facing them outside.  
"Dang... I hate it when that happens..."

"You just HAD to say that..." Koopla groaned as Staris tried to break through the glass with his tail and claws. Surprisingly, it didn't work.

"Ha ha! Look at him! He can't break through the glass!" Yosho laughed. "He's not going to break through here any time soon!"

_"That may be, but I got something else in store for you all!" _Staris pulled out a TV screen, revealing Maquano's face on it.

_"Gwaa ha ha ha ha! Oh, we sure do!" _Bowser pushed Maquano out of the way, revealing his face as well.

"Bowser! What are you up to this time?" Chopper growled as he clenched his fists.

_"Oh, don't worry about the princess! We'll get to her once we're done with you!" _

_"Anyway…"_ Maquano began as he pushed Bowser out of the way._ "Staris, go ahead and make yourself even stronger so you can break through that."_

"Uh oh..." Chopper gulped as he saw Staris use his power to summon the fifth Star Spirit, Misstar

"Huh? What's all the commotion?" Misstar asked before noticing Staris. "Staris? What on earth are you doing?!"

Staris clasped both of his hands together and squished Misstar, absorbing some of her power before she could escape.

While Staris didn't get that much bigger, his shoulders had glowing curvy spikes, and his wrists had cutter-like claws that could be very dangerous if anyone got close. Also, his raptor-like tail had a little star on the end that could help him fly faster or swim faster. He also gained an additional finger, now having four fingers and a thumb. But most importantly, he had a yellow glow surrounding him, indicating that his power was becoming greater.

"Staris…transformed again! No… He's Staris 5 now? That means he only needs TWO more Star Spirits!" Geno cried as everyone got their diving gear on to prepare themselves.

Staris brought his arm back and he smashed through the room, making it become flooded and sucking all eleven outside in the ocean. While his size wasn't a huge issue, he was definitely more menacing than before.

**Tattle: **_This is Staris's fifth transformation… Oh man, that means he only needs two more Star Spirits! It's like Bowser and Maquano and winning! Max HP: 160, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 2. He's got some real strong attacks, and he might even change his shape into something else. Watch out for his Star Beam also. He can still use that to attack. He's one step closer from a peaceful Star God to an evil Star God. When will this all end?_

Chopper swam over to Staris and used his D-Down Pound on him, which did a good 8 damage to him.

"Aim for his head! That seems to be his weak point!" Chopper cried as Geno nodded and fired a Geno Beam at Staris.

"Staris, don't you remember me? I am the Star that used to be with you! I am a good friend of yours! Don't you remember the doll that I'm using?"

Staris ignored Geno, his evil power corrupting him instead. He used his tail to fire some star energy toward Chopper, who guarded it with his hammer.

"Wow, my hammer really seems to protect me from some of these attacks. That's…really good!" Chopper gaped as he began to Power Bounce Staris to hit his head. He was able to stomp on him about ten times. C-2 Choppor aimed at Staris and fired a blast at him, causing him to explode, but of course, he came back together and clenched his fists at Chopper.

Staris fired a star blast from his hand at Chopper, which sent him flying back. The Star God swam toward him in order to punch him, but Ghoster used his Psychic on Staris, damaging him and knocking him away, while Bow quickly flew over to Chopper and brought him back. He swam over to Staris and became Ninja Chopper to attack him with his kunai.

Staris fired more star energy at Chopper, but Geno managed to counter it with his Geno Beam, which managed to knock away his star energy hit him. However, despite Staris's corruption, Geno felt a little sorry.

"Staris… I'm sorry I did that..." Geno apologized.

"Shouldn't he be back to normal with the Star Rod being out of Bowser's grasps?" Chopper asked.

"I believe the dark energy corrupting Staris is preventing him from being any better..."

"Then what could we do about it?" Bow asked.

"We're just going to have to fight back," Chopper swam toward Staris and threw two shurikens at him. They hurt him, but they just went through him and went out from his back.

"I should lower his defense," Ghoster declared as he hurled a Ghost Ball at Staris, which lowered his defense by 4. Staris took three water balls from his body and threw them at Chopper. He managed to defend himself from each of them and only take 9 damage.

Chopper started off with his Power Bounce again, and after about ten stomps, he stopped and returned to his friends. Geno turned into a cannon and used his Geno Flash on Staris, taking 12 out of him. Staris tried to attack, but he ended up missing his attack. He took a look at one of the Cheep Cheeps and pondered.

"Don't tell me he's going to do what I think he's gonna do..." Parakary trrailed.

"Not now, Parakarry..." Bruce trailed. "We don't know yet."

Chopper attacked another Power Bounce on Staris and stomped on him twelve times. Bow decided to smack the Star God with her fan, and it left Staris with 52 HP. Though Parakarry was wrong, Staris did do something with the fish. He grabbed one of the Cheep Cheeps and threw one toward Chopper. He managed to whack the Cheep Cheep away from him, which hit a Blooper instead.

"That was a little close…" Chopper sighed as he used his Power Bounce on Staris again and stomped on him eleven times. Thankfully, since his defense was down, it made things easier for them. Bow flew over to Staris 5 again and used her Fan Smack to leave him with only 28 HP left.

This led to Staris firing a Star Beam toward Chopper, which knocked away his ability. Unfortunately, he was running low on HP, so he ate an Ultra Shroom to recover some HP. C-2 Choppor attacked next and fired a blast at Staris, making him weak with only 20 HP left.

Staris still got angry and transformed into Bowser in order to shoot star fire at him Chopper, who luckily guarded the attack.

"So he changed into Bowser? Wow… That's something you don't see." Chopper gawked as he swam over to Staris and whacked him in the head with his hammer. Mallow summoned a cloud to fall on top of the Star God, though he could've used his Shocker to make the fight go faster.

Staris would not give up yet. He turned back into himself and fired some star energy at Chopper. Geno was able to move Chopper out of the way and fire his Geno Beam at him.

"Go ahead, Chopper. You can finish him." Geno declared. Chopper nodded and swam toward Staris with his hammer out. He whacked him, and he exploded, dropping 43 Star Points and leveling Chopper up. He decided to go with his BP, raising it to 36.

"Well, looks like that's that," Chopper said as he sighed.

* * *

**So, yeah. I know some people might say Staris is a rip-off of Chaos from Sonic Adventure. While I can agree a bit, I feel there are some differences between the two, such as their transformations. While Chaos is more of a water monster, Staris is actually more of a land monster, which is why he has his arms and legs still. One thing for sure is that Staris never grows and fins, so don't expect him to be a good swimmer.  
**

**But, anyway, if you guys were tired of three long chapters in a row, the next one shouldn't be as long.  
**


	74. Infiltrating the Pirate Hideout

"All right, Staris is beaten now…" Chopper sighed, but he noticed Staris formed back up again after the explosion. He looked at Chopper, and then he looked at Geno.

"Staris…" Geno trailed as Staris fired a Star Beam at him. Mallow managed to pull him out of the way as the Star Beam hit a part of the lab instead of Geno.

"Phew… Thank you, Mallow. You really saved me there." Geno thanked as he sighed in relief.

"No problem, Geno!" Mallow replied with a thumbs up. "I had to help you anyway. Who else would've done that?"

"I could've helped him…but you used your arms to save him instead," Kayzee frowned. "Don't worry, that's just fine."

Staris brought his arm back, like he was ready to attack Chopper. This made Chopper get in his fighting stance, readying his hammer to fight back against him. Staris moved his arm back in an attempt to attack Chopper...

…But then he stopped and brought his fist down and shook his head. From the looks of it, it looked like Staris had enough for now. In fact, some people were gawking over this.

"Wait... He's not attacking..." Koopla trailed.

"I guess he has the power to control himself..." Chopper trailed. "Here I thought he was just someone who only took orders."

"Or maybe it was something else..." Geno pondered.

_"Staris? What are you doing? ! Attack Chopper right now! That's an order!" _Maquano demanded. Staris looked at the TV screen and made some gestures at Maquano. _"_…_What? You think he had enough for now? Well, I suppose he did. Though he managed to fight back against you in your fifth transformation, it won't happen again."_

_"You're letting him stop?"_ Bowser gawked._ "Maquano, you should just let him finish them off! …Then again, Captain Bonebeard will finish you off, Chopper! Gwaa ha ha! You'll be in for a treat when you go see him!"_

The TV screen turned off, and Staris looked at Chopper, making a little star version of him and crushing it with his yellow watery fists, making Chopper's eyes widen a bit before the Star God went up to the surface with the help of his tail.

"Ugh... He kinda looked like he would be back for revenge..." Chopper cringed. "Is the power of the Star Spirits giving him evil thoughts of someone who he loathes?"

"I wouldn't worry about it, Chopper. We can't do much about it for now." Parakarry shrugged. "Although, I wonder if Staris is even in control of himself at times.

"The more Star Spirit power he possesses, the more corrupted he will be," Geno explained. "Chances are he'll have full control of his corrupted self when he has the powers of the seven Star Spirits."

"Well that's not good," Chopper frowned.

"Let's not worry about this right now. We'll discuss this later." Bow suggested. "Right now we need to go to the Pirate Hideout in order to get the Power Star."

"I agree with Bow. We can't just stay in the water like this. You never know, something HUGE could possibly show up and go after us. We're definitely not fish food, so we gotta go right now!" Chopper declared as he swam toward the Pirate Hideout with the others. They found a Rainbow Block blocking the entrance to the Pirate Hideout, so Chopper whipped his Diamond Hammer out and smashed it.

"All right, let's go!" Chopper swam into the entrance and found the floor becoming slanted. It seemed that they were reaching the surface. The ground seemed to be made of rock as they climbed out of the water, and they also saw a huge area with small ships with Dry Bone Pirates around. There was also a pirate building up ahead, but they couldn't get in there right now.

"Crud, it's going to take a lot to get into that pirate building," Chopper frowned. "And there are too many Dry Bone Pirates around here. We might need to go down in the water to get past them. Do you all agree?"

"Sure thing, Chopper!" Bruce said. He walked down a slope in the pirate water area, and he sunk down to the bottom. Chopper turned to everyone else and he put his finger to his mouth.

"Shhhh! Don't jump in or anything…or even make noise!"

"WHAAAAAT?" Kayzee yelled out as the Dry Bone Pirates were alarmed and looked at the entrance to the Pirate Hideout. However, they didn't see anyone there.

"Er… Did ye all hear somethin'? I'm a little bit confused…" a Dry Bone Pirate trailed as the others shrugged.

Everyone glared at Kayzee as they began to sink to the bottom of the area underwater.

"Kayzee… You just HAD to screw it up!" Ghoster growled. "Don't shout when you need to say 'what'! We were almost screwed!"

"I'm... I'm sorry!" Kayzee cried, covering her face. "I didn't mean it!"

"Hey now! Let's not get into another fight!" Chopper suggested. "We all know what happened last time..."

"Yeah..." Everyone sighed until Yosho noticed something nearby.

"Guys… Look at all of these bombs." Yosho gaped as he saw some bombs chained to the ground. "They're…big! …An' spiky! Don't ya'll see 'em? I think we need to be careful around here."

"Hold on a minute. Scanning bombs." C-2 Choppor scanned the bombs and gathered as much information as possible. "Danger! Don't even THINK about touching them, or else we could all possibly die."

"We'll die if we touch those? I don't like the sound of that." Yosho pouted.

"Hey, guys! Look over there!" Mallow called out. "There's a huge pipe! We should go take a look at that! Maybe we have a chance of getting into the fortress!"

"That'll work," Ghoster floated up to the pipe and saw that a small doorway was being blocked by a Rainbow Block. Chopper swam up to the pipe and smashed the Rainbow Block with his hammer. Everyone else began to swim into the pipe as well so they could make sure no Dry Bones noticed them.

Though, while they did that, Bob somehow managed to get over some of the rocks. Even though this hideout is at the bottom of the ocean, he managed to figure something out. He was going to jump to the building that was up ahead..

"All right, I'm going to try to find Chopper and be a BIG boss this time!" Bob declared. "Last time it didn't work out with being a boss, and now it's time for me to be a big boss! If that doesn't turn out so well, then I'm stepping up a level…to being a FINAL boss! Now hopefully I can grab the railing up ahead, or else I'm probably screwed."

Bob made a jump for it and succeeded. However, the rail did hit him...

...In between his legs.

"_Ohhhhhh… _That's so painful..." Bob cringed. "Whoever thought being a big boss would be this..._painful_."

Bob ended up sliding off the railing and into the water, holding his crotch area in pain. In fact, none of the Dry Bone Pirates noticed or even heard the splash Bob made.

* * *

**Underwater room-**

In the underwater room, they saw a caged wall up ahead with a Rainbow Block blocking the corner.

"This is interesting… Look how this place is." they could see that the ground was a dark blue and through the caged wall was a big block that could be pushed in order to take a path going south. Chopper pushed the block, and they all swam to the south and then to the right to find another Rainbow Block blocking a gate, which Chopper smashed and went up a slope to a door that was up at the surface.

"Oh great, now we gotta walk around out of the water. That's just perfect." Koopla sighed as they entered through the door. Chopper hit the Save Block first before carrying on.

They found a pool of water in the next area with a Rainbow Block in the middle of the room. Chopper jumped into the water, avoiding the bombs around and smashed the block, making water shot upward up on top of him.

"What the…" Chopper noticed a chain on the ceiling that was close to a platform with a door right by it. He looked down at the others.

"Hey, guys! There's a door up here! Just watch what I do!" Chopper grabbed the chain and swung over to the door. The people who could fly flew over to the door, while the others had to use the water shooting upward in order to grab the chain and make it to the other side. With the water, it wasn't an easy task to achieve.

"Phew… I made it. That wasn't so easy, you know. I had to flutter onto the spring, and flutterin' with flippers ain't so easy!" Yosho sighed. "I don't like doin' it with flippers. I wish I could take these things off."

"Oh, just can it, Yosho," Koopla groaned.

"But... I hate these!"

"They're just flippers. They're designed to let you swim, not move around on dry land. I'm sure we'll find more water anyway."

"And we better be careful if we see any Dry Bones lurking around. Fire is really what defeats them, so we'll need to use as much fire as we can on them."

Everyone nodded, and they walked into the next area.

Opening the door to the next area, they saw they were back in the area with the ships and the big pool of water. However, instead, they were on a higher ledge. There were four Dry Bone Pirates talking, but they didn't notice the group.

"Uh oh… There's some Dry Bones over there!" Mallow gulped. "We can't let ourselves get caught! Any ideas on what we should do, guys?"

"They're only talking, so there's nothing bad about them right now," Chopper assured. "Maybe we can find some way to sneak past them. It probably won't be a hard thing to do anyway. So… Let's be quiet."

Kayzee was about to shout again, but Ghoster immediately covered her mouth.

"Don't…say it…" Ghoster warned as Kayzee slowly nodded to him, but it didin't seem like it was going to work.

"Don't try to shout again, because it's going to get us in some big trouble," Bow informed. Meanwhile, Yosho was getting out some duct tape, which Geno did not approve of.

"No, Yosho… We're not using duct tape on her." Geno scolded as Yosho hung his head low. "That's not what you do to little children."

"Aw man… But duct tape is the whole purpose of shuttin' yer enemies up!" Yosho sulked. "Silence is golden, you know. …But this duct tape is silver."

"Don't use duct tape, Yosho. That's going to make things worse!" Bruce warned. "…Maybe you need duct tape when you're around any women. C'mon, Yosho, this isn't going to work."

Yosho put duct tape on Bruce's mouth, even though Bruce didn't have a mouth on his face. Bruce gave him a blank stare until Koopla pulled the tape off.

"Stop using the duct tape already! Where the heck did you get this anyway?" Koopla asked. Yosho shrugged, and Koopla bonked him in the head.

"OK! I got it from a lovely lady at the casino!" Yosho admitted. "I was flirtin' with her, and she threw some duct tape at me! It ain't my fault that I have this with me! So how about we ferget about this and just get movin'!"

The four Dry Bone Pirates were alerted and turned to the eleven, making everyone glare at Yosho, who smiled sheepishly.

"Arr? What the heck's goin' on?" one Dry Bone Pirate noticed Chopper and gaped. "Shiver me timbers! It's that Chopper the captain's been tellin' us about! Yarrr!"

"This…can't be good for us," Chopper sighed as the pirates took their two cutlasses out and walked toward them, shouting "Arr!" at them. Chopper got in his fighting stance and charged up a fireball.

"Since fire worked on the Dry Bones in Bowser's Castle, I'm pretty sure they'll work on them! Let's see how you like this, pirates!" Chopper shot a fireball at one of the Dry Bone Pirates, destroying it instantly with a huge amount of damage.

"Time I made my attack!" Koopla declared as she got in her shell and was surrounded flames. She hit the last three Dry Bone Pirates, and they were destroyed. They were rewarded with 20 Star Points.

"Awesome! I just got myself 20 Star Points!" Chopper cheered as they walked over to the edge of the area and looked at the ships. He shot an ice ball, making the water freeze and preventing the Dry Bone Pirates from moving their boats.

"Heh heh… There we go. Let's get moving now." Chopper walked over to the next door and entered the next room, which had a ladder going down and leading to a path to some stairs going up. However, the stairs were being blocked by a door. There was a pool of water around and three red ! switches in the water.

"I guess I need to hit the switches. It won't be so hard for me. I know how to aim at many things." C-2 Choppor used his scanner to scan the three switches and fired a blast at them. There were some Cheep Cheep skeletons in the water, which looked pretty menacing. The door opened up, and everyone hurried on through to go up the stairs. At the top of the stairs was a Save Block and also an Upgrade Block.

"OK, Mallow. It's time I upgraded you." Bruce looked extremely disappointed as Chopper hit the Upgrade Block, upgrading Mallow to Diamond-Rank. His attack power went up to 8, and he could use the move Star Rain, which would allow Mallow to summon a huge Star that could crush all targets.

"Thanks, Chopper!" Mallow smiled. "Now I'm super powerful!"

"All right, now let's get going," Chopper suggested as he opened the door, where they found themselves in a factory-like room. They began to walk down the black stairs and could see a tunnel down in the pool of water. Some Dry Bone Pirates were carrying some equipment around, but they tried to attack Chopper when they saw him.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper shot a fireball at them to defeat them easily, while Parakarry sighed in relief at the water.

"Oh, good thing we're going back in the water," Parakarry smiled. "I can't stand walking around in this diving suit."

They could see water dripping down from the ceiling as everyone got their diving gear back on and jumped into the water. They began to swim through the tunnel.

"Let's be careful of any Cheep Cheep Skeletons," Bow warned. "Wait… They would be called Cheeletons or Skeleeps, right?"

"Who really cares about that?" Yosho shrugged. "Knowing their names isn't THAT important..."

"Yes, that's for sure. I'm going to go faster so we can get out of here quickly." Chopper became used his Water ability to swim a lot faster, which helped him get through easily. Coming out of the tunnel, they found a door up ahead that was blocked off.

"Hmmm…"

"You have an idea, Chopper?" Mallow asked.

"I'm pondering... But I think I might have an idea."

Chopper shot an ice ball, and an ice cube was made. He pushed it onto the switch, making the door open up.

"OK, everyone! Go go go!" Chopper shouted as they went through the door. When the ice cube floated up, the door began to close. Thankfully, they were all able to get through without being blocked.

"Phew… That was TOO close." Koopla sighed. "We almost got ourselves in a pickle. Oh well, we can still move on."

"Agreed, let's go," Chopper nodded and swam into the next doorway, where they found the current in the tunnel getting stronger. It was even pushing them back.

"Danger! Strong current approaching!" C-2 Choppor warned.

"Ugh... This is going to be fun..." Bow groaned.

"Uh oh… This ain't good. What do we do?" Yosho asked before he noticed a pipe that they were getting closer to as they were being pushed by the current. Yosho tried to grab it, but his hand slipped.

"_**FUUUUUUUDGESICLES!**_"

After Yosho got carried away, Chopper was able to grab onto the pole, but his hand slipped and got carried away by the current.

"Well what are we supposed to do now?" Kayzee asked as everyone shrugged. "Where are we even going anyway?"

"My scanners are telling me we're getting close to that fortress building," C-2 Choppor informed. "It's…not really big if you go inside. Not many rooms. But… We're going toward a waterfall."

"Wait… What? Down a waterfall? Oh, this sure sucks. I gotta do something!" Ghoster looked at Parakarry and grabbed his tongue and let go of it, making Parakarry get pushed right into Bruce, hitting both of them.

"Hey, watch it, Parakarry!" Bruce snapped. "That wasn't entirely necessary, you know!"

"Sorry, Bruce," Parakarry apologized. "That was Ghoster who did that. I didn't mean to do that, to tell you the truth."

"Haw haw haw! Yeah, I needed to do that." Ghoster cackled. "I need to pull a prank before we all die!"

"Oh no… Did you say there's a waterfall up ahead, Choppor? Oh sh-" It was too late for Koopla to finish her sentence. Everyone ended up going down the waterfall in another room. The Dry Bone Pirates noticed them fall in the pool of water, so they took out their cutlasses.

"Arr! They're 'ere! We'll cut 'em!" the pirates jumped into the pool to attack, but after some punching and kicking, the Dry Bone Pirates were flown out of the water. Chopper came out of the water with his Water ability no longer on him, and everyone else got back onto dry land.

"All right, we handled them! Now let's just get out of here. Up those stairs we go!" Chopper declared as he walked up the stairs with his friends following behind. They took the doorway and were right on the railing area where Bob attempted to jump.

"There it is! We're here!" Bow shouted as everyone walked to the door of the fortress. Once they went in, they could see that there was a pool of water and also a bridge in the big room that led up to an elevator. It looked like it could take them to the room high up on a platform.

"I bet that Captain Bonebeard is there!" Chopper pondered. "Let's go take a look for ourselves!"

Kayzee tried to fly up there, but her diving suit was preventing her. "Aw man! How am I supposed to fly around with this thing on? I'm having a really hard time with it!"

"Have you tried walking?" Mallow asked. "I know you have super powers, but you can't always depend on them."

"Yes, Mallow's right. You can at least walk." Geno agreed as he started to feel something. "We must go up that lift now! I can feel the power from the Power Star coming from up there!"

"OK!" Chopper ran to the lift, and everyone joined him. Kayzee kept whining about not flying, leaving some people to be annoyed.

"You don't NEED to fly! Everyone does fine on the ground!" Ghoster yelled. "Look at Chopper, he can freakin' run like seven hundred miles an hour or something!"

"Not in water, though..." Chopper added.

"Aw leave her be," Parakarry suggested. "We'll be out of these diving suits in no time once we take down Captain Bonebeard and get the Power Star."

They made it to the top of the room and walked into the door. They found in the middle of the room a Rainbow Block, a Save Block and a Heart Block.

"All right, I'll hit those first," Chopper jumped under the Heart Block, and then the Save Block. Afterward, he smashed the Rainbow Block with his Diamond Hammer, which was apparently blocking a hole in the ground, which seemed to lead into a dark room. They could see water down below.

"It's dark down there…" Kayzee shuddered. "And if there's water in a dark place, it really makes me scared!"

"It's not like there will be any sea monsters," Chopper shrugged. "We've went through something like that. We had to face a giant BLOOPER! Man, it was intense."

"Let's quit with the talkin' an' get with the jumpin'!" Yosho suggested. They all agreed and jumped down through the hole, hoping to find Captain Bonebeard.


	75. Captain Bonebeard: A Ghost Pirate Battle

"_**Whooooooooooooooa!**_" Yosho cried as the group made their way through the hole. After a loud splash, they swam up to the surface of the fifteen foot pool of water.

"I can't see what's around here! Choppor, think you can give us a hand over here?" Chopper asked. C-2 nodded and the whole place was lit up. It looked like a big cave, and it didn't seem like anything was around.

"Strange… I would think that the Save Block and Heart Block would indicate that there would be a boss fight coming up." C-2 Choppor pondered. "Wait a minute… Boss fight? Since when did that spill out? Never mind that…"

"I don't like it here…" Kayzee trailed as she held onto Chopper.

"Whoa! Don't hold onto me!" Chopper gaped.

"Oh, sorry about that... You were the closest anyway."

"I don't like it here…" Mallow shivered. "It doesn't look like a nice place to be in right now. Is there another place where we could be instead of this place?"

"Hold on a minute… Why are we talking right now?" Koopla asked. "We're deep down below the ocean in this stupid cave, and there's nothing else around! We need to DO something besides this!"

"Yar har har har! That I can agree with, Koopa!" Everyone gawked before they saw the Ghost Ship appear in front of them. Captain Bonebeard and his pirates were on the ship and cackling at them..

"Uh… Wh-Wh-Who is t-t-t-that?" Bruce stammered.

"Hey, why don't you let us out of here, pirates," Parakarry suggested. "We don't want to stay in here forever!"

"You know what? I'll just help." Bow grabbed Chopper's hand and brought him onto the ship. C-2 Choppor and Ghoster helped the others, while Mallow managed to get up onto the ship himself with his arms.

"Well, now who the heck are you?" Ghoster asked. "Don't tell me you're trying to take my spot as the best ghost prankster! Oh no you don't! I'm not going to let you do THAT!"

Captain Bonebeard hit Ghoster in the head with the hilt of his cutlass as the pirates began to laugh.

"Oh please, that wasn't funny at all, you stupid ghost pirates," Bow scoffed.

"Stupid? Well now… It seems like ye need to be taught a lesson now, my dear!" Captain Bonebeard commented. "Oh ho ho ho! Yes! An' ye came back to steal me treasure, isn't that right, Chopper?"

"Yes, that's right!" Chopper nodded. "We're here to get that Power Star that you stole! You won't be exactly hard for us, since we're tough!"

"Oh, really? Go ahead, my pirates… Take care of these fools! Then, they'll walk the plank!"

"Not this time!" Koopla got in her shell and went at all the Dry Bone Pirates with her Fire Shell, destroying them. Captain Bonebeard ended up sweat dropping, but he soon stopped.

"Oh, I knew that would happen! Ye really think I'm that stupid? I'm one of the most powerful minions of King Bowser's! An' bein' the strongest, I'm not so easy fer you all to deal with!"

"Let's see, then!" Chopper shot a fireball at Bonebeard, but it didn't really do much.

"Fire doesn't harm me, Chopper! I told you I'm one of the strongest minion of King Bowser's! Yo ho ho ho! But enough of that!" Captain Bonebeard took out his cutlass and aimed it at Chopper. "Let's settle this!"

"All right!" Chopper got into his Pirate ability and he and Captain Bonebeard jumped toward each other and swung, blocking each attack. They both ended up getting knocked back. They both managed to get back up and ready themselves for battle.

**Tattle: **_That's Captain Bonebeard, he USED to be the famous captain that sailed these seas…but now he's dead and is now some kind of ghost. He says he's one of Bowser's most powerful minions. That's not really good, but I'm gonna need to see proof. …Max HP: 180, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 2. OK, now I see now. He's got some strong attacks and a lot of HP. Oh boy… I don't know how this'll turn out. Wait, if he's Bowser's strongest minion, then does that mean the next Power Star is guarded by someone?_

"All right, now to get back to business!" Chopper ran toward Captain Bonebeard and swung his cutlass at him, making the pirate kneel down in pain.

"Guh!" Now that he got hurt, Geno used his Geno Blast on Captain Bonebeard, but the dead pirate was able to get up and perform a combo attack on Chopper with his cutlass. He guarded some of his attacks, but took 8 damage overall. Chopper decided to shoot a cannonball at him from his mouth, which dealt around 8 damage.

"I might as well attack," C-2 Choppor aimed at Captain Bonebeard and fired a blast at him, which knocked his head off.

"Yaaargh!" Captain Bonebeard grabbed his head and put it back on. "All right, let's see how ye deal with THIS!"

Captain Bonebeard lit up a match and used it on the fuse on a cannon. A cannonball fired at Chopper, but he was able to guard it, but just barely. Chopper wanted to try out some new pirate moves, so he began to ponder. He looked at the cannons and also Bruce while pondering.

"Hey, Bruce! I think I know how you can be a part of this fight!" Chopper announced. "You just need to go use the cannon to shoot a cannonball!"

"Really? All right, I'll give it a try!" Bruce went over to the cannon and lit his fuse up.. Chopper shot a cannonball into the cannon, and when Bruce exploded, the cannonball hit Captain Bonebeard, dealing 10 damage.

"All right!" Chopper shot a cannonball at Captain Bonebeard afterward, making pant and take out a gun and fire at Chopper.

"OW! Man, he's got some tough stuff!" Chopper cringed as he walked over to Captain Bonebeard and used his Mega Smash.

"Oof! Yer startin' to tick me off now, you stupid little kid!" Captain Bonebeard growled. "Yer not gonna be gettin' outta here alive! Ye hear me?"

Mallow made a cloud fall on the captain, despite it doing only 6 damage. Captain Bonebeard ran toward Chopper with his cutlass and tried to swing at him. Chopper parried his attacks and managed to counter it. Captain Bonebeard got hit by the mast and quickly shook his head afterward.

"Not bad… Yer tougher than I thought! Maybe ye'll be a good challenge fer me!" he swung at Chopper again, but he still blocked the pirate's attack.

"OK, I'll attack this time! Cannonball to the FACE!" Chopper fired a cannonball from his mouth at Captain Bonebeard's face, sending him flying back. Yosho looked constipated for a second, but he managed to lay an egg and attempt to throw it at the Dry Bone Captain.

"No no no! That's not going to do much, Yosho! I think Chopper needs a defense boost!" Ghoster interrupted as he raised Chopper's defense with Psychic Up, increasing his defense by 4. Captain Bonebeard took out a knife and threw it at Chopper, but Kayzee managed to grab the knife quickly before it could hit Chopper's forehead.

"Don't even try that!" Kayzee growled. "I don't want my friends getting stabbed by this!"

"Hey! How dare ye interrupt me attack?!" Captain Bonebeard growled.

"Well thanks for that, Kayzee," Chopper thanked as he performed a Power Bounce on Captain Bonebeard, stompin on him about ten times and dealing 10 damage,

"All right, now I can…" Yosho noticed Geno turning into a cannon and firing a huge blast of energy at Captain Bonebeard, leaving him at 80 HP. "Come on! Why can't I attack yet?!"

"Curse ye, Chopper! How about some of THIS?" Captain Bonebeard threw his cutlass into the water and took out dual cannon guns. "Now ye won't win this time! These cannon guns'll take ye down! Two shots should do A LOT of damage! 7 damage each!"

"Oh, boy… That's BAD. I gotta heal up." Chopper gulped as he took out a Jelly Ultra and he ate it to recover 50 HP and 50 FP.

"All right, NOW I can throw an egg! Sheesh!" Yosho threw the egg at Captain Bonebeard, which was better than nothing, but it didn't do much to make him cringe in pain.

"What…was that?" Captain Bonebeard aimed at Yosho and fired two small cannonballs at him. Yosho dodged both, but the second one made him slip and fall into the water.

"Oh boy… This is getting annoying." Bow smacked her forehead as she went down and got Yosho back up. Chopper shrugged and walked toward Captain Bonebeard to use his D-Down Pound, which did a whoopin' 8 damage. Kayzee couldn't fly, but she was able to use her heat vision to hit Captain Bonebeard. Since it was heat, it did an additional 2 to him.

"Gah! Fire! It burns me bones! Pirates don't LIKE fire, just to let you know!" Captain Bonebeard screeched as he fired a cannonball at Chopper, which knocked away his ability, and he also fired a cannonball at Kayzee.

"Oh no… That's not going to happen!" Yosho used his long tongue to get the cannonball and spat it back at Captain Bonebeard, hitting his stomach.

"Oof! That really hits me in me gut!" Captain Bonebeard winced. "But me gut's been gone fer decades! I'll blast you with BOTH cannonballs next time, Chopper!"

Chopper used his D-Down Hand and shot a fireball at Captain Bonebeard. Though, that only did 6 damage, Mallow's Shocker struck the captain next for some additional damage.

"Gah… This isn't supposed to be like this… I'm Bowser's toughest minion! Fine then, time fer the big guns!" Captain Bonebeard dropped his cannon guns and took out a bazooka, alarming the heroes.

"Danger! That bazooka is dangerous!" C-2 Choppor warned.

"Hey, wait a sec... I thought pirates don't use bazookas!" Chopper realized. "What gives? !"

"I'm no ordinary pirate, ye know! Ghost Pirates are different than regular pirates! The ghost ones are FAR more dangerous than regular ones! Yar har har! Ye like to see what it does? OK, then!" Captain Bonebeard fired a huge cannonball at Chopper, dealing a major 16 to him.

"Geez... That looks painful." Koopla cringed.

"Well he wasted a turn with that. We need to attack FAST!" Chopper suggested as he used his D-Down Pound on Captain Bonebeard, while C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him. Captain Bonebeard fired another huge cannonball at Chopper, which he was able to guard, to his relief. Afterward, he used his Power Bounce and stomped on Captain Bonebard ten times. C-2 Choppor fired another blast at the ghost captain afterward.

"I'm not givin' up just yet, matey!" Captain Bonebeard growled as he fired another cannonball at Chopper, which almost knocked him off the Ghost Ship. Chopper took out his hammer and he knew what to do.

"Defeating you means that I'm able to take out ANY of Bowser's minions!" Chopper announced as he ran toward Captain Bonebeard and surrounded his hammer with flames to make it deal extra damage.

"_**Take…THIS!**_"

Chopper whacked Captain Bonebeard with his hammer, and it knocked him to the wheel, making him fall apart. He dropped 45 Star Points for Chopper and leveled up. He decided to upgrade his HP to 65.

"Whoa… What kind of attack was that?" Ghoster gawked. "You never showed off that attack when you fought other enemies."

"It's odd… I think this Diamond Hammer can absorb any energy." Chopper pondered. I guess unleashed a fire or ice move can do something against enemies! I should use it often!"

**Chopper has learned the move Fire Smash and Ice Smash! **

Captain Bonebeard's bones were still scattered around, and the glowing pupils slowly faded away.. Suddenly, all of his bones faded away as well and so did the Ghost Ship, which made everyone fall into the water.

"Well what do we do now?" Koopla wondered. "We beat Captain Bonebeard, but where's the Power Star?"

"I see it right there," Bow noticed as the Power Star was floating down to Chopper.

"Well... Go ahead, Chopper." Geno nodded.

Chopper grabbed the Power Star and took out the Star Rod. Once the Power Star went into the Star Rod, its dullness was nearly gone. One thing for sure was that the outer part of the star was no longer dull.

"Finally..." Chopper sighed.

**You got the fifth Power Star! Only two more Power Stars remain…**

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_Chopper and his friends went down to the bottom of the ocean and got the fifth Power Star from the evil ghost pirate Captain Bonehead, the captain of the Ghost Ship they've been seeing lately. With Captain Bonebeard, one of Bowser's strongest minions defeated, Chopper and his friends now knows that he can defeat any of Bowser's minions. No matter what he sends out at them. But, with the fifth Power Star, how on earth will Chopper escape from this dark and watery underground cave on the Ghost Ship?_

* * *

Chopper put the Star Rod away and noticed something appearing. On the wall, there was a ledge with a door and two torches next to it.

"Hey, there's something there! Let's check it out!" Chopper swam over to the ledge and got out of the water. Everyone else managed to get out as well. They walked over to the door, which had a water symbol on it.

"Hmmm…" Chopper opened the door, and they found a glittering light in a small room. They saw the ray of light shining down onto the ground, but when they looked up and didn't see anything but light.

"Do you think…that we can use that light to get out of here?" Geno questioned. "Hmm… I have a feeling it will take us somewhere. But I would HIGHLY recommend putting your swimming gear on now."

Everyone put their swimming gear back on and walked over to the light.

"Toadsmeth, we got the fifth Power Star and we beat the captain of the Ghost Ship!" Chopper announced as he spoke to Toadsmeth through his communicator. "We're going to see if we can return to the surface!"

_"Huh? You did it? Oh, that's good news!"_ Toadsmeth cheered._ "You should return to Science Island so I can get back on with you! I'll be waiting outside!"_

"Let's hope it DOES take us back to the submarine. It better…" Chopper trailed as he put the communicator away. "All right… Time to see what's through here."

Chopper was the first to walk to the ray of light. He noticed his feet were coming off the ground and ascending into the light. Everyone noticed this and went into the ray of light, hoping to get out of this dark cavern.


	76. Chapter 13 Interlude

Since Bowser and Maquano were out, that only left Kammy and Camikon to look around in Hell. They used their broomsticks to explore the entire place, checking to see if everything was fine. Thankfully, everything was indeed fine.

"Nyeah heh heh heh… Without Bob around here, we have this place to ourselves!" Camikon grinned. "I'm sure Lord Maquano and King Bowser are just on a little vacation. Usually Lord Maquano wants me to look after this place when he's not around. Someday whenever he dies—which will probably never happen, I'll be the ruler here!"

"Ah, that sounds like a good idea!" Kammy agreed. "I'm sure I'll be taking over if Bowser ends up dying. Though, I think I might be going first."

"Same here. We're both old, and we'll probably die before they die - unless Chopper somehow manages to destroy Maquano again, but that's not going to happen this time. He's become stronger now."

"What do you say we go check on that little fool? We'll see what he's up to!" Kammy and Camikon went into Maquano's Castle to the terminal room, where the screen showed the dark cave but nothing else.

"No… Did Captain Bonebeard LOSE to Chopper?!" Camikon gaped." But that's impossible! He's our strongest minion! How on EARTH would he lose to Chopper, after all we've done for him! Gah… Now Chopper has to find only two more Power Stars."

"Oh, that's not good," Kammy gulped. "But, the last Power Star is someplace safe. There's no way Chopper can get it. Lord Maquano even threw it up into the stars. It's impossible for him to win."

"What about the next Power Star? That one is one of the few stars that I don't know where they are. Do you know where it could be?"

"The sixth Power Star is safe up in the clouds," Kammy snickered. "Yes, that's right! Chopper had to go down to the bottom of the ocean for the fifth one…and now he has to go high up in the sky! Our strongest minion has that. She came to us saying that she had one of the Power Stars, and Bowser let her join us. It's strange…but it didn't matter. Her name is **Valentina**. Sometimes I could hear her screaming the word **Dodo**. Perhaps that's a friend of hers? Anyway, she's up at a place called **Nimbus Land**. It's a place VERY high up in the sky, and it's not easy to reach."

"Nimbus Land? Hmmm…" Camikon trailed. "I think Chopper has a Nimbus with him, so he MAY have an easy time getting there. Then again, he doesn't know who he truly is. He first thought he was a tadpole, but his grandfather…though he's not really his grandfather, told him he's not actually a tadpole. He doesn't know who he is right now."

"Well that's very interesting! ...Please excuse me for a moment, Camikon. I'm going to go to the bathroom real quick. I'll be right back." Kammy floated out of the room and looked at some of the doors in the hallway.

"Hmm… Could this one be it?" she opened the door and saw someone in there, but he didn't seem to move. It was like he was asleep. "Whoops! Wrong room… But who WAS that? For some reason, he reminds me of Chopper…but with armor on?"

Kammy managed to find the bathroom and came back to the terminal room. Camikon saw the surprised look on her face, indicating she must have found something surprising.

"It looks like you saw something that you never expected to see," Camikon noticed. "What happened?"

"I saw some strange person in armor sleeping. He didn't really move…but it's just weird. Who was that?"

"Hmmm? Oh, don't tell me you went into THERE. That room is a private room for only Lord Maquano to go into. I don't think King Bowser can go in there either. Yeah, it's that big. But you say there's someone in there? Don't really bother with it."

_"Kammy, where's King Bowser? I need to speak with him."_

Kammy noticed her wand was glowing, meaning someone was trying to get in contact with her. Knowing whose voice it was, Kammy responded.

"Err… Sorry, Valentina, but His Vileness is not here. He and his new friend, Lord Maquano went to someplace unknown. I have no idea where, but if I see him, I'll make sure he can contact you."

_"He better, because I can't just hold this Power Star forever. Who was the person that's going after this? Hopper?"_

"His name's CHOPPER!" Camikon corrected. "Get it right, Valentina!"

_"OK, calm down! So his name's Chopper, all right. I'll be on the lookout for him. Without the prince of Nimbus Land and his parents, I can probably fool everyone into believing I have the prince with me! Then I will be queen of Nimbus Land!"_

"Just make sure he doesn't get the Power Star, that's all you really need to do. If you don't succeed…then that's not a big deal. The last one's going to be impossible for him to find anyway."

_"OK then, I'll be going now," _the glow from Kammy's wand faded away.

"Now then… We should just see what Chopper's going to be doing." Camikon suggested. "It would be a good idea to keep an eye on him for our bosses."

"Agreed, mweh heh heh heh!" Kammy cackled. "They'll be pleased when we tell them we've been keeping an eye on them!"

"That is, if something bad happens to them..."

* * *

**Ocean-**

The bright light began to disappear, and everyone found themselves back in the ocean. They were right by the submarine…or the Chopperboat 3000, whichever one you'd like you call it. Everyone felt relieved to be out, especially those who were in diving gear. Chopper also learned the move from the Star Rod Replenish, which could recover 50 of his HP.

"Oh, thank god we made it back here!" Bruce sighed. "If we just ended up someplace far AWAY from this submarine, I would kill myself. ...No, not really."

"Well it's time we got back in the submarine," Chopper opened the door and everyone rushed in before the place flooded.. There was a drain for all the water to go out and also a mechanical dryer that dried everyone's diving suits so the ground wouldn't be wet.

"Awesome! I guess that geeky Toad did somethin' good fer us when we were gonna go back in here! We're no longer wet! Thank god!" Yosho sighed in relief as he walked over to the driver's seat, but Koopla pushed him out of the way as she shook her head.

"Oh no you don't!" Koopla growled. "There's no way you're drivin' us out of here this time! This is why our submarine is like this! I'LL drive the submarine!"

She sat down and moved the submarine. One thing for sure was that she was doing a better job than Yosho.

"Yer just jealous that I can drive better, is that it?" Yosho asked.

"Pbbbbbbbth! I'm not jealous at all! I just don't want you to get us all killed!"

Once they reached the surface, the sub turned back into a boat. Everyone sighed in relief as those who were in diving suits got out, making them feel much more comfortable.

"Oh man, it feels good to be out of that swimming gear!" Parakarry smiled until he noticed a letter land on the boat. "What's this?"

Parakarry picked the letter up and checked to see who was receiving it. "Strange… It says this letter is to someone named Queen Valentina. I have no idea who she is…"

"A queen, eh? Sounds like we can go see her." Yosho suggested. "Except you guys just stay away, and I get to the talkin'. Where is she?"

"It doesn't say where she is," Bow noticed as she checked the letter. "I think the postman carrying this is the only one who knew where she is."

"Should we go to the Post Office and ask them where this person is?" Parakarry asked. "I could do that, you know..."

"Ehhhh... Maybe later." Chopper responded as he put on sunglasses. "For right now, we need to go back to Science Island."

"An' pick up the nerd?" Yosho baffled. "...Meh, ferget what I said. I'll admit he's rather helpful..."

"Yeah, he is! Even Bloopi agrees!" Kayzee nodded as she hugged her doll. "I'm so glad that I'm finally able to hug you again, Bloopi!"

"...Does she know that that thing can't talk?" Ghoster whispered.

"Just go on with it," Chopper whispered back.

"All right, let's get back to Science Island I suppose," Koopla said as she drove toward the island.

* * *

**Science Island-**

When they got back onto the island, they noticed Toadsmeth coming over to them with an eager look.

"Good news, Chopper! I actually found something going on with my Hearoscope!" Toadsmeth announced. "You see… I got a location of one of the Power Stars you're looking for! …But there's a BIG problem, you see. It's rather impossible to get up to there, and it could possibly take years. Though, Mario managed to use a beanstalk to get up there…but this is MUCH higher up."

"Wait… You're saying is that the sixth Power Star is up in…the sky?" Chopper gaped.

"Yes, that's right. Up in the sky it is. Unfortunately, I don't have any inventions like that, and I would have to make some kind of powerful cannon to get you up there. ...Thankfully, I think I have the components for such a cannon. Excuse me for a moment while I go get them." Toadsmeth went back into his lab to get some equipment and came back and put the stuff on the boat. "We're going to need this if we're going to get you all up there. No, planes won't work, unfortunately."

He got on the boat, and he sat down on the driver's seat. "We need to return to Toad Town now. So just relax for right now while we go back."

"Uhhhhh... I was driving, you know..." Koopla trailed.

"Nonsense! I am an experienced driver, for I am a professor!"

"Professors have nothing to do with driving..." Bruce noted.

"Oh..." Toadsmeth shrugged as he began to drive the boat toward Toad Town.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

When they made it back to Toad Town, Toadsmeth carried the tools over by Peach's Castle and began to make something. A Toad noticed him doing this work.

"Professor, what on earth are you doing?" the Toad asked.

"Why, I'm making a new invention! I need to help Chopper and his friends reach the clouds!" Toadsmeth turned his head to Chopper. "This will take a while, so you should do something else while I'm doing this."

Chopper nodded and decided to go head to the Dojo. He put on his Fighter headband, and he walked over to the Master. Of course, Chan and Lee noticed his return as well.

"So... Do you think he might be victorious in battle?" Chan asked.

"Doubtful," responded Lee.

"_Cough…hack… _You've returned, Chopper." The Master coughed. "Have you come back for another battle against me?"

"Yep, and I'm ready to fight!" Chopper declared.

"Very well! I promised you before that I wouldn't go easy on you, and I didn't forget about that. You must concentrate fully if you hope to compete. To battle!"

The Master clenched his fists and had a yellow robe instead of a red one, as if he underwent a super transformation.

"Chopper, you will fall!"

**Tattle: **_This is The Master. He owns the Dojo-and he's the strongest member. Max HP: 160, Attack Power: 12. Defense Power: 0. He knows both normal and advanced methods of attack. You'd better concentrate, Chopper! This guy doesn't mess around at all!_

"OK, this should be done in no time!" Chopper declared as he started off with a Vulcan Jab on the Master, which did 8 damage. Geno fired a Geno Beam at The Master, which already made The Master have 16 damage taken out by both of them.

The Master charged toward Chopper with a punch and an uppercut. He guarded both attacks, with the first punch being able to 7, and the next one being able to do 7 too.

"Wow, you weren't kidding," Chopper panted as he began to use his Power Bounce and was able to stomp on him eleven times.

"Hm! Nice maneuver!" The Master commented.

Bow decided to use her Fan Smack on The Master, smacking him five times for 10 damage. Meanwhile, The Master readied himself and charged at Chopper, who managed to counter his attack and throw him to the ground.

"Ooh! Are you all right, Master?" Chopper asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," The Master assured as he got up. "Don't worry about me. Like I said before I can take anything you got."

Chopper shrugged and used a Power Punch on the Master, which did 10 damage. Mallow followed up with his Falling Cloud attack. The Master made a pose and jumped toward Chopper to punch and kick him. Luckily, he guarded both attacks, allowing Chopper to use his Power Bounce on The Master, stomping on him fourteen times. Geno turned into a cannon and used his Geno Flash on The Master to deal some serious damage to him.

The Master walked toward Chopper and began to charge up an attack. He charged at Chopper, but he barely countered the attack.

"Oof! Not bad…" The Master coughed as Chopper used his Vulcan Jab attack on him, followed up by Ghoster's Ghost Fist, leaving him with 41 HP left.

"Don't lose your concentration. I have yet to truly begin fighting back!" The Master knocked Chopper back with a powerful punch. "You were too distracted, boy!"

"He should be done soon, so let's make this a quick one!" Chopper suggested as he charged toward The Master with a kick attack, while C-2 Choppor blasted him after scanning him, leaving him with 25 HP left. The Master was about to use another punch attack on Chopper, but it was countered, knocking him to the ground.

"Wow… He's doing pretty good…" Chan trailed.

"You can say that again," Lee agreed.

Chopper was about to attack The Master, but Bow used her Fan Smack on him first before attacking.

"OK, Chopper, you're clear," Bow nodded.

"Thank you," Chopper used a Vulcan Jab on the Master to finally defeat him. After the fight, Chopper removed his ability and bowed to The Master while he got up and bowed back.

"Hm… That was a solid fight. Very well. I give you this." The Master gave Chopper a Fourth-Degree Card, who put it away quickly. "To prove you are truly strong, you must face me one last time."

"I would now, but I can't. I'll come back when the time has come." Chopper said goodbye before he left the Dojo, and he heard his communicator going off.

"What is it now, professor?"

_"Good news, Chopper! I finally finished the_ _cannon!"_ Toadsmeth announced._ "I even tested it out by using a guinea pig! …Actually, it was a Toad, but it works! Come on by Peach's Castle!"_

"Hey! You did already! Cool!" Chopper smiled as he put his communicator away. "Come on, guys! Let's go!"

"Oh boy! I can't wait to go up in the sky!" Mallow smiled. "For some reason, I remind myself of a cloud..."

"Well, let's go find out," Bow suggested.

* * *

**Outside Peach's Castle-**

"Professor Toadsmeth, are you sure this thing is safe for Chopper?" Peach asked as Twink floated beside her.

"Of course it is! That's where he needs to go to find the sixth Power Star!" Toadsmeth grinned. "Yup, right in Nimbus Land! I'll make sure the cannon takes them straight there! That'll be some good news!"

"This thing looks like it came from a junkyard though…" Twink trailed.

"What? That's not good news at all! I thought it came from the bottom of the ocean! Well… Never mind that. It's better than nothing."

Chopper came walking out of the gate and was surprised to see Peach and Twink. "Hey! Peach! Twink!"

"Chopper, it's so good to see you again!" Peach smiled. "How is the Power Star quest going with you?"

"It's going fine. I just need two more. This one will probably be a breeze!"

"Indeed it will!" Toadsmeth nodded. "You'll go straight to Nimbus Land, which is most likely where the Power Star is."

"Nimbus Land? What is that place?" Mallow asked.

"It's a place filled with cloud people," Geno explained. "It's ruled by King and Queen Nimbus. Word says that their prince had been missing for years."

"Their prince has been missing? Oh, that's not good... I feel bad for whoever's out on his own..."

"My scanners are telling me that cannon came from the dump," C-2 Choppor stated.

"I think it did…" Ghoster agreed.

"Uhhh... No it didn't!" Toadsmeth denied. "It was just some spare parts I got from an auction! Go on ahead, everyone! Jump into the cannon!"

"Still looks like it came from the junk," C-2 Choppor said as he jumped into the cannon with everyone else. Toadsmeth lit up a match and readied it for the fuse.

"Now… This should take them to Nimbus Land in no time! If not…then that's a bad thing."

The fuse went off while Toadsmeth put in a location, but he noticed he forgot to set it to Nimbus Land.

"Uh oh... This isn't good... I think I just need to..." It was too late. The cannon already fired, making the professor's eyes widen.

"Professor Toadsmeth, what happened?" Peach asked.

"I accidentally had it go to **Cloudy Way**, which is filled with clouds and is at a lower area than Nimbus Land. Yup… They'll have to climb up the clouds now."

"Oh, dear…"

"Chopper can do it, though!" Twink assured. "He managed to complete many tasks while you were kidnapped! If he could do that, then chances are he can get that Power Star!"

* * *

**Looks like things didn't turn out the way they would. Well blame Toadsmeth for that one! Not me!**


	77. Clouds As Far As the Eye Can See

**CHAPTER 14**

**-Cloudy Times in the Big Blue Sky-**

Up in the beautiful blue sky, Chopper and his friends were being fired toward Nimbus Land. But, because Toadsmeth screwed up, they were now heading toward Cloudy Way, which was the lowest area of the sky.

"Where exactly are we going?" Mallow asked. "It doesn't seem like we're going to whatever the heck Professor Toadsmeth said we were going! I don't even understand where we're even going!"

"I have no idea! We're heading SOMEWHERE…but I have exactly no idea where we'd be at." Chopper pondered. "I think Toadsmeth made an error…I think."

When they landed on the cloud ahead, some people's heads were stuck in the cloud, especially Chopper, who struggled to push himself out. When he did manage to do this, he sat down and felt how fluffy it was. Everyone felt just fine - with the exception of Geno, that is.

"Guys… A little help?" Geno cried as his body was stuck in the cloud. Chopper grabbed Geno's hand to pull him up, but it ended up making Chopper almost fall of the cloud. He could see the ocean down below, making him think of their previous quest to get the fifth Power Star. But that was old news now.

"Wow… This is high." Yosho gulped. "It feels like we were in Star Haven just yesterday! God, I don't know what to do here. We're stuck on a cloud, and we gotta go climbin' up! This is just not my kind of thing…"

"Yosho, you can JUMP better than any of us!" Chopper noted. "You're saying this is bad? You have pretty much the greatest jump of all of us! Sure, some people can fly, but we're talking about jumping."

"Oh… Ya got a point there." Yosho looked up and saw some clouds above them. Some of them were moving and some of had eyes and a grin, showing that someone could jump onto them.

"How on earth am I supposed to get up there?" Chopper noticed a cape lying down on the ground, so he inhaled it. Once he swallowed it, he had a red cape and a golden wing circlet on his head. "This'll work! I don't know where the cape was, but someone must've dropped it. I think I can climb the clouds with this ability on. Let me test it out."

Chopper launched up high, and he went through a cloud and landed on it, making a little pose as well.

"OK, that worked, but…HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO GET UP?" Koopla exclaimed.

"What was that? I couldn't hear you!"

"You better not be ignoring me..."

"Don't try to shout at him. That's not going to work. Here, I'll help you." Bow assured as she grabbed Koopla and brought her onto the cloud above. Mallow was able to make a cloud and sit on it in order to reach up to the higher cloud.

"OK, maybe I shouldn't have shouted earlier, but I needed to do that so you could hear us. Now… How high do we need to go exactly?"

Koopla looked up, and she didn't have a good look on her face.

"Wow… That's pretty high up." Kayzee noticed. "But that's not so bad for me! I can fly up there no problem! Tee hee!" There were some big clouds and some small ones. Some clouds were too high to reach, while some others just required Chopper's Hi-Jump ability.

"OK… This'll be a long climb up these clouds. Let's be careful while going up these…" Chopper began to go up the clouds with his Hi-Jump and his friends began to go up with him.

"This isn't so hard for me," Mallow smiled. "Plus, the clouds fit very well with me! ...I mean, I DID say that I resembled a cloud a bit."

"Yeah, you did say that," Parakarry nodded. "I wonder what this Nimbus Land place is like anyway."

"Hope you don't mind me hitching a ride on this," Bruce said as he got on Mallow's cloud. Sorry, but having no arms is a REALLY bad thing for me."

"I don't mind one bit, Bruce! You're more than welcome to hitch a ride whenever you want!" Mallow noticed a fat Paratroopa flying around. "We should just watch out for any enemies we see around here…like that Paratroopa!

"Whoa, that Paratroopa up there needs to lose a few pounds... I mean look at him!" Chopper gaped. "Oh well… We should just keep going."

Chopper kept using his Hi-Jump to reach up some clouds higher up as the fat Paratroopa noticed Chopper climbing up the clouds. When he got to the cloud he was on, he took the chance to step up to him.

"Hey, you! Yeah, I'm talking to you! You're that punk Chopper, right?" the fat Paratroopa asked. "I got orders from Queen Valentina to take you down. Sorry, bub, but I gotta do it. She just wants to finish her goal, that's all."

"Dude, you REALLY need to lose some weight!" Yosho suggested. "You're too fat to even fight! …Wait! Did you say Valentina is here?"

"Hey! Don't call me fat!"

"Ah! So this Valentina is up in the clouds!" Parakarry realized as he took a letter out. "But… She's a bad guy…er, woman?"

"Ooh! Now that sounds interestin'!" Yosho grinned. "Yer sayin' this Queen Valentina needs a new king? Don't worry, fatass, I'm her king that's been comin' over here fer two months!"

"Queen Valentina doesn't have a… Wait, did she say she's having a king come here? Hmmm…" the fat Paratroopa named Joe began to recall a previous event when he spoke to Valentina.

* * *

_"Joe, if you see someone going up the clouds, and he says that he's the king I've been waiting for for two months, don't try to attack! You got that?"_

_"Yes, sir—I mean ma'am!"  
_

* * *

"I think she said something like that..." Joe pondered, despite having a bad memory. "Hmmm… I know she said something about Chopper…but he's got the king with him? Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh… I don't know what to say. You can go on through. _I guess_…"

"OK, thanks!" Chopper thanked as he saw a cloud with a face and jumped on it. It made him go to incredible heights, reaching into the next area of Cloudy Climb, which would eventually reach Cloudy Way. The area they all came upon had floating black cannons. They could fire to the northwest, southwest, southeast, or northeast. Some of them would fire on their own, while others would fire if Chopper pressed a button inside.

Before they did that though, three Lakitus tried to attack Chopper and his friends, but they defeated them with their jumping, hammering, smacking, etc.

"Man, this is just intense. First there was some fat Paratroopa walking around here, and now we're finding Lakitus!" Ghoster gasped. "Why would they be here, though?"

"Ghoster, Lakitus usually live up in the sky, and since this is the sky, they are going to be here," C-2 Choppor informed. "I suggest we be careful of any Tuff Puff clouds we see around here."

"Yeah, they could be disguised," Bow added.

Chopper wasn't sure what to say, so he used the cannon to take him to another cannon to the northeast, northwest, and then the middle. He could see a cloud above him, so he fired himself up to it. Afterward, he began to pant.

"That was…intense. This is a VERY weird place to be in right now. But whatever." Chopper saw a cloud with a face on it, but it looked different than the others. This one was more grayish. After everyone else reached him and spotted the cloud, Parakarry poked it, making it become a Puff Cloud.

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped saw two of them appear, and they were forced to fight them. He started off with his stomping attack, with Geno using his Geno Beam on the first one afterward. The two Puff Clouds attacked Chopper by ramming into him, doing 12 damage to him each time.

Chopper finished off the first Puff Cloud with a stomp, while Ghoster punched the Puff Cloud with his fists after that. The pale green boy guarded the Puff Cloud's attack and then stomped on it, following with Bow's Smack, defeating both clouds and giving Chopper 6 Star Points and some coins that he collected.

Ghoster noticed when using his Ghost Vision, he saw an invisible cloud with a face nearby, so they bounced off the cloud to the next area, which had a lot of tornadoes.

"What the… These are some small-looking tornadoes. What are they doing here?" Koopla gawked.

"I don't know…" Chopper saw a top that tried to attack, but he managed to inhale it and swallow it. He suddenly got a golden crown with a green diamond-shaped gem in it and also a tornado on his head.

"Two abilities in one chapter? That's gotta be interesting. Now to test this out." Chopper smiled as he became a tornado and began to spin around. He managed to get to one of the tornadoes, which powered up his tornado, letting him move higher up with each tornado until he made it to the highest cloud.

"Wow, this is really cool. I don't think this place is that bad." Bruce commented. "It feels so nice up here, and it also can play some heavenly music! …Though maybe when we get up to Cloudy Way."

"Cloudy Way? Oh yes, I almost forgot about that." Geno realized. "I think we're getting close to getting up to those higher clouds. Don't you see?"

They looked up and saw a big cloud. Chopper saw it was too high to reach, and Ghoster's Ghost Vision didn't help, nor did C-2 Choppor's scanning. Luckily, Mallow was able to make a cloud that could bring them up, so they got on it to head into the next area.

"Oh boy… The Power Star is pretty far from here." Geno sensed. "Toadsmeth probably screwed up on the cannon. Sorry Chopper, but we gotta travel through these clouds to get there."

"That's OK, because I can probably get there easily!" Chopper assured as he noticed a gate, which revealed some stairs, playing a heavenly tune with the chorus. "What's with the chorus? This isn't heaven! Oh well… We can just go up these stairs to where we need to go."

"Heavenly music?" Bow gawked. "What heavenly music?"

"Uhhh... It's nothing important really."

* * *

**Top of the staircase-**

When they reached the top of the staircase, they noticed there were two ways to go on the cloud, and in the middle was a big white tree with many fruits. There were apples, oranges, bananas and grapes. It looked like they were in different colors, too. It was also odd that the tree was a white color, as well as the leaves.

"Would you look at all of that? That tree is completely white, but it has a rainbow coming from it and a bunch of fruit." Bow smiled. "This feels like we've gotten ourselves some food for the day. Well, fruit actually."

"Oh my… There's BANANAS in that tree!" Chopper gasped as hearts fluttered over his heads. "Oh, how much I LOVE bananas! This is like heaven right here! Now to get those bananas!"

"What do you love more? Me, or bananas?"

"Bananas, obviously!" Chopper cheered as Bow gaped before fuming. She thought she was competing with Kayzee before (even though she never had a crush on him), but the bananas looked like a greater competition for her.

"Never knew Chopper loved bananas that much," Koopla gawked. "I thought he would love to eat anything, actually. But, it's his favorite food, so I can't argue with that."

Chopper took his hammer out and was about to knock all the fruit down from it. C-2 Choppor scanned the tree and the fruit to find any interesting information. He did find something shocking, though.

"Chopper, don't eat the fruit! There's something in it that can change you!" C-2 Choppor warned, but unfortunately, he was a bit too late. Chopper whacked the bananas off the tree and let them fall into his mouth. After swallowing them he suddenly shrunk in size, making him scream in terror.

"I warned you..."

"Awww! He looks so cute and tiny!" Kayzee squealed.

"He DOES look adorable like this!" Bow smiled as she lifted Chopper off the ground. "Well, I guess that's what happens when you choose bananas over me, cutie!"

However, this did not last long. A puff of smoke surrounded Chopper and turned him back to normal size. However, Bow was actually holding onto him after noticing him grow back.

"OK… Can anyone explain to me what that WAS? ...Oh, and the banana was good too." Chopper added until he noticed Bow was holding onto him. "Ack! Don't hurt me!"

"It's all right, Chopper. You're fine..." Bow smiled as Chopper got off her and sighed in relief.

"The fruit up on that tree is magic," C-2 Choppor informed. "It can have an effect on your body. You can turn big, turn small, grow a mustache, or even look attractive."

"Get a mustache an' look attractive, ya say? Well now… That sounds pretty interestin'!" Yosho grinned as he used his long tongue to get the light blue apple into his mouth to eat. Sadly, it didn't taste so good to him.

"Bleh! What did I just eat?!" However, Yosho became fat instead of hot. Bow tried her best not to laugh, just like Ghoster, who tried to hold it in.

"Man, you're just messed up! Don't eat something you know will harm you!" Ghoster cackled, unable to hold it in. They also happened to notice an Upgrade Block as well.

"Oh, I better get that," Chopper hit the block decided to upgrade Bow to Diamond-Rank. With this, she could use the move Power Smack, which smacks an enemy harder with her fan and pierces through defense to do 10 damage, which only costs 3 FP. Her smack can deal 8 damage, and her Fan Smack could actually deal about 20 damage.

"Ah, now I can actually use a move that's useful! That makes me feel much better." Bow grinned. "No more having to avoid enemies with higher defense."

"Ha ha ha! Oh, look at that poor Yoshi! He's become fat from the apple! Oh, no worries, it'll wear off." Yosho pouted as he heard the voice until turned back to normal. "See? What did I tell you?"

"Who said that?" Bruce asked.

"I'm right here," a strange white hooded person who had a mustache similar to Merlon's and gray shoes was on the top of the tree. It was hard to see him, considering that he was dressed in white.

"Who are you?" Parakarry asked. "You kind of remind me of Merlon."

"That's because I'm his brother, Merlo," the cloud wizard introduced. "Yes, you probably met my nephew Merle, who stays in Starborn Valley. I stay up here in the sky, which is why I am wearing a white robe and hood."

"Merlo, are we actually up in Cloudy Way?" Mallow asked. "This doesn't look like we're here. Look at the clouds above!"

"You're right, Mallow. This isn't Cloudy Way. You see, the stairs to go up there have been destroyed by an evil force. The bad news is, you need to get the two pieces of the Cloud Stone from each direction you see right now to bring back those stairs. The thing is, only a Nimbus can do that…but I think you can do it. I have a feeling..." Merlo trailed as he slowly eyed Mallow.

"So we need the two pieces of the Cloud Stone to bring back the stairway to Cloudy Way," Geno nodded. "I see… This is pretty interesting. It doesn't sound like a hard task."

"It isn't…if you can get passed those evil minions that are guarding it. If you can beat them, then I might help you get the Power Star."

"OK, we should start by taking the left way. Let's go!" Chopper began to head to the left, and everyone else followed him. They found an area with some clouds going up to another area on a higher cloud, and some Puff Clouds are floating around.

"Looks like I'll need my Hi-Jump for this," Chopper declared as he became Hi-Jump Chopper and went up to reach to the next cloud to the right, and then he went to the one to the left.

"This shouldn't be so hard!" Mallow assured as he got on a cloud he made, and Bruce got on it too. They went up to the highest cloud, which was to the left to make things simple. "Man, this place makes me feel like I have the biggest advantage over everyone else! I never thought this would actually happen."

"That's right, and it's a good thing," Bruce agreed.

They all got to the cloud leading to the next area and saw a rainbow that led to a cloud to the left. There was a white pillar on the cloud and also a piece of the Cloud Stone too.

"Hmmm… I'm going to test this out." Koopla put her foot on the rainbow, which surprisingly didn't go through it. She began to walk on it without even falling. "Well, this is interesting!"

"Whoa, let me try!" Geno walked on the rainbow, and he was surprised to be walking on it. Everyone else crossed the rainbow and got to the pillar. Parakarry tried to grab the stone, but he had no luck.

"I'm not getting this, Chopper," Parakarry frowned. "Sorry, but I don't think I can grab that thing. Merlo said only a cloud person can do this job."

When Mallow walked over, the Cloud Stone piece began to glow white. Mallow looked confused, but he grabbed it and succeeded in taking it.

"Hey, I was able to take it! Maybe I AM a cloud person!" Mallow gaped.

Unfortunately, this triggered a giant Puff Cloud to appear, and they had to fight it first. It had 30 HP, and its other stats are the same, so Chopper started off by jumping on the Puff Cloud, and then Bow smacked the Puff Cloud with a normal smack attack, which let her smack the cloud eight times.

The Puff Cloud began to blow out an icy wind at Chopper, but he was able to guard it with ease. Since the cloud's low, he whacked it with his hammer, while Mallow finished off the Puff Cloud with a Falling Cloud attack, rewarding them with 13 Star Points.

"Wow… Look at this thing. It looks amazing!" Mallow gaped as he held up the Cloud Stone piece. Now that they had the first piece, they went back to the area where Merlo was.

"Ah, so you got the first piece already?" Merlo gawked. "I heard from Merlon that you are pretty fast, Chopper... The next Cloud Piece is probably the same difficulty, but with a puzzle. Let's see if you can figure it out."

"OK, we'll check it out," Chopper assured as he headed into the next area to the right, where they found six blocks. They seemed to be like a picture of a cloud after taking a quick look at them.

"Oh! I see what to do here!" Kayzee grabbed a block and put it down. "We need to make this so it all shapes like a cloud!"

"Ah, I see…" Chopper began to push the blocks so they could make a cloud. Once they were all together, a cloud came out with a face and stretched.

"Yawn… Is it morning already?" the cloud mumbled. "Ha ha! I was just kidding! It's been a while since I was out of there. Since I'm out, maybe I can help you go up!"

"Sure!" Chopper jumped on the cloud, and it sent him up to a cloud where they needed to go to. He used his cape like a parachute in order to float down to the cloud. Everyone else managed to make it to him and headed into the next area.

They found another rainbow like in the other area with a pillar and a Cloud Stone piece. They walked over the rainbow, and then Mallow grabbed the Cloud Stone piece.

"OK! We got both pieces! Now we can…" Mallow saw the big Puff Cloud come down, and he quickly attacked it with a Falling Cloud.

"Thanks for the heads up there, Mallow! Now it's time for me to attack!" Chopper used a Hi-Jump attack on the Puff Cloud, leaving it with 14 HP. It simply attacked by ramming into Chopper, which knocked away his ability, so Chopper attacked with his jump, and then it was finished off by Mallow's Falling Cloud.

After getting 13 Star Points, the Cloud Stone pieces began to glow and came out of Mallow's hands. They formed together, and it looked like a white jewel was formed.

"Ah, now we got the Cloud Stone together," Geno declared. "We better show that to Merlo."

Everyone agreed, and they headed back to the white tree, where Merlo was sitting. He noticed the eleven arrive.

"Well now! You have the Cloud Stone!" Merlo applauded. "Congratulations! Especially to you, Mallow. It was you who got them together."

"I know, but does this mean I'm a cloud person?" Mallow asked.

"Umm… I'm not so sure. You LOOK like a cloud, but I've never been to Nimbus Land before - if that's where you're all going. I only stay around here, waiting to see if travelers come, but I'll be more than happy to help you!"

Merlo took the Cloud Stone from Mallow, and he held it up. It began to glow much bigger as he put the Cloud Stone in the tree, which created a staircase thanks to the light. They looked even better than before.

"Now then… If you would all be kind enough to follow me, I'll do what I can to help you." Everyone nodded and followed Merlo up the stairs as they listened to more heavenly music.

"Geez... What's with the heavenly music?" Chopper wondered.

* * *

**Top area of the sky-**

"Wow, look at this… It's so nice!" Kayzee smiled as she saw the big blue sky above them now that the cloud weren't in the way. "I wish I flew up here, but the professor wouldn't let me fly too far from here. That's why I stayed at the City of Flowersville."

"Yup, it's official. I think this is one of the best places we've been so far." Koopla declared. "The worst would have to be Dry Dry Desert, because I hate the desert."

"I agree with you, Koopla. I think this is a nice place." Bruce agreed. "At least…if I don't fall, that is. Man, I don't like it when we're really high up from the ground. It's so dangerous."

"Relax, Bruce. I've gone through A LOT of skies, and they're not really the best places to be in..." Chopper trailed.

Parakarry noticed something slip out of Yosho's jacket, which made the Yoshi put it back in, whistling as if nothing happened.

"Yosho… Did you take those fruits from that tree?" Parakarry asked as he noticed his jacket looked like it had some stuff in it.

"Er… Nope. Nothin' in my jacket. Just nothin' else but what I need." Yosho assured. "Just breath spray and cologne. And er… I got somethin' else, but that's fer the ladies when I win 'em over, but I can't tell ya right now, y'see..."

"You're kidding me," Bow face palmed. "I only wonder WHY you decided to come with us. Honestly, you're weird with what you do."

"But he can jump higher than us!" Mallow added.

"See? Someone knows what he's talkin' about!"

"Even though he acts like an idiot at times..."

"Hey!"

"That's true, he still needs to get a little smarter," C-2 Choppor agreed. "We don't need to have any idiots with us ruin everything on our adventure. That wouldn't be so great, because it wouldn't make us look good to other people. Then again, they would know who is stupid and who is not."

"H-Hey! I'm not stupid, you piece of junk!" Yosho kicked C-2 Choppor, but he ended up hurting his own foot.

"YEOW!" he held his foot while hopping around in pain.

"You are not very good at making insults…" C-2 Choppor trailed.

"Well yer a tin can! Look at ya, all ya do is walk around and make robotic voices!"

"You lack a brain, do you not? And is that toupee fake?"

"N-No...!" Yosho sniffed loudly.

"OK, quit the trash talk already," Ghoster suggested. "We can't just argue over nothing! It's not right at all!"

"You are most certainly right, strange light blue ghost," Merlo agreed. "You all need to follow me into my house. It's to the right, if you don't know."

Merlo began to walk to the pathway to the right, and everyone followed him. His house wasn't so big, but there were some clouds over it that were white and fluffy, while the house was a gray color.

"Come on in, everyone," the wizard walked into the house, while everyone else shrugged and followed him. His house had a light brown ground and wall, and there was an upstairs room as well. There was a shelf with many books and a picture of Merlo and Merlon on it with other similar wizards. Merlo grabbed a book and opened it.

"Nice place you got..." Chopper trailed.

"Did you know that there's more than one of us in many places? Yes, that's right. We each have a separate individual. There are many of me, just like there are many named Merlon, which is quite interesting. As for Merle, I'm not quite sure."

"Individuals of yourself? That sounds interesting…" Geno trailed. "But what's the purpose of bringing us here, Merlo?"

"I need to tell you something. It's a rather long story, but I'm going to make it a little short. So, pay attention to every last word OK?"

"OK," Chopper nodded.

"You see… When there…a strange man…he said…I responded… Up in the sky… A great…prophecy of… My father…go to the land…of cloud people… It was…utterly amazing… The clouds helped me…and I saw it…clouds and stars…Blew my mind…and then basically…"

* * *

**A couple of hours later-**

Unfortunately, his long story was so boring that everyone fell asleep.

"…and THAT is why you must travel through the clouds to reach Nimbus Land. But the thing is…" Merlo turned around and noticed they were asleep. "Hey! You! Were you even listening to my story!"

Everyone suddenly woke up and looked at Merlo with confused looks.

"Erm… Yes! We were listening to every bit of it, Merlo!" Chopper nodded. "We understand the whole thing completely!"

"Are you sure? Well… All right. Like I said, only the Diamond Shoes can allow you to smash down into the hardest places such as metal and nails. Not to mention that it can help you break through many mechanical things. It has a very high jump as well. …Wait, I already told you that in my story! ...Though, I don't know if you were actually listening to it."

"You said something about Diamond Shoes, so of course I listened to your story! But where are they? They sound REALLY good!"

"Of course they're good. I have a chest up in my room. It's in my closet, so you'll need to open it with a switch. Though, if you have anything that make you hit something a little higher up, then you can have them."

"We'll do that!" Chopper went up the stairs, but the door closed behind him, unfortunately. He tried to open the door, but it was locked.

"Uh… Merlo? The door's locked! There's a big problem!" Sadly, Chopper couldn't get any help. However, he could see a blue ! block high up in the room, so he used his Tornado Jump to reach it. This made the closet open, revealing a big chest.

Chopper walked over to the chest and opened it. Some green shoes came out, which he smiled and held them up.

**You got the Diamond Shoes! The attack power of Chopper's Jump increases! His speed and Speed Dash is now the fastest he can move! On top of that, you can hold (A) to jump higher up and use the Rocket Jump while pressing (A) while in the air!**

"Yes! I got the Diamond Shoes! These things will make me REALLY good!" Chopper smiled as he put them on and noticed a small part of the ground was made of a very powerful substance like the rainbow block. It had a Q on it instead on an X.

"I guess I have no other choice," he walked over the steel Q and jumped up high and ended up coming down at a fast pace with a green glow around his shoes. He smashed down through the ground and almost smashed down into the ground on the bottom floor.

"Whoa, Chopper! Be VERY careful with those shoes!" Merlo warned. "They give you the strongest ability with your athletics in the entire Mushroom Kingdom. They even banned those things from the Olympics! Be very VERY careful with them, Chopper. I beg of you. Those are only used on enemies and very tough substances that are impossible to break. They can even let you destroy clouds."

"Destroy clouds? That doesn't sound good…" Mallow trailed.

"So you have the Diamond Shoes now, Chopper? That sounds very nice." Bow smiled. "I'm sure there's something we need to find up ahead anyways, so those will come in handy."

"Yup, and I can probably use this to smash right through Maquano's helmet and skull! …And also Bowser's." Chopper grinned. "Yeah, these will be good for me!"

"Chopper, use those shoes wisely. They can help you with almost anything." Merlon explained. "They're good for jumping high, smashing through tough objects, even drilling underground. If you see any Xs on the ground, they'll have things like beans. You can even find underground pathways to take if you can't find anything else around."

"Oh yeah…" Chopper had a couple of beans with him (that I didn't show, unfortunately) that he found around. He remembered Fawful wanted beans and gave a couple of them off-screen.

_"I can probably get some beans from underground and go back to Fawful," _he thought._  
_

"Hmm… I don't know if you really listened to my story, but now's not the time for that. You all must hurry on and go to that Nimbus Land place that you need to go to. Hurry there!"

"We will! Let's go, guys!" Mallow declared. Everyone left Merlo's House, and Chopper hit the Heart Block before going back to Cloudy Way. He hit the Save Block in the area also.

"It's time to go to Nimbus Land!" Chopper declared. "Let's hope everything's fine there, and I hope that that Valentina person isn't behind all of this."

"I hope I get to meet her an' have some good time with her!" Yosho grinned. "Yup, that's what I'm wantin' to do!"

With that, they made their way to Cloudy Way.

* * *

**Ah, yes! The Diamond Shoes! The best shoes EVER! These are VERY good to use, and we'll probably see them used in the next chapter.**

**Oh yeah, and the Q is a reference to Ed Edd 'n' Eddy, where Double D needs to carry a rock to a red X, but finds a red Q instead. :P**


	78. Revenge of the Lakitu King

"Man, it feels so good to have these Diamond Shoes on!" Chopper smiled as he looked at his new shoes. "They feel pretty comfy on my feet too, so my feet don't hurt while these things are on. They're really going to give me a hand around here!"

"I think going through these clouds and breaking through things will be a breeze for you now!" Mallow assured. "Plus you can go right through the clouds AND destroy the most powerful objects in the Mushroom Kingdom! Man, I wish I could use those."

"You still have the ability to create weather. Whenever you cry, it begins to rain, and when you're happy, the sun's up. I don't know anything else that happens, but you have some strange weather powers. No one else has it either." Geno explained as he noticed Yosho almost dropped a fruit and put it back in his jacket. "Yosho… What's in your jacket? Are those the fruits Merlo told us NOT to eat?"

"Who? Me? Naw, I don't have any fruits with me!" Yosho replied. "All there is here is just the sexiest man alive, me! I know yer probably sayin' this is gettin' old, but I'm never gonna stop! This is Yosho! I do what I wanna do! An' if I wanna take fruit to make myself look good fer that lady queen person, then I would've! Right in my jacket! …Wait a minute… Ferget what I just said!".

"…You took the sky fruits from that tree, didn't you?" Bruce asked.

"Yes... Wait, no! Not at all!"

"Just like I thought," Koopla groaned as he turned away from him. "We're not going to do anything about it. If he wants to take those fruits, then he can. It's his funeral."

"Funeral? Those things don't KILL you." noted Parakarry. "They just have some kind of effect on you. We saw that it can turn you small or make you fat…at least Chopper wasn't the one who turned fat."

"You can keep the fruits, because there might be a good reason to hold onto them," Bow pondered. "So taking those hasn't all come to waste. Just don't eat them. We'll use them against our enemies. Got that?"

"OK, fine… Have it yer way!" Yosho pouted as C-2 Choppor took a fruit from him he began to look at it.

"What are you doing with that fruit, Choppor?" Kayzee asked.

"I'll hold onto this for now. This one will become useful…" C-2 Choppor opened up a small hatch below his scanner and put the fruit in there, juicing it up, which everyone could hear.

"I have NO idea what you just did, Choppor. But we'll find out sooner or later, you weird robot." Ghoster shrugged.

"Anyway… Let's just move on." Chopper suggested as he ran over to the cloud to the left. A Puff Cloud tried to attack him, but Chopper used it as a way to jump up to the cloud. Ghoster finished off the Puff Cloud with his psychic abilities. Once they went into the next area, they could see that there was a cloud further ahead that they couldn't get over to. However, there was a cloud below them, so Chopper used his Rocket Jump to go down to the cloud and jump over to the other clouds that were down there.

Jumping over some of the clouds, C-2 Choppor found a hidden block on the last cloud before going to the next area. Chopper hit it and a Mushroom that was silver with white polka dots came out. It was called an Ultimate Shroom, which had the ability to restore 100 HP.

"Whoa, that's a rare Mushroom!" Parakarry gaped. "Those things don't usually appear around the Mushroom Kingdom except for up in the stars. You should be lucky you found one of those. They're VERY good to have."

"Let's just keep going now," Chopper picked up the item and jumped onto the cloud that led to the next area, where they saw four clouds circling around. To the north, there was a cloud with nothing there. To the south, there was a chest, and to the left there was a path to the next area.

"OK… This might be a tough place to get through." Chopper jumped on the clouds, and when he went to the chest, he found a Star Energy Plus Badge, which could increase the Star Energy Chopper has.

"A Star Energy Plus Badge? Wow, you're finding some really useful stuff here!" Mallow cheered,

"I'll say! This is great!" Chopper jumped on the cloud coming toward him and got onto the cloud to the left while his friends follow him to the next area, which had some clouds circling around and going down like a staircase. There was switch on the bottom cloud, and going down them, Chopper used his Rocket Jump and smashed down on the switch, almost breaking it.

"Geez... That's intense..." Koopla trailed.

They felt the cloud tremor while something rose up from the clouds. It looked like it had tough armor and a skinny body with armored arms and legs. From what they could tell, this was definitely one of the biggest enemies they've seen in a while.

"You disturbed my rest!" the robot roared. "Now I'm going to have to destroy you! I'm the most power C Robo there is with all of my defenses! You can't do a THING to me!"

"That is another C Robo," C-2 Choppor informed. "They call those the C Robo Giants. Be careful, Chopper. These things are pretty strong. They're probably lurking around in the skies."

"Pfffft! We can handle them! Let's see how much HP it has." Chopper scanned the C Robo Giant with his communicator.

_"Oh! Chopper! I didn't realize you were using this!"_ Toadsmeth noticed._ "Sorry about the whole cannon thing. I accidentally had it on Cloudy Climbs. My mistake."_

"Just tell me what its stats are," Chopper suggested as he heard that it had 80 HP, 13 Attack, and its Defense was unknown.

"Wait, are you serious?!"

_"Hold on, I'm not done yet! There's a weak point inside its head. If you managed to get through there, you can practically destroy this thing easily. If you got something that can break into steel, then you can do it, but there's no such thing that can break it. I don't know what else to do…"_

"I'll try it out!" Chopper walked over to the giant robot and stomped on its head. He jumped up first and he came down at a fast pace. It was kind of like the same speed as the regular Jump and the Tornado Jump, but a little bit faster. This made the head on the C Robo cracked, revealing its robotic brain and leaving its defense at 0.

"No… How could you DO this?" the C Robo Giant asked. "My armor is invulnerable to every single thing in the world! Impossible!"

Bow floated over to the brain and she smacked it eight times. Afterward, the robot stepped on Chopper, who was able to guard the attack with no problem.

"OK, time to make my jump attack!" Chopper jumped up and stomped on the robot's head, taking 8 out of it. C-2 Choppor aimed at the C Robo Giant's brain and fired a blast, which made sparks fly everywhere. The robot held its brain in pain as it tried to step on Chopper but missed, so Chopper used his Jump to take another 8 out, which made the C Robo Giant scream.

"Stop it!" it cried.

"This is getting to be too much!" Bow shook her head as she smacked its brain to make it be quiet. "Sometimes I can't help but feel that its scream might try to leave us off guard.

Luckily for the C Robo Gaint, it was able to cover its brain with another armor layer fired missiles at Chopper.

"Heads up, Chopper!" Ghoster warned as he used his psychic to stop the missiles, while Chopper stomped on the robot's head to make its brain appear again.

"All right, here we go!" Ghoster used his psychic to make the three missiles hit the C Robo Giant to deal 8 damage, while it stepped on Chopper while is brain got hit by his jump attack.

"Grrrrgh! My brain… It hurts so much! Stop it this instant!" the C Robo Giant growled as Bow smacked the brain again.

"You were the one who started this fight," Bow mentioned. "First you want to destroy us, and now you want us to stop. That's a little hypocritical on your part."

Chopper stomped on the C Robo Giant's brain, while C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at the C Robo Giant's brain.

"We don't like to fight, but it's something we have to do in order to save the Mushroom Kingdom," C-2 Choppor said, feeling a little remorse. "So, we apologize for this."

C-2 Choppor fired the blast at the C Robo Giant, and it made him explode, giving Chopper 18 Star Points. It blew up and freed five Star Kids that were trapped inside. They all squealed as they flew away.

"While I felt sorry for the robot, my mission is to free the Star Kids..."

"All right, we better get moving," Chopper suggested as they headed down south to the next area, where they found some Puff Clouds on the big cloud. There was a sign to the left, so after beating the Puff Clouds, Chopper took a look at the sign.

"What's on there? What's on there? I wanna know! I wanna know!" Kayzee begged until Geno covered her mouth.

"Shhhh! Don't try to talk too loudly!" Geno shushed.

"Try to calm down… That's what you need to do." Bruce suggested.

"Just tell us what the sign says already," Yosho groaned.

"OK! I'm going to read it right now!" Chopper nodded as he checked the sign.

_Take this way to go to Lakitu Town. This place is the home to many Lakitus, and there's also a big temple in there!_

"A temple, you say? Maybe that can help us find Nimbus Land. I think we should head on over there to see what the place is like."

"That's a good idea! I hope these Lakitus aren't so dangerous!" Bruce hoped as everyone headed toward Lakitu Town.

* * *

**Lakitu Town-**

Upon entering the town, they could see a lot of friendly Lakitus flying around. Most of the Lakitus were talking to each other, while the others were selling things to each other, and some were even looking at the sun from a distance. One thing for sure was that this place was interesting.

"Wow, look at this place. It's like it's full of beauty and other things we don't really know about. This place is great! And who are those two over there looking at the sun?" Bruce asked, noticing a male Lakitu with sunglasses on a white cloud and a female Lakitu with orange hair and a cute, pink cloud.

"Wait, I remember those two!" Parakarry realized. "That's Lakilester and his girlfriend Lakilulu! I remember seeing them in Flower Fields! What are they doing here?"

"Maybe this is their home," Bow pondered. "I mean all of these Lakitus kind of show that this is their home. It would be a good idea if we could go say hi to them. How does that sound, Chopper?"

"We can do that. I wouldn't mind." Chopper shrugged as he walked over to Lakilester and Lakilulu. However, before he could speak, Yosho stepped up.

"Why, hello there, couple! I'm Yosho, and I'm from Yoshi's Island. I'm a lot different than other Yoshis, 'cause I'm awesome! And…"

Before Yosho could finish, Parakarry shoved him out of the way while Lakilester and Lakilulu turned around to see them.

"Hey! Parakarry! Bow! I haven't seen you in seven months!" Lakilester gaped. "What're you doing here?"

"We're looking for the Power Star in Nimbus Land," Parakarry explained. "We ended up coming here after acquiring the Diamond Shoes. Well, at least Chopper did."

"Who's Chopper? Is he the cute little pale green boy that's with you?" Lakilulu asked as Chopper waved to both of them.

"Why, yes! This is Chopper! And yes, he certainly is a cutie-pie, isn't that right?" Bow giggled as she pinched his cheek, making him a little irritated.

"I can't help but think that those two fit a little well together..." Lakilester trailed. "They're both green and spherical-shaped, but that's just me, though."

"She's my friend, but not my girlfriend…" Chopper groaned. "Anyway, what's going on around here? It seems so peaceful around these parts."

"Yes, that's what it's like. There's peace everywhere here…though I hope that king doesn't come back here." Lakilulu frowned. "King Lakilar just wants to make us do what he says, but he's not here right now, so we're trying to relax."

"Lakilar? But I thought he was destroyed! What could've possibly brought him back? He was the one who ripped poor Bloopi!" Kayzee gaped as she held on to Bloopi tight.

"Oh, yeah, him…" Koopla recalled. "That jerk who tried to take over Flower Plains. I thought he exploded! Something just doesn't make sense here! Don't you guys agree with me? I mean, he LIVED!"

"That's not right at all. He was destroyed when we saw him before." C-2 Choppor remembered. "Was it possible that Bowser managed to bring him back with the Star Rod? …Or did he come back because of Maquano?"

"Who's Maquano again?" Ghoster asked. "Is he the one that's Chopper's enemy? The weird demon knight on the screen when we battled Staris? I think that might be him."

"That was Maquano, Ghoster," Geno nodded. "Yes, he's the demon knight who has Staris under his control. But is this King Lakilar the one who had one of the Star Spirits captive?"

"He sure did!" Kayzee answered. "I wish we can find him and pummel him down to the ground, like he should be!"

"Who wanted to pummel me down now?"

When Kayzee turned around, she noticed King Lakilar in front of her.

"Hey! Who do you think you are trying to boss these Lakitus around? !" Mallow exclaimed, shaking a fist at the king. "Listen, you! We don't know how you came back, but we'll take care of you!"

"Oh great… He's got even more people with him. Three more to be exact." Lakilar groaned as he saw Kayzee and gulped. "Oh no… Not YOU! The one who destroyed me before! …Look, I'm not going to explain how I'm back, but I'm definitely not happy seeing you all here! I thought I was done with you…but I was WRONG! Fine… I'll do this the hard way."

"OK, we beat you before, and we can probably do it again! Just watch us!" Chopper got in his fighting stance, but Lakilulu tapped him on the shoulder.

"Here, drink this before you fight," Lakilulu gave Chopper a glass of pink lemonade, and when he drank it, his stats were fully recovered.

"Thanks, Lakilulu! That was REALLY good!"

"You go ahead and fight that king. If you managed to defeat him, then maybe you might be able to venture into the temple!" Lakilester explained. "That's what being a man is all about! Learning to defeat your enemies and defend yourself!"

Chopper nodded and turned back to King Lakilar. They already tattled him before, since he has the same attacks, but he got one different attack that would allow him to throw multiple Spinies. His Max HP is 140, his Attack is 12 and has 1 Defense. To start things off, Chopper stomped on King Lakilar's head. While his new shoes were powerful against him, he only did 6 damage.

"Agh! What kind of jump attack WAS that?!" Lakilar cringed. "That hurt A LOT! Then again, you probably got stronger while you were getting those Power Stars…"

"I know what to do!" Kayzee flew over to King Lakilar, which made him freaked out, leaving a couple of others confused.

"No no no no NO! Come on, why can't you just not do anything to me? I'll surrender if you attack me! That wouldn't be a good thing, would it?"

"Wow, you're not sounding like a king, you know," Koopla laughed. "Doesn't a king act strong against things? If so, you're really a poor excuse for a king."

"Yep, I think she's right on that one," Lakilester agreed. "I mean, afraid of a little girl? Ha ha ha! Oh, that's one for the book."

"Grrrrrr!" King Lakilar grit his teeth and took out a Spiny to be thrown at Lakilester and also Kayzee.

But before he could even pull it off, Kayzee giggled and began to look all innocent and adorable with her her Adoration ability, which would allow her to confuse or keep foes from attacking with her cuteness.

"Gah…! I just can't resist the cuteness! I just want to…look more!" Lakilar cringed as he tossed the Spiny up and ended up hitting himself. He didn't have Spinies drop down from him like before, though, but he took 12 damage from his own attack, which made Chopper smile.

"Now THAT worked! Time for some stomping!" Chopper began to use his Power Bounce, and after nine stomps, he jumped off of King Lakilar. Geno aimed at the king and used his Geno Beam to attack. King Lakilar's crown almost came off, but he was able to keep it on due to caring about his crown.

"You do NOT want to take my crown away!" Lakilar growled as he pulled out a Spiny and threw it at Chopper. Unfortunately, he missed his attack.

"Heh heh heh… This isn't as hard as I thought!" Chopper used his D-Down Jump to stomp on King Lakilar by piercing his defense to take 8 out of him.

"I might as well lower his defense," Ghoster stated as he made a Ghost Ball and hurled it at Lakilar, lowering his defense down to 0. Lakilar managed to throw a Spiny at Chopper. However, Lakilester was able to get rid of the Spiny by throwing it at the king.

"Whoa!" King Lakilar dodged the Spiny and guffawed. "How DARE you try to attack your king like that!? That's TREASON! Once this battle's over, I'll have you sentenced to death!"

"You can't do that! Why would you do that to my Lakilester?" Lakilulu asked.

"Darn it, Lakilulu! Quit embarrassing me right now!" Lakilester blushed. "Don't you remember? My name's not Lakilester! It's Spike! How come you never listen to me? …Though that's why you're so cute."

Chopper face palmed as he attacked with his Power Bounce, and since his defense was down, he did full damage to him. After ten stomps, he stopped, allowing Bow to float over to King Lakilar and use her Fan Smack to take 20 out of him.

"Geez... 20 damage." Parakarry gaped. "That's intense."

King Lakilar took out a giant Spiny, and he prepared himself to throw it. One thing for sure was that this looked like it would do double the damage his normal attacks would usually do.

"And I thought my Fan Smack would do a lot… This does not look good." Bow trailed as she was about to hide Chopper, but he stopped her.

"Not just yet," Chopper walked over to King Lakilar and used his Power Bounce to stomp on him nine times. "OK, NOW you can do it."

Bow nodded and used her Outta Sight, making the whole group invisible. Despite this, Lakilar threw the Spiny, and missed, while the heroes reappeared, with Chopper jumping on his head.

"What? How on earth did you avoid that attack? That's not right!" Lakilar gaped.

"I have my ways…" Chopper smirked as he whistled, letting Kayzee use her Heat Vision on Lakilar.

"Gah! You stupid little girl! I have no idea why you even left your sisters to go with this weirdo and his friends!"

"Because I want to help them!" Kayzee shouted. "That's what! If you don't like it, then too bad!"

"Careful now… We don't want to make things worse around here." Geno suggested as Kayzee slowly nodded while Lakilar was going to throw a Spiny at her.

"No!" Lakilester pulled out a Spiny, making Lakilulu shocked.

"Lakiester! What are you doing?" Lakilulu gasped.

"Helping them out. That's what I'm doing." Lakilester threw the Spiny at Lakilar, dealing 3 damage to him and knocking the Spiny away from him as well. His defense went back to normal, but it didn't matter to Chopper. He allowed himself to stomp on King Lakilar, while Mallow made a cloud fall on him.

"I wonder why yer not lettin' me do any of the fightin'," Yosho wondered. "I got somethin' cool on this guy!"

"Not now, Yosho…" Chopper trailed as he got hit by a Spiny, which knocked him down. He was able to get back up, but Kayzee flew right at the king and punched him off his cloud.

"Oof!" he dropped 32 Star Points, allowing Chopper to level up and upgrade his FP to 65. Afterward, King Lakilar got himself up and got back on his cloud while sweat dropping.

"Um… OK, I give up!" Lakilar begged. "I'm not letting myself explode like before, so you win for now!"

He began to fly away on his cloud, out of Lakitu Town, making everyone happy, but Yosho was disappointed that he didn't get his chance to fight.

"Now that we did that, I think we may have to go now, unfortunately," Chopper stated. "We need to get to Nimbus Land to find the Power Star."

"Nimbus Land? Well you can always go to the Temple of the Clouds, which is up ahead. Come on, we'll show you!" Lakilester assured as they began to follow the two Lakitus past some buildings and to a big white temple. It looked pretty big…for them at least.

"Nobody had gone in here because we're not allowed to," Lakilulu explained. "But, since you're not a Lakitu, I suppose you can go in this temple to find the way to Nimbus Land. ...But there's a problem. This place is very dangerous, and we're told that something dangerous lives in here. We don't know what exactly it is, but maybe you'll find out. I'm sure you can do it, because you managed to defeat King Lakilar. So… I wish luck to you all!"

"Sure thing!" Bruce nodded as they waved goodbye to the two Lakitus before Chopper hit the Heart Block. They looked at the entrance of the temple, and once Yosho opened the door, they all walked in.

* * *

**Lakilar's afraid of Kayzee. Yes, because he got beaten up by her. You're probably wondering how Lakilar came back! Well... I'm not going to tell you! :D *shot* Well anyway, next chapter begins the big temple place. It's pretty cool! And it even has its own boss!**


	79. The Temple of the Clouds

The inside of the temple was pretty big, and the walls were a light blue color with clouds painted on the walls. On the ceiling, there was a sun painted up there. The room was a round shape, and it had four pillars in the center of the room. The thing is, when there are pillars, which means there could possibly be an enemy lurking around.

"Wow, did these Lakitus make this place based on the sky?" Parakarry gawked. "If they did, they did a pretty good job on doing this. I wonder why they're not allowed to visit a nice temple like this. I don't see anything bad about it."

"I agree with you. Why would the Lakitus not want to come in here? It looks like a nice home for them!" Kayzee smiled as she began to fly around the room in the temple.

Chopper looked down at the ground and could see a picture of a cloud. The pillars were a gray color, which doesn't really seem to fit well with the walls and the ground.

"Hmmm…" he began to think for a moment, while everyone else looked confused when he walked over to one of the pillars.

"Chopper, what are you doing?" Geno asked. "If you plan on hitting one of those pillars, I really don't think that's going to help you with anything. There's nothing in them."

"Says you?" Chopper retorted as he whacked one of the pillars with his hammer and knocked it down. Inside was a delicious-looking kind of drink similar to syrup and jelly. It was called a Sweet Punch, which didn't appear to be a syrup-like item. However, it could recover 100 FP to him if he wanted.

Yosho began to smell the scent from the Sweet Punch, and it made him drool. "Oh man… That drink smells GOOD! Maybe I can just take some of that..."

Yosho slowly began to take it from Chopper's grasp, but Mallow slapped his arm away.

"Don't steal his drink," Mallow warned. "You don't even use items. He's the only one who actually NEEDS them in battle."

Chopper put away his Sweet Punch and saw a statue of a Lakitu move. It looked the same as a regular Lakitu, but it was a little bigger. It seemed to be holding a spear and a shield. One thing for sure was that it didn't look friendly.

"Heads up, people!" Chopper alerted. "There's a Lakitu with a spear and shield that looks like it wants to attack us!"

"Oh, then we better get ready then!" Koopla said, cracking her knuckles. She was the first to strike the Lakitu Statue. It had 2 defense, so it only did 3 damage. Chopper decided to smash it with an Ice Smash attack, which only cost 1 FP. This made the Lakitu statue become frozen. Oh, and if you don't know what the stats are on this thing, it has 50 HP, an Attack of 11, and a Defense of 2.

Since the statue was frozen, Chopper walked over to it to use his D-Down Pound to deal some more damage. C-2 Choppor followed up with a blast from his gun at the statue. They could only attack one more time before the statue was thawed out…or unless they use a fire attack on it, so Chopper decided to use his D-Down Jump on it, but he unfortunately broke through the ice. However, he actually made a hole right through the statue, to their surprise.

"Let me test out my Power Smack," Bow smirked as she floated over to the Lakitu Statue and used her Power Smack, which ignored the defense on the Lakitu Statue and dealt 10 damage.

The Lakitu Statue thawed out and threw a stone Spiny at Chopper, who was able to guard it by using his hammer. He finished the Lakitu Statue off with his hammer, giving him 14 Star Points. The statue dropped some coins and some hearts and Chopper grabbed the hearts to recover some HP. They noticed the door up ahead wasn't blocked by metal bars.

"Well, what do you know? We can move on to the next area! This is a good thing, isn't it?" Ghoster wondered.

"Yes, it is indeed a good thing," C-2 Choppor nodded. "I just wonder what's going to be up ahead."

"We'll find out when we get there," Bow assured. "We can't just sit here and do nothing, so let's just get going already."

Chopper walked over to the door, and it opened. When they went into the next room, they found some stairs going up to the northeast to a high ledge in the room. They could see a gap at the top between the staircase and a cloud, and there was a gap between the cloud and where there was a locked door. Also, there were three tall pillars. Not only that, but there were some statues of some Goombas and Koopas around as well. The Goombas have 18, and the Koopas have 22 HP.

"Let's see what's on that pedestal," Chopper suggested. "Yosho, I'm going to need you to help me up there."

"So now ya need my help? Well it's about time! Yup, I'm gonna help ya this time!" Yosho grinned as Chopper got on his back and jumped onto the pillar. Chopper used his Rocket Jump to make the pillar go all the way down to the ground like a nail with ease.

"Geez... That's powerful." Bruce gawked.

"OK, now we gotta do it on the other two," Chopper said as Yosho helped him get the other two pillars and used his Rocket Jump to make them go down to the ground. This made a chest appear in the middle, and when Chopper opened the chest, it contained a Temple Key, which was a light blue color with the hole on the key shaped like a cloud.

_"Wait a minute… Why didn't I think of this before?"_ Yosho thought._ "Chopper's a kid, and so is Kayzee. I could use one of 'em to show the ladies that I love children, and they'll probably be after me! Yeah! That's a PERFECT idea for me! I'll be a ladies man in no time!"_

"OK, let's go up the stairs now. You have the key, so it's time to get out of this room." Koopla suggested. A Koopa Statue tried to attack her, but she managed to kick it and send it flying away, destroying it.

"We better get going then," Geno suggested. They went up the stairs and saw the gap between them and the cloud.

"I guess I better give you all a hand," Parakarry grabbed Chopper's arms and flew over to the cloud. He was about to help Chopper again, but he told him to stop.

"Hold on a minute…" Chopper was able to jump over to the locked door and unlocked it. Afterward, he told everyone else to follow him to the next room, which had a symbol of a cloud on the ground. There was also a crack in the wall, giving Bruce and idea.

"Yeah! I'm up this time!" Bruce cheered.

"OK!" Chopper picked up Bruce and him toward the door. He was able to blow it up and make a hole in the wall. Everyone headed on through and found a small hallway with some stone enemies called Old Clefts that have a defense of 6. But, Bruce's Bomb attacks could take care of them.

"Let's be careful now…" Chopper walked through the hallway to find a door up ahead being blocked by rubble.

"I'll take care of this," Geno declared as he used his Geno Beam on the rubble to destroy it. It allowed everyone to head through to the next room, which had staircase going up to two rooms. One to the north and one to the south. There were some Stone Bob-ombs that were much stronger than the other stone enemies they encountered.

"So this is where all of those statues are coming from," Bow realized. "I wonder why they came down from all the way up here to other places, like that Flower Caverns place, and also on that one island that we saw that Dayzee Statue."

"That is something we'll never find out, unfortunately…" Mallow trailed. "I know, it's a shame. Is this why the Lakitus don't go into this temple? I can understand why not."

"Let's take the north way first!" Kayzee suggested as she flew up the stairs and to the north door. Chopper shrugged and went up the stairs to the north door with his friends. There, they found a room with a bottomless pit and also all the way across to the north was an Upgrade Block.

"Hmm… This might be tough..." Chopper could see that a cloud could be made and two pillars across from each other. With two red ! switches. Only Koopla could hit those.

"I could help you over here…but I don't think it sounds good," Kayzee said. "I think you know what you're doing."

"Mallow, you should make a cloud so it can circle around here. Two to be exact." Chopper suggested.

"That sounds like a good idea. Do it, Mallow." C-2 Choppor agreed.

"OK!" Mallow made two clouds, and they began to circle the room. Chopper got on a cloud, and Mallow did as well. Chopper told Koopla to get on, so she did that.

"I need to get you to hit those switches…but it may not be so easy," Chopper informed.

"Understood," Koopla got in her shell, and Chopper managed to kick her at both switches. It made a chest appear by the Upgrade Block.

"OK! We got it!" Chopper jumped over to the other side and opened the chest. It contained a Temple Key. Afterward, he jumped under the Upgrade Block and pondered for a minute.

"I guess I'll go with…Kayzee!" Chopper said as Kayzee flew over to the platform and felt power going into her. She became Diamond-Ranked and was now able to use the move Petal Scream, which allowed her to scream and make a punch of petals attack everything around.

"Thank you, Chopper!" Kayzee thanked as she gave him a light hug.

"...The hug was a little unnecessary, but I won't complain."

They headed back into the other room and went to the door to the south. In that room, they saw it was big and round, and on the walls there was a spiral staircase going down. However, the green Embers called Phantom Embers were what they had to worry about when they were jumping out of the bottomless pits.

"We're almost down!" Bruce noted as they made it down to the door that had a locked door. Chopper got some Star Points after fighting a few enemies, so he leveled up and got 39 BP.

"We're ready whenever you are, Chopper," Ghoster said as Chopper unlocked the door with the Temple Key. Everyone headed on through the door into the next room. Looking around in the room they could see that there was nothing around except for stairs going down to a pathway to the left and stairs going down to the right, and so on.

"Look at all of these stairs. This room is REALLY big. I don't know how these people did this, but it must've taken 'em a LONG time to do it." Yosho commented.

"I think it took them over a hundred years to make," Geno recalled. "Yes, I know this because as a Star, since I've been around for a VERY long time. I never saw what was inside of this place, but I have known that the Lakitus took a long time to make this place. It wasn't very easy for them."

"Really? Why did it take them over a hundred years to make?" Kayzee asked. "Was it because they needed to get it up on the clouds or something like that?"

"Oh, you certainly do have a sense of humor, don't you? The real reason it took them so long was because they didn't have much of the technology back then. They had to keep rebuilding the place because it wouldn't stand up to the storms around here. It kept falling apart, resulting in the Lakitus having to rebuild it. Many have died while making it, and when it was finally done, they put statues in here. But, once Bowser stole the Star Rod, the statues came to life, and they began to serve him, listening to ever order he gave. That's why the Lakitus cannot go in here, because those statues might attack them. I apologize if I didn't tell you guys earlier..."

"You don't need to apologize, Geno," Mallow assured. "We're taking care of these statues so they don't do anything evil or any of that other bad stuff."

"Yes, that's true. Did I forget to mention that the Lakitus needed to wear hats like these?" Geno took Bruce's hat and he showed it to everyone else.

"Hey! Give me back my hat, Geno! I need that thing!" Bruce cried. "It makes me look a lot different than the other Bob-ombs! It's for knowing that if Bombette wants to come back to me, she'll know who I am!"

"You really think I was going to keep your hat? I already have a hat, and I honestly think it's better on my head." Geno smirked as he gave Bruce's hat back to him by putting it on his head. However, it didn't look right on him.

"I don't think your hat looks right on you right now. I'll fix that." Koopla fixed Bruce's hat by putting it on how it was like before. Bruce would've done this, but he had no arms to help him.

"Thanks, Koopla," Bruce thanked as Koopla nodded to him. Now that Geno was finished explaining, Ghoster took a look down at the bottom. There weren't any Bullet Bills or anything, but there sure were some enemies waiting to attack.

"Ooh… We might wanna be careful." Ghoster warned. "It doesn't look so safe down there. We gotta be VERY careful down there, or else there's gonna be a big brawl."

"What do you mean a big brawl?" Bow looked down, and her eyes widened. "Oh, now I see… But I can probably get us to pass by them with my Outta Sight. They won't see us then."

"Yes, but we'll need some kind of guinea pig..." Geno pondered. "Hey, Choppor! We need a guinea pig!"

"A guinea pig? I'm not going down there to distract those statues." C-2 Choppor denied. "Sorry, but that's not my thing, Ghoster.

"You want to use a guinea pig? Why would you have someone sacrifice their life so everyone else can go and get away?" Parakarry asked,

"No, I mean a REAL guinea pig!" Ghoster explained. "I want you to give me a guinea pig so the statues will chase after it! I mean, statues' weaknesses are GUINEA PIGS for god's sake!"

"Fine," C-2 Choppor replied as his hatch opened up and out a guinea pig. It didn't appear to be dead. It had oxygen that C-2 Choppor provided so it wouldn't die.

"I find it a coincidence that we have a guinea pig with us..." Yosho trailed.

"Umm… Out of curiosity, what are you going to do with that guinea pig?" Chopper asked before Ghoster bonkedChopper in the head to get him to be quiet. He floated down the path to go down the stairs. Chopper shrugged and began to head on down with his friends following. After going down the stairs, Ghoster let the guinea pig go, and it began to move to the pathway to the left. The statue enemies saw it and began to chase after the guinea pig.

"Wow, that actually worked. How do you know that would work on the statues?"

"I'm a prankster, so I know a lot of things on humor!" the guinea pig went into a small hole, and the statues all got destroyed. "Haw haw haw! Oh, that was great!"

"I never expected that. Well at least we can keep on going now since that's over with." Bow sighed as she floated over to the door at the bottom of the room and opened it. With that they all headed on through. The room they found had a hallway leading up to a locked door. However, there was a door right by that one to the north. Defeating the Bob-omb Statues on their way, they went to the door that wasn't locked.

"Whoa… This isn't good." Mallow gulped as he saw in the next room a path going up, right, down, right, and up to a chest. The thing was, there were spikes that popped up. It looked like this was a part of Bow.

"OK, I'm going to need your help to get to that chest, Bow," Chopper said as Bow nodded. They began to take the path by turning invisible, taking a few steps before they came back up. After getting past that, Chopper opened the chest to get a Temple Key. Now Bow had to take Chopper all the way back out of the spiked area.

"You know, I only wished if I was able to move while being invisible. I would seriously love that to happen."

"I wish that could happen too, but blame… Actually, I don't know who to blame. I don't know why I don't move, but oh well." Bow shrugged as they made it out of the room, and Chopper unlocked the lock on the door with the key, allowing them to move on. Up ahead, they found water, but the thing was, the water was poisonous. There was also a pillar, a platform and a door.

"Oh, great… This isn't good." Chopper gulped. "How are we supposed to get through here? Wait… Kayzee can help us!"

"Oh, cool!" Kayzee cheered as she grabbed Chopper and flew him over to the pillar sticking up from the water. He knew a rocket jump was needed for this.

"OK, here it goes!" Chopper used his Rocket Jump to make the pillar go down and saw the water drain out of the room. The thing was that the door on the platform by the wall where there wasn't anything appeared.

Not like this was a problem, though. Now Yosho could help Chopper get up.

"Oh, finally! I get to do some helpin' here!" Yosho smiled. "Listen, Chopper… When we make it to Nimbus Land, an' we see that queen, I wanna tell her that ya belong to me. How does that sound? Good? OK, then it's a deal!"

"I'm not going to do that," Chopper retorted. "Valentina is a villain, and you remember what happened on Nightmare Road. That ghost lady was EVIL!"

"Oh, I remember that. But she was smokin' hot! …Of course it's true she was evil. Yep, indeed."

"Yosho, trust me. If you're going to get a girlfriend, it's not an easy thing to have one." Ghoster advised. "I mean you got a lot of responsibilities, and she might make you BUY a lot of stuff. I had one before, and it wasn't good, so I broke up with her. Turns out she only dated me just so I could buy her stuff. So, that's why having a girlfriend can be a problem, Yosho. And make sure Bow doesn't force you to do things, Chopper."

"Hey!" Chopper shouted as he got on Yosho and jumped up onto the platform to get to the door. "Bow's not my girlfriend!"

Everyone else got up as well and went into the door to find nothing around. There was a door to the north on a platform, but they could only see a bottomless pit down below. Ghoster began to ponder for a minute.

"Aha! I got it!" he used his Ghost Vision and found some floating clouds. Chopper jumped on the clouds, some he needed to use Parakarry for, and they got to the door to the north and entered it. The next room was pretty dark, so C-2 Choppor had to turn on his light visors. They didn't find much around, but the room was round and medium-sized. It looked like C-2 Choppor was needed in this room.

"Hold on, I'm getting something else here…" C-2 Choppor found three red ! switches on the walls on the cloud paintings. He began to scan all three of them so he can fire a blast at them.

"Oh, I see what you're doing. Go for it, Choppor!" Chopper agreed as C-2 Choppor fired three blasts at the switches, making the door open up on its own so they could head through the doorway. When they walked over to it, they noticed it was getting hotter.

"Why does it feel like it's hotter in the next room?" Koopla asked.

They found out in the next room that there was lava. No, not for them to cross, but they could see a big door up ahead and also a Save Block and a Heart Block. They were also on a bridge made of clouds and could see below them lava.

"Holy… Since when is there lava in a temple with clouds?" Bruce questioned. "This doesn't fit at all! We gotta see what's going on over in the next room."

"My point exactly," Chopper agreed as he ran across the clouds to go to the door. He hit the Heart Block and Save Block first before going in.

"Wow, we managed to get through this temple rather quick!" Mallow gaped. "How come there are never things like this in the other places we've been in?"

"The Lakitus aren't allowed in here, but we've made it this far. I don't know what's up with the lava, but I can't stay here for so much longer." Geno informed. "I'm made of wood, you see, and if I'm in a warmer place, then…it wouldn't be so good for me."

"Oh, that's not good. Then we shouldn't waste our time in this room. We better go into the next room FAST!" Chopper quickly opened the big door, and they all headed on through.

* * *

**Next room-**

Once all eleven heroes went through the big door into the next room, they didn't find any lava around. They can see on the ground though…there's a symbol of…Bowser? Yes, this is odd, because they never saw a Bowser symbol anywhere else in the Temple of the Clouds. Everyone looked confused by this, but they can see that there was a light coming from the upper right. There were two pillars with torches and a red rug leading to what was between the two torches. Everyone looked rather surprised when they saw what was on a throne made out of stone and someone else made of stone.

"Guys… What's a statue of BOWSER doing in this temple? !" Chopper exclaimed. "Is this really the reason why the Lakitus can't come into this temple? If that's true, then this isn't a good thing at all. I didn't know that they put up a statue of him here!"

"Yer sayin' that someone broke into the temple to put THIS piece of crap on a throne statue? Yer kiddin' me!" Yosho gaped. "We don't need any Bowser statues in this temple! It's goin' to make things worse! I say we destroy it!"

"That is…actually a really good idea!" Parakarry agreed. "For once you said something that we can all agree with, Yosho. Not bad."

"Yes, that's true. That's NOT a stupid thing to do." Koopla nodded. "Destroying the statue is not a bad idea at all, Yosho. I wish you could be more like that and not like how you usually are. You know what I mean, right?"

"Er… No?" Yosho noticed some of the fruits were slipping from his jacket and tried to get them back in. Only one stayed out and landed in front of Mallow.

"Hmm… Maybe just one…" Mallow opened his mouth to take a bite, but C-2 Choppor took it from him, shaking his head. He decided to put it in his so-called "juicer".

"Out of curiosity… What's that fruit going to be used for?" Geno asked. "You never told us why you're holding onto some of it."

"I can't tell right now," C-2 Choppor replied. "You'll see at a later time, Geno. I'm saving this for something…special. Yes, a special thing for a certain someone…that we could possibly see."

"Are you planning on using that on that Queen Valentina person?" Bow wondered. "If so… I like that idea."

Bruce looked at everything else around the room. It seemed like things weren't changed. "Whatever happened to the clouds around here? Shouldn't they be here?"

"It looks weird…" Kayzee flew over to the statue and stuck her tongue out at it.

"I have no idea, Bruce," Ghoster shrugged. "But that statue of Bowser really looks ugly. Yep, this Koopa King even looked ugly to begin with! Haw haw haw!"

"Oh, you're saying I'm ugly, you stupid ghost?"

Ghoster stopped laughing and saw Bowser right by the statue of himself on his Koopa Clown Car, making everyone gape.

"Bowser? What are you doing here!?" Chopper exclaimed as he and his friends got in their fighting stances.

"Gwa ha ha ha! Surprised to see me here, Chopper?" Bowser cackled. "I knew it was a good idea coming here! Sorry, Chopper, but you won't be getting that sixth Power Star. Not on my watch, you are!"

"What are you going to throw at us? I can literally take on anything you throw at me! Try anything you want! You don't have the Star Rod anymore, so we can probably beat you!"

"I don't need that thing anymore. Kammy Koopa is making a new spell that will allow me to transform into something even stronger than I was when we battled over Peach's Castle! I will TRULY become invincible, and then I will take my Peach back! …But first, you need to be out of the picture."

"We'll take you on, Bowser. You don't stand a chance against us." Geno scoffed.

"Bwa ha ha ha! _I'm_ not the one who's going to be battling!" Bowser grinned. "I have the taken care of already! My statue will fight you instead! Go on ahead, introduce yourself!"

The Bowser Statue got off the throne and jumped in front of Chopper, making him gawk.

"This thing is alive like the others?" Kayzee gasped.

"Oh crap… Now we need another guinea pig!" Ghoster cried. "Choppor! Give me another guinea pig!"

"I don't have anymore guinea pigs, Ghoster," C-2 Choppor informed. "That was the ONLY one I had…"

"Enough with the guinea pigs already!" Koopla snapped. "We gotta focus on taking out this…statue of Bowser! This thing might even crush us!"

"You bet it will!" Bowser declared. "I don't need to fight you now. I'll destroy you once I become the strongest living being in the Mushroom Kingdom! Kammy just needs to complete that spell before I can become even stronger. You'll see my new power when that time comex! But for now, I'm outta here! You make sure that they go down, statue of me!"

Bowser left the temple by going through the smashed wall. The eleven were left with fighting against the statue.

**Tattle: **_That's a Bowser Statue. This thing is a lot stronger than the other statues that you've seen in the place. Max HP: 170, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 2. This thing does not look like a pushover. He seems like the normal Bowser! …But he can't breathe fire or poison you. All he can do is punch you, or even stomp on you. Oh, and he can make an earthquake, so you better be careful when fighting this statue. Did Bowser say he's getting a spell ready to make him unstoppable? That's not good…_

Chopper started off with a Power Bounce to let him stomp on the statue eleven times. He was able to do 12 damage to the statue, while C-2 Choppor aimed at the statue and fired a blast, making them already do 20 damage to the statue. The Bowser Statue walked over to Chopper and stomped on him. Thankfully, he was able to guard this attack with no problem at all.

"Hmmm…" Chopper decided to be Water Chopper and spewed out water at the Bowser Statue - which only did 6 damage. "Aw, I was hoping that it would do something…since water can really do something to something made of stone."

"I'll just attack it," Bow decided as she flew over to the statue and used her Power Smack to take 10 HP out of it. The statue punched Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack, allowing Chopper to perform a Water Spin attack on it, which did more damage than his regular water attack.

Following up, Yosho laid an egg and threw it at the statue, leaving it with only 120 HP left. The Bowser Statue punched Chopper and sent him flying. He quickly shook his head and shot some more water at the statue, while Geno began to charge up his Geno Beam and fired it at the Bowser Statue.

"We're nearly halfway there..." Geno trailed.

The Bowser Statue began to pant, but it got in its shell and tried to attack both Chopper and Geno. Mallow was able to pull them both out of the way so they wouldn't get hurt. The statue stopped and noticed he missed.

"HA!" Chopper laughed at the statue and used his D-Down Pound, following up with Mallow's Falling Cloud attack. The Bowser Statue slowly stomped over to Chopper. It turned around, but when it was about to jump on Chopper, it attacked with its tail, sending him flying toward the door.

"Oof!" Chopper hit the wall, but he was able to get off the wall and land a D-Down Jump on the statue, making a hole through Bowser's precious statue. Kayzee flew right toward the Bowser Statue and used her Heat Vision to deal 8 damage.

"Geez... This thing can sure take my Heat Vision!" Kayzee noticed.

The Bowser Statue stepped back a little and pointed at Chopper, which made a lot of Goomba Statues charge at Chopper. He tried to jump over a lot of them, but he got hit by two of them, taking 4 damage. Chopper was able to jump towards the Bowser Statue and brought his hammer down on its head with a D-Down Pound to deal 8 damage.

Bow used her Power Smack on the Bowser Statue to bring it down to 60 HP, so they have a chance of taking it out before the statue ended up being victorious. Unfortunately, Chopper's HP was a little low.

The Bowser Statue walked over to Chopper to punch him, but Chopper noticed there was something on the ground.

"Hey, it's a coin!" Chopper bent down to get it, and the Bowser Statue ended up tripping over Chopper, leaving it to be attacked.

"Excuse me for a moment…" Chopper took out a Jelly Ultra and recovered 50 HP and 50 FP. While he ate it, Mallow used his Thunderbolt to attack the Bowser Statue.

"That took care of him! He was pretty easy!" Mallow smirked until he noticed the Bowser statue get in its shell and go after Chopper.

"Chopper! Look out!" Bruce shouted. Chopper turned around and got hit by the statue, knocking away his ability.

"Oh, NOW you've done it!" Chopper noticed a blue headband that was left on the ground. He decided to inhale it, and when he swallowed it, he got himself a blue bandanna, and his pale green skin became a little tanner. He had become Suplex Chopper, which is similar to Fighter, except he could throw enemies around. It's like a combination of the Throw ability from the Kirby games and Suplex/Backdrop from Kirby's Adventure and Kirby Super Star.

The Bowser Statue looked blank, but it fired a rock from its mouth. Chopper was able to grab it and jump up toward the statue and brought it down on its head, which pierced through its defense.

"Interesting… You've become Suplex Chopper. That's…good." Geno commented as he used his Geno Blast to summon light energy to come down at the Bowser Statue, dealing 8 damage. The Bowser Statue fired another rock from his mouth at Chopper, but instead of getting hit, he managed to grab the rock. He smirked when he grabbed it.

"All righty! Let's do this again, I guess!" Chopper brought the rock down on the Bowser Statue's head, leaving the statue to be cracked.

"It's starting to get cracked a little… This thing is almost beaten." C-2 Choppor informed as he fired a blast at the statue, making it cracked even more. The statue was certainly not happy. It was able to get in its shell and ram into Chopper, knocking him back, taking 12 away from him. Kayzee helped Chopper from hitting the wall again, which did have a mark on it from Chopper hitting it before.

"Thanks, Kayzee! Now to get it for good this time!" Chopper managed to grab the Bowser Statue and gave it a good punch, knocking it back. "Since when did I learn to punch like that? Wait, it's the ability I have. That's what it is."

"Now it's my turn!" Bruce walked toward the statue with his fuse lit up andblew up right in front of it, making it looked even more cracked than before. This thing was almost done for, leaving the Bowser Statue enraged as it fired rocks at Chopper. He got hit by one, which was able to do 4 damage, but Chopper grabbed the second rock and jumped toward the statue.

"This'll do it for sure!" Chopper brought the rock down on the Bowser Statue and destroyed it, leaving Chopper with 36 Star Points.

"Wow, we managed to defeat the Bowser Statue! That wasn't so bad!" Yosho grinned.

"Indeed. But now we need to go to Nimbus Land." Chopper reminded. "I think we're at the end of the temple, and that hole in the wall by the corner MUST be the way to go to Nimbus Land. ...But I wanna heal up first."

After hitting the Heart Block and Save Block in the other room, Chopper was ready to leave the Temple of the Clouds. Everyone headed out of the temple to hopefully find Nimbus Land.


	80. Taking a Trip on Stormy Way

Chopper and his friends were out of the temple and could see some dark gray clouds, indicating that they were in a thunderstorm area. Storm clouds were floating all around, and they could even shoot lightning if one touches it and could take 10 damage from it. Because of the wind, people had to hold onto something nearby.

"Man... I have a feeling this will be difficult..." Chopper groaned.

* * *

**Inside a castle-**

Inside the throne room, where there were three thrones - with one being a small one, a woman with a white dress and a green parrot on her football-shaped head carrying a martini glass was sitting on the middle throne. She sighed as she took a sip from her martini.

"Sigh… Things always appear to be the same." the woman grumbled. "Then again, this is part of my plan. With King and Queen Nimbus out of the way, I can finally tell everyone that I have Prince Mallow with me! And I knew King Bowser would be able to have me aid him. He's lucky that I am truly his strongest minion as of now. Now where is that stupid bird? I need him right now."

The door facing her across the room opened and Joe the fat Paratroopa came in, running over to the woman, despite being exhausted.

"Queen Valentina! Queen Valentina! I've got good news for you! They're VERY good!" Joe called out as he nearly fell over beside her.

"What do you want, Joe? I'm kind of busy right now." Valentina groaned. "I'm looking for that stupid bird right now, so this is NOT a good time to be bothering me! But, since he's not here, I'll let you bow down to me again like before—unless there is something else you're trying to tell me."

"You know… That king you were looking for, right? Well… He's arrived at long last! You said two months ago to me that I should stay at Cloudy Climb to wait for your king, and two months have passed. Yup, your new king has arrived! He's some kind of Yoshi with sunglasses and a black jacket. I don't think he looks like a king, but he said he really is one."

Valentina got off her throne and slapped him in the face. It even left a big red mark on his face as it became swollen.

"You IDIOT! I didn't say a king would be coming here! I told you to stay there about two days ago to be on the lookout for that kid name Chopper! You know, the pale green kid with the two antennas!? Don't tell me you forgot about him already!"

"Er… No? I think I remember seeing him with your king that's coming here…" Joe trailed. "I don't remember what he said though. Before coming here, I saw him walk out of a smashed wall in the Temple of the Clouds."

Valentina slapped Joe on the other side of his face, making his face look swollen. One thing for sure was that she did not treat her minions well.

"Why didn't you stop him!" Valentina roared. "You're almost as stupid as that bird! Go back to where you saw Chopper and _**STOP**_ him! I can't let him have that Power Star, and if he ends up making it all the way here, then there's going to be some BIG problems… He might even find out about Prince Mallow AND King and Queen Nimbus! Go out there now!"

"Of course, my queen!" Joe bowed down to her and then he got up and left. He shed a tear from the pain that he had to deal with as he left the room.

"He better learn his place a little more..."

* * *

**Stormy Way-**

Back with the heroes, Chopper looked at the sky and saw that it looked a little darker than before. Perhaps it was because of the storm?

"Man, how are we going to get through these clouds when they can electrocute us? This doesn't feel like it's going to be easy…" Chopper trailed as his antennas were blowing through the wind.

"If only we had some kind of electricity, we'd be able to get through this place and not be harmed by the storm clouds." Mallow frowned. "This isn't going to be so great. We gotta go through MORE of this."

"Aw c'mon! Yer just afraid of a little lightning? Quit bein' babies an' watch how a REAL man does this!" Yosho declared as he walked over to a storm cloud.

"Yosho, I don't think that's really a good idea," Koopla warned, attempting to stop him. "You can't touch lightning, or else you'll die. Barely ANYONE survives lightning…"

"Pfffffft! Like I need to listen to you! Watch this!" Yosho scoffed as he jumped onto a storm cloud, but then he got electrocuted and getting sent back onto the platform everyone was on with an electric ball of energy on him.

"Wow, he actually survived that," Bruce gasped. "I guess he's considered to be lucky, right?"

"Hmmmmm... You know, that electric ball might come in handy..." Chopper trailed as he opened his mouth an inhaled the electric ball on Yosho.

"Whoa! Don't inhale me, kid!" Yosho gulped as he tried to hold onto the cloud. However, only the electric ball went into Chopper's mouth.

"Whoa, what're you doing, Chopper? Don't eat something made of electricity!" Geno cried. "It'll… Hold on a moment. That could be a key to something…"

Chopper looked confused at Geno, but he shrugged and swallowed the electric ball. He now had a spiked golden crown with a greenish-blue gem in the center and large plumes of green lightning in the crown. He also now got some static electricity around the plumes of lightning.

"Hey, did I just become Plasma Chopper? I think I just did!" Chopper gaped. "I can technically shoot plasma shots AND surround myself with an electric shield!"

"Interesting… You just became…Electric Chopper!" Parakarry declared. "Isn't that right? You seem to have that electricity coming from you, so you MUST be Electric Chopper!"

"He said that he's Plasma, not Electric," Bow corrected. "Don't you remember, Parakarry?"

"Oh, pardon me! My apologies, Chopper. I thought you looked more electric than plasma." Parakarry shook Chopper's hand to forgive him, but he got an electrical shock from him. "Ow! Whoa, that certainly was shocking…"

"I guess you can say you were pretty shocked by that, huh?" Chopper smirked.

"Ugh... More bad puns..." Koopla groaned as she face palmed. "Just what we needed from you..."

"When do you ever stop?!" Bruce cried.

"I really do like that crown that you have on. It makes you look more…in a royal family." Bow smiled as she reached over to Chopper. Unfortunately, this left her with a shock, messing her bows up a bit. "Ack! I shouldn't touch you with that ability!"

"Then I should keep it on forever," Chopper smirked as Ghoster began to laugh.

"Oh, god! Now THIS is my favorite ability Chopper has on." Ghoster laughed. "Everyone gets shocked from touching him! It's the best!"

"OK then… Let's see how you like it!" Bow pushed Ghoster into Chopper, making him get electrocuted. Afterward, she adjusted her bows.

"Everyone quit messing around right now. We need to get going. Here." C-2 Choppor took out some rubber gloves and boots for everyone except for Chopper and himself.

"Why do we need these?" Kayzee asked. "I can just easily fly through this storm without getting electrocuted."

"You won't be affected by electricity when you've got rubber on. Trust me, it works perfectly fine. I'm asking you to put these on if you don't want to get hurt." C-2 Choppor handed Kayzee rubber gloves and boots, and she put them on. After everyone else got theirs on, they jumped onto the cloud. The electricity seemed to go to Chopper for some reason and had complete control over the cloud.

"Oh, this is pretty cool! Use the cloud to help us through here, Chopper!" Mallow suggested. Chopper moved to the right, and so did the storm cloud. They were able to get to a normal cloud and they jumped off.

"That wasn't so bad! But I think there's a lot more…" Chopper trailed as they headed into the next area to see a storm cloud that could go downward and another one below moving to the left and right. Chopper jumped on the cloud, and it began to go downward. Everyone else got on it except for the ones who could fly. They jumped on the cloud coming to the left next and got off the cloud to go into the next area, which had a big cloud to lead to the next area. But, there sparks from lightning that appeared. They were a yellow color, and one would get electrocuted if they were touched.

"Uh oh… We better be careful with these guys. They do NOT look so friendly." Ghoster noted.

"Relax! I got this!" Chopper assured as he jumped on two Electronoids and took them out. There was also something hidden in the area that C-2 Choppor noticed, so Chopper hit the yellow ? block and got an Ultra Shroom, which he quickly put away.

In the next area, there was a cloud up ahead that was too far for them to reach. Luckily, Mallow could summon clouds, so he summoned a storm cloud so they could travel over there. Down below they could see actual land instead of the ocean, like at Cloudy Climbs. It actually looked like Frog Swamp. Mallow began to recall seeing that place, and his "Grandpa".

"Oh man… Seeing that place reminds me of when I thought I was a tadpole..." Mallow trailed sadly. "I still don't know where my parents are right now. Where could they possibly be right now?"

"Don't worry, Mallow. Perhaps we'll find them before this whole quest is over." Geno assured. "You seem to know how to make the weather, right?"

"Why, yes. I can do that."

"Yeah, that's true! It's like you're a cloud person!" Chopper added. "This place has clouds, so maybe this place is your home!"

"Hmm… Maybe you're right, Chopper, but I need to see my kind of people first before believing that this is truly my home."

"You do look like a cloud, so it would make sense for you to live here," Parakarry said. "Hold on, we're getting over to the cloud!"

They jumped off the storm cloud and it disappeared afterward. They saw more obstacles up ahead like platforming and Electronoids.

"Well now… This looks like there's a lot more challenging things ahead. So… Are you guys ready to do this?" Chopper asked.

Everyone nodded, and all eleven of them began to head to the next area of the stormy cloud place, where there were a lot of Electronoids and storm clouds to help lead them to the next area. The pathway was a little higher up on another cloud, and it would require a lot to get to it.

"Looks like we got a lot of things ahead of us here, huh?" Geno sighed. "Boy, it sure looks…dangerous in this area. But I'm sure we can make it through. We've managed to get through A LOT of stuff in this stormy place. I have a feeling that this one will be no exception either. Don't you all agree with me?"

"We've made it through every single place we were in before, so this shouldn't be too bad," Kayzee assured. "Of course I can always help if necessary, right Chopper?"

"Yeah, you can help," Chopper nodded. "But be careful not to touch me. I've got electricity on me right now, and you can get electrocuted, though you got the gloves on..."

An Electronoid floated over to Yosho, which made him raise an eyebrow upon looking at it. The Electronoid attacked Yosho, but the electricity didn't affect him.

"HA! Ya think that's goin' to affect me, ya stupid thing? Take this!" Yosho punched the Electronoid, but it just got back up.

"A punch isn't going to take out those things," C-2 Choppor noted. "It takes A LOT to defeat them. They've got 28 HP, just to let you know."

"Oh yeah?" Yosho stuck his long tongue out to get the Electronoid, but his tongue got electrocuted, and part of his body got electrocuted as well.

"I'll take care of it," Chopper walked over to the Electronoid and punched it with an ince punch. He wasn't harmed by the electricity because he already got had electric on him.

"Gah! That hurt my tongue! Gimme somethin' that can heal it!" Yosho cried as C-2 Choppor aimed at Yosho's tongue and fired some kind of juicy spray at his tongue. Suddenly, his tongue wasn't swollen.

"Whoa… Choppor, is THAT why you put those fruit in that juicer thing of yours?" Mallow gasped.

"No, it was for a different reason. This can just shrink things, which helped heal Yosho's tongue ." C-2 Choppor informed. "Just don't do anything like that anymore, Yosho. That was…stupid."

"Well I guess that can help us... Let's just continue on." Koopla suggested. Everyone agreed move on and walked to a storm cloud and jumped on it. It cloud moved up and got near a cloud above them to the left and jumped off of the cloud.

"Man, I LOVE these things!" Chopper smiled as he jumped up to the cloud. "They can help me make a jump like that, which is VERY nice!"

"You're lucky you've got those," Bruce sighed. "All I can do is just blow things up. …But, that's something I like to do! It's a hobby of mine, so you seem to enjoy what you have and I enjoy what I have."

"Uh huh! That's true." Parakarry agreed.

Chopper moved down south of the cloud and jumped on a storm cloud to the right to go up to the cloud leading to the next area. Of course, they had to battle some enemies on their way through. Afterward, they moved on to the next area, which was a flat cloudy area, but there was one cloud moving up to a cloud with an Ultra Jump Charge Badge, which could raise Chopper's Jump attack by 4 for a turn.

"I'll help ya get that one," Yosho assured as Chopper got on his back and jumped onto the cloud to grab the Badge. He replaced the Ultra Jump Charge with his Super Jump Charge. After that, Chopper ended up stomping on a Storm Puff, which was a dark gray cloud. Yosho stomped on it with a Ground Pound first, and then Chopper stomped on it afterward. It was like a double stomp attack.

They finished off the enemy and proceeded on to the next area, avoiding some enemies and defeating them. They found a storm cloud that went all the way across to the other side, which was pretty far. Not only that, but there were some enemies floating around as well.

"Oh… This doesn't look good. There's a lot of enemies here." Mallow frowned. "Don't we have any plans on how to take them all out while on the cloud?"

At this point, Chopper began to ponder.

"What are you planning, Chopper?" Bow asked.

Chopper jumped on the cloud and went off on his own. He made himself become surrounded in green electricity, making the cloud be surrounded by it too. While it was going, the Storm Puffs got taken out by the electricity, which cleared the path. Every single Electronoid was taken down. After that, he got off the cloud to land on the cloud leading to the next area, which had a Save Block for him to hit, so he did that. The storm cloud went back to everyone else, and they got on it to reach Chopper.

"Huh... That was a strange idea you had there." Ghoster commented.

"Yeah, I know..." Chopper trailed as they headed off to the next area to find a tree like the one they had seen before. It had the fruit and the rainbow above it, despite the stormy weather.

"This is it, I presume? There's nothing around here except for that tree we've seen before." Bow frowned. "I wonder why there's another."

Unfortunately for Yosho, he had a feeling inside of him that didn't feel good, as if he needed to go to the bathroom.

"Uhh… I don't understand what's going on right now." Koopla gawked as she noticed Yosho crossing his legs. "What the heck?"

"What's the matter, Yosho? Did something happen to you?" Kayzee asked.

"No…URK! I think… I need to take a wiz!" Yosho winced. "…But there's no place to take one! What am I supposed to do?"

"I don't know," Chopper shrugged. "But don't…"

"I'll take a wiz on the tree! …Now don't LOOK! I just want to take a quick leak and I'll be done." Yosho walked over to the tree and took a leak. While he did that, a spirit of Merlo appeared, glaring at Yosho. "HEY! Don't look at me while I'm takin' a wiz! Turn around right now!"

"_Don't take a leak on the tree, Yosho! This tree isn't for that!"_ Merlo scolded._ "If you do that, something BAD is going to happen. That's why people don't go to the bathroom on them."_

"Fine! I'll just take a leak off the cloud!" Yosho stopped and walked over to the cloud. Chopper's eyes widened when he was going to take a leak off the cloud.

"Yosho… Don't do that. It could be going on someone right now…" Mallow trailed.

"And you say somethin' bad's goin' to happen? I don't..."

A fat Paratroopa landed on top of him, flattening him.

_"See? I warned the guy…" _Merlo rolled his eyes as his spirit disappeared. Joe walked toward him when he spotted him, getting off Yosho, who was able to get up.

"You're Chopper, aren't you? Look, I got orders from Queen Valentina to take you down." Joe stated. "No hard feelings, OK? I'm just listening to what she wants me to do."

"Whoa… Look at your face!" Bow noticed. "What happened to you?"

"Got slapped in the face. I'm sad from that, but orders are orders. Be prepared, Chopper!"

**Tattle: **_That's the Paratroopa Joe. He's…rather large for someone like him. He doesn't look so…great though. Max HP: 150, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 1. If you flip him over, his defense goes down to 0, and you can attack his stomach. That's where he's soft. Of course… He's soft in A LOT of places. Man, did he get that swollen face from Valentina? Wow… She must be pretty cruel to do that._

Chopper stomped on Joe in order and flipped him over His stomp did 3 damage when he was stomping on his head and 4 damage when he stomped on his belly. Geno used his Geno Beam on Joe to deal 8 damage to him.

"Man, look at him. He doesn't look so good..." Geno trailed.

"Gah… I can't get up!" Joe grunted, struggling to get up. "I wish I was a lot more athletic so I can actually attack. I feel cursed in this body."

Chopper shrugged and stomped on his body, with his Rocket Jump making Joe breathe heavily. Kayzee flew toward Joe and punched his stomach.

"Does it feel right to fight someone who's overweight?" Kayzee asked.

"I'm not so sure..." Chopper trailed. "Technically, he wanted to fight us..."

"Y-Yeah," Joe said as he was able to get up and walked toward Chopper while breathing heavily, due to being overweight. He was able to bring his fists down on Chopper to take 11 out of him. However, because he was Plasma Chopper, he took 1 damage from the electricity.

Chopper flipped the fat Koopa over once again with a simple jump. This time he used his Power Bounce and was able to stomp on him seven times. Afterward, Mallow summoned a cloud to fall on Joe while he struggled to get up.

"So tired… I just want something to eat!" Joe grunted as Chopper zapped Joe with some electricity from his hand that would be similar to Mallow's Thunderbolt. The fat Koopa screamed after getting electrocuted and moaned in pain. Bow flew over to Joe next and used her Smack to smack his stomach eight times. Thankfully for Joe, he was able to get up.

"I'm not done yet! I got something else in store for you! Hnnnnnngh!" Joe clenched his fists as he looked constipated, and he let out a large amount of gas to make the place fog up.

"A fart? Are you kidding me?" Koopla gawked.

"Man this stinks!" Parakarry guffawed.

"Ewwww! He just made some stinky gas!" Kayzee gagged.

"Oh… That's not good. But at least I don't have a nose!" Ghoster chuckled as Chopper, Bruce, Bow, C-2 Choppor, and Ghoster were not affected by the gas as much.

"It's still not a great sight... But I'm I'm not letting that get in my way!" Chopper ran toward Joe and fired some electricity at him, while C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him. They waved off the stinky air in order to see things clearly.

Joe walked over to Chopper to attack him again, who was able to guard the attack and also make the fat Koopa take 1 point of damage. Chopper flipped Joe after that and used his Power Bounce to stomp on him eleven times. Geno used his Geno Flash afterward to take 12 out of Joe, who struggled to get up. This allowed Chopper to shoot a Plasma Needle at him to deal 8 damage.

Ghoster acted next, punching the fat Koopa's belly with his fist. Joe was able to get up and passed more gas. Though, Chopper was able to hit him with his D-Down Jump successfully despite all the gas. Bow acted next, smacking the heck out of Joe, who looked so tired, and it didn't seem like he could do anything else.

Chopper removed his ability and turned to his friends, who gestured him to finish the fight. He walked over to Joe with fire emitting from his hands, but then he looked at Joe's swollen face and battered body. For some reason, he felt a little sympathy for this guy.

"Chopper… Are you all right?" Bow asked. "Don't you want to finish this up?"

"…I can't do it. Looking at him, I just can't hurt him and let him be injured." Chopper jumped up to the tree to get a fruit shaped like a heart and put it in Joe's mouth. Once he ate it, he got himself back up.

"Did you just help me, Chopper?" Joe gaped. "…I thought you were going to finish me off like I deserved to be. Why did you do it? Queen Valentina will be angry that I lost against you!"

"It's because I don't like to see people hurt. You looked like you were hurt badly by Valentina. She seems to be making your life worse."

"Well… When I first joined her, I ended up being fat. …You actually have a good point! She's really treating me like crap! Screw her! I'm leaving her for good!"

"Yeah! Now that's what you should do!" Koopla agreed. "Having minions leave a villain is always excellent!"

"Thank you, Chopper," Joe gave Chopper a hug and began to run off afterward. To their surprise, that fruit actually seemed to give him a lot of energy. He even dropped 36 Star Points Chopper to help him level up. He chose HP, now having 70 HP.

"Wow! Look at that rainbow!" Mallow gaped as the storm cleared out and a rainbow revealed itself. "It's so beautiful!"

"It certainly is gorgeous," Bow agreed as she flew over to Chopper to give him a hug. "You really are a sweetie, aren't you? No wonder you came to help me. You really care about people. Especially me."

"Well… Uh… Yeah, I do care. You're my friend, after all." Chopper sweat dropped as he slightly patted her head, making her blush. C-2 Choppor saw a sign near Chopper and looked at it.

_Nimbus Land is up ahead!  
_

"Chopper, Nimbus Land is dead ahead," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Nimbus Land? We finally made it!" Mallow cheered as he ran over to Nimbus Land, which made Chopper follow him now that he was out of Bow's grasps.

"Hey! Wait up, Mallow!" Chopper shouted while everyone began to head to Nimbus Land. Without that stormy weather, things might work out well for them.

* * *

**Now that Joe is free from Valentina, she can't make him suffer by abusing him! But it's still not over yet. There's plenty of more to come. In the next chapter...we go to Nimbus Land and discover something surprising (although it probably won't be to some people).**


	81. Mallow Discovers the Truth

After looking at the sign and the light pink gate, they headed on through the gate to find a town. All the way at the end of the town was a light pink castle. Everyone that was walking around looked a lot like Mallow, which surprised some of the people. They were mostly a pink color, unlike Mallow, who's yellow than. At some of the houses around the place, there were some plants on top of them. With the rainbow above the place, it looked gorgeous.

"Mallow?" Chopper poked Mallow while his mouth was agape. He grabbed the bottom of cloud boy's mouth to pick it up.

"Is he…OK? He looks like he's all…amazed at this." Bruce noticed. "Well there's the cloud people here, but is he amazed at the rainbow?"

"He's amazed that he's found his people here," Geno stated. "It must be great for him that we finally found his own people after a long time…"

"So these are cloud people, huh?" Koopla said as she looked at the houses. "What are they called? Nimbus people? I suppose it would fit pretty well since the name of this land is called Nimbus Land. It's quite an interesting place here, I'll say..."

"Hmm… I should ask one of these Nimbus people about this letter..." Parakarry trailed as he took the letter out. "I think it would be a good idea to do that right now."

"Hold on a minute now! Maybe we should at least take a look around here!" Ghoster suggested. "I'm not one to just head to a place right away. I want to see what's here. Don't you guys think the same thing now?"

"Umm… Yeah, I do! I think we should see what's here!" Kayzee flew around to explore while a female Nimbus saw her flying around and looking at the houses.

"Well now, isn't she just precious? Look at her!" the Nimbus female smiled as Kayzee stopped and waved to the Nimbus.

"Hi there!"

"You look so adorable! What's your name, pumpkin?"

"I'm Kayzee. I'm five years old, and I'm one of the Dayzeeflower Girls." Kayzee giggled as she flew down to the Nimbus female. "I'm the cute one, as you can see!"

"Well, you are adorable, I will admit."

"Though, I know a lot of cute people! Some of the people I'm traveling with are cute! Some are weird, but there are cute ones! I think the Bob-omb who's Bruce, Bow (though she isn't exactly the nicest person ever), that robot and ghost are cute, and also the cloud person! ...Oh, I forgot about the pale green one too! He's cute as well!"

While Kayzee was talking to the Nimbus, Chopper walked around to one of the buildings with Bow. They found themselves in a shop where there were many things for them to buy, but Chopper decided to buy a Jammin' Jelly and left afterward.

"So what was the point of going in there besides getting a Jammin' Jelly? Wait… What's that right there?" Bow noticed a black marker in Chopper's hands.

"This? This… This is for something to mark things down." Chopper explained. "It's like a memo for things I don't necessarily remember, OK?"

When they returned to the group, Yosho looked disappointed while Mallow was still remaining where he was.

"What's with Yosho? And Mallow still hasn't moved?"

"Apparently so," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "I tried to get his attention, but it did nothing."

"All we find here are cloud people? C'mon! Where's the ladies?" Yosho guffawed. "An' no, I ain't interested in any of the cloud ladies here! They're just CLOUDS!"

"I can't believe it!" Mallow gasped, speaking for the first time here. "…I actually found some people that look just like me! It's like some kind of miracle or something along those lines! Isn't this spectacular, Chopper?"

"Umm… Yes! It is spectacular!" Chopper agreed before turning to the Yoshi. "Yosho, quit complaining about no one you're interested is here. We still need to find that Power Star right now."

"Yeah, great idea! Then we'll get out of this place and go find the ladies! All right!" Yosho fist pumped.

"Ugh, you are getting really annoying right now, Yosho," Bow face palmed as the rest of the group returned and headed toward the castle. They could see a crowd of Nimbus people talking by the castle.

"Oh… This might not be so easy to get through…" Parakarry trailed. They seemed to hear many questions about the king and queen and even a prince.

"Where do you think King and Queen Nimbus are?"

"They haven't come out in days!"

"It's been so long since we've seen Prince Mallow! Where could he be?"

"I'm hungry!"

"I think Queen Valentina had something to say!"

At the entrance to the castle, there were two Koopas with red shells and red bird hats. They were holding spears and were blocking the entrance to the castle.

"All right, everyone! Listen up!" the two Koopa guards stepped out of the way, and Valentina walked out of the gate. The Nimbus people were still talking right now, not paying attention to her.

"Is that Valentina?" Chopper wondered. "She doesn't look too nice by her appearance..."

"Yeah, and her voice is pretty... I don't know how to say it..." Bow trailed.

But, Yosho took it a different way. He first thought this place would suck, but when he saw her, it all changed…for him..

"Oh, look at THAT! I changed my mind! I'm goin' to LIKE it here!" Yosho cheered. "I never knew that Queen Valentina was so hot! All right, now I can score with her!"

"You're kidding, right?" Geno face palmed.

"Listen to me right now!" Valentina shouted. Unfortunately, all of the Nimbus people ignored her, making her fume.

"SHUDDAP!"

Everyone stopped talking and turned to Valentina with frightened looks.

"Thank you... Now, I still have found no sign of King and Queen Nimbus. That means…that we've lost our rulers of these skies." All of the Nimbus gave her sad looks. "BUT! It just so happens that I have found the missing Prince! Prince Mallow, that is!"

She stepped out of the way and waited for the prince to show up.

"Prince Mallow… Please…Sir…Prince? …GET OVER HERE!" Valentina shouted as the Nimbus people gawked. "Well, well… It seems that our little prince has a mild case of stage fright. Excuse me… Ha ha ha…"

She went back into the castle, while people could hear her shout, "_Come on! Make it snappy! What? You can't get through? Well, just LOOK at you, tubby!"_

A big black bird with a toucan beak and a silver helmet was being pushed out of the castle. Valentina stepped aside as she soon finished pushing the bird. However, this was not what people expected the prince to look like.

"Strange… He doesn't look much like a cloud person…" C-2 Choppor trailed.

"Maybe because he was adopted?" Ghoster wondered.

"Introducing…Prince Mallow!" Valentina introduced as some Nimbus people walked over to the "prince" to greet him.

"Welcome back! Prince Mallow!"

"My, you've…er…filled out a bit, Prince Mallow!"

"You're looking fit, Prince!"

It seemed like "Prince Mallow" needed something, so Valentina walked over to him to answer his question.

"Yes…? What is it, dear? ...WHAT? You're asking ME to…? Gracious! You're serious, aren't you? Why, I don't know what to say! Dear me…" she trailed as she turned to the group. "I've made my decision… At the request of the Prince, I agree to become his queen. _Queen… Valentina… Ooh! It just makes me SHIVER!_" Valentina giggled quietly while fanning herself.

"…She has a fan of her own too? …You got to be kidding me…" Bow groaned, not happy to see the woman. Everyone but Yosho (who had hearts in his eyes) did not like seeing her.

"Well, that's that! Back to your business, everyone!" she walked to the gate and turned over to the prince. "_Hurry it up, will ya?_"

With that, the prince followed her back inside.

"Can you believe it? What a coincidence!" Mallow gaped. "There's a prince with the same name as ME! Don't we have anything better to do than hang around HERE? Come on, let's go and find that Power Star!"

Chopper looked at the places they could go into, but he walked over to the house to the upper north. On the top of the castle it had a golden statue of a cloud. When they walked in they found the ground was cloudy, but there were pink floor tiles. There was a Nimbus person at a stove, and there were three golden statues of Valentina and a golden statue of…Mallow?

"What the… Mallow, take a look at this!" Chopper walked over to the golden statue of Mallow and pointed to it. Mallow walked over and took a look at the statue himself.

"Hey look! It's ME!" Mallow gasped as the Nimbus named Garro turned and walked over to him.

"Oh, you mean THAT? That's King Nimbus when he was…a…young lad." Garro paused as he looked at Mallow's appearance. "Huh? …What the…?! ...WHO are YOU…?!"

"Hello. My name is Mallow. And this is my friend Chopper, and also his friends." Mallow said. Chopper gave Garro a wave, along with the rest.

"This…is weird. That statue looks like Mallow!" Koopla gasped. "…Don't tell me he's…"

"Mallow… So it IS YOU, my boy!" Garro gaped. "It's been so long. My, you've become a splendid young prince!"

Mallow instantly shot out of the room upward like a rocket as he gaped after hearing the word "prince".

"Hey! Did he steal my Diamond Shoes?" Chopper asked.

"No, you have them on right now," Bow replied.

"Oh…"

When Mallow landed on the ground, he was in complete shock. "WHAT?! I'm…I'm really a…_prince?!_"

Chopper sighed, and he began to explain the whole story to Garro about Frogfucius finding Mallow, and finding out he's not really a tadpole. He had to explain a lot to him.

"Yes indeed! I understand." Garro nodded. "So! You were raised by Frogfucius! There's no question about it! You ARE, WITHOUT A DOUBT… Prince Mallow."

"Chopper! Look at me! I'm a prince!" Mallow cheered.

"I never knew a prince was traveling with us this whole time. That's…pretty cool!" Chopper smiled as he bowed to him. "It's very surprising..."

"Indeed," Parakarry agreed as he bowed to Mallow. "We should really call you Your Highness from now on."

"You guys can still call me Mallow," Mallow assured. "I mean, you're my friends!"

"I KNEW Valentina was up to SOMETHING!" Garro realized. "I just didn't know what… But then where could the King and Queen be? Are they possibly trapped?"

"If they are, then we better go inside the castle to save my mother and father!" Mallow declared as he was going to leave, but then Chopper grabbed him.

"Whoa there, cowboy! We can't just go barging into the castle! It's not safe at all!" Chopper advised.

"Yes, you are right, Chopper," Garro nodded as he pondered. "…Wait! I have an excellent idea. Come over here, Chopper… I'm going to do something for you. Are you ready?"

"OK!"

"OK, stand over here! Now, hold still, OK?" Garro began used his skills to make Chopper look like a golden color to resemble a golden statue.

"THERE!"

Chopper was about to move, but Garro stopped him. "Hey, don't move! You're going to be a 'statue' for a while, OK?"

"Hey, what about us?" Bruce asked.

"I can only bring Chopper in, sadly. I wish I could do something for you guys, but I can't. Chopper can get in there so he can open the door for you guys to go in. How does that sound?"

"Good! But, I'm comin' in with ya." Yosho declared. "I'm Valentina's new king! I'm sure she'd want me to go see her!"

"What?! No way!" Bow objected. "You're not going to do that!"

"Hold on a moment!" Garro interrupted. "You know, I think that might be a good way to distract her!"

"What? Are you for real?" Kayzee gaped.

"That's not going to go well…" C-2 Choppor trailed.

"He'll figure something out. Stay still now, Chopper." Garro said as he carried him out with a Valentina statue.

"Wait!" Parakarry interrupted, flying over to Garro. "Could you give this to Valentina?"

"Hmmmm... Well, since I'm going into the castle to see Valentina, I'll give this to her."

"Thank you. I just want to make sure a letter's delivered to someone. I mean, that's my job!"

"Have no fear. I'll do it." Garro nodded as he walked over to the front gate where the two Koopa guards noticed him.

"Halt! State your name and business!" the Koopas shouted.

"I'm Garro, and I'm delivering Valentina's latest order to her."

"You may enter," the guards stepped aside, and Garro brought Chopper, the statue and the letter into Nimbus Castle. Yosho followed in as well, but the guards stopped him.

"Halt! State your name and business!"

"I'm King Yosho! I'm Queen Valentina's new King!" Yosho declared.

"…Really? OK, you may enter." the Koopas stepped aside and Yosho walked in with a grin.

"_SCORE!_"


	82. Sneaking Into Nimbus Castle

Garro carried the statues through the dark pink rugged, shiny hallway, where there were dark pink pedestals a couple of golden Valentina statues were on. There were also four pathways to go. He put the Valentina statue and Chopper down and looked at him while panting. Since Chopper resembled a golden statue, he stood still and didn't say a word.

_"This is a nice castle from the inside," _Chopper thought.

"Phew, that was close… Well, those guards didn't even notice you were with me." Garro sighed. "I didn't think we'd make it through THAT ONE. Good thing Yosho was able to distract them before they spotted you. Ha!"

"Yup, I did do some good helpin' there! Yer lucky I came with ya to come in here! But, _I'll_ be havin' the fun!" Yosho chuckled. "I may have not gotten a pretty lady back at Nightclub Casino as a waiter, but I'm sure goin' to get myself a queen!".

"Yosho, you're NOT going to go out with her," Chopper retorted. "Did you see how she acted out there? I obviously think she's cruel! ...Sorry to speak out."

"No worries, Chopper. But stay quiet!" Garro shushed as they heard footsteps coming to the right of the hallway up the stairs. They sounded like they were Valentina's.

"Did I just hear someone call me something?" Valentina asked as she walked down the stairs and noticed the statue of herself. "O, ho, ho, ho! Oh! Now THIS is lovely! My beauty simply shines forth like the sun! Only YOU can make something THIS stunning!"

"Thank you, your majesty… And I have this for you too." Garro took out the letter and handed it to her.

"What's this? A letter?"

"The postman requested me to give this to you."

"Oh, I see... I'll check the letter when I go up to my room."

"Thank you... Now I'll be going." Garro said as he began to make his way out of the castle.

"Halt!" Valentina shouted as Garro paused with a puzzled look. "What, may I ask is THIS little stupid thing here? And who is THAT over there?"

He turned around and turned to Yosho and Chopper. "That…over there…is your new king! He's King Yosho, a ruler from Yoshi's Island! And this here is my latest masterpiece. I… I created it just for YOU… It's called… 'A Puffball's Lament.' Observe…the sad, innocent smile of a simple fool on him. And the antennas…conveying his pale green roots. And the feet…well defined… Strong. The legs of a kicker! Is it to your liking?"

"Hmmm…" Valentina took a closer look. "This does remind me of that Chopper King Bow—er, I mean King Nimbus has been talking about before he went missing. Though I don't know what he looks like… I consider myself something of an art buff at these things! And I've got to say… This is spectacular! Garro…only YOU could have created sculptures with such gentle beauty and…raw power!"

"Thank you, your majesty. I'll be on my way now…" Garro left the castle as Valentina chuckled while fanning herself, while Yosho went up to her.

"So now… I hear yer lookin' for a new king. Well, I'm King Yosho! 110% of a man right here!" Yosho grinned as he flexed his "muscles". "I'm ready to be yer sexy new king!"

"Ah, so you're the one that Joe was talking about…when I didn't even tell him that I was having a new king. You're not my kind of guy…but I _am _looking for a new king. Maybe you might be of some good use right now."

"Oh yeah! Now we're talkin'! I knew ya'd go for me! See, no one can resist a hot, sexy Yoshi such as myself! Why don'tcha say we take this conversation someplace else? How about yer place?"

"Why certainly!" Valentina nodded as she turned around over by the stairs. "DODO! …DODO! ...Don't just sit there like a roast! Hurry and carry these two statues in! …DODO!"

The bird who that they previous saw before came down the stairs to the right and came down to Valentina.

_"So that thing's name is Dodo? Huh…" _Chopper and Yosho thought.

"Step on it!" Valentina ordered as she turned to Yosho. "Now then… King Yosho… Would you be kind as to follow me to my room?"

"Oh yeah!" Yosho began to walk up the stairs and head to the castle hall to the left. He was smirking as he followed Valentina to her room. One of the things he had always wanted to accomplish was to see a girl's room.

_"SCORE!_ _Now I've got myself a lady! A queen to be exact! All right…_"

Dodo looked at one of the Valentina statues and pecked at one. He grabbed the other Valentina statue and Chopper and went up the stairs to the right.

_"All right, I'm heading to someplace now,"_ Chopper thought. _ "And I didn't think Yosho could even DO that… That's the first time he's gotten a real woman."_

In the hallway Dodo walked in, he went to some stairs to the third floor. One thing for sure was that this place felt bigger than Nightclub Casino. On the third floor, Dodo walked into the first door into a small rectangular room with Valentina statues. There were two pedestals that had nothing, so Dodo put Chopper and the statue on the two pedestals and then left.

Once the door shut, Chopper jumped off the pedestal and he began to stretch. "All right! Now I'm feeling good! I don't have to keep still right now! It's time I go open the door for my friends."

Chopper hit the Save Block first and then walked over to the door, but once he opened it, he saw Valentina outside. She must've left Yosho in her room and told him she would be back. This made Chopper jump up in fright and step away from the door.

_"DODO! Did you display the statues properly?_" Valentina yelled. "_Fine! Now polish them to a fine luster and make them a tribute to my beauty! Pay attention to me! Hurry up, and DON'T let me catch you dozing again._"

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he immediately ran back to the pedestal and got on it to stay completely still. After that, he saw Dodo walk in.

_"If he's going to peck the statues, then I BETTER jump when he does it on me. No way am I gonna let myself get hurt here!"_

Dodo pecked the first statue and then the second. Once he walked over to Chopper, he tried to peck him, but he jumped out of the way to avoid being pecked. Dodo walked over to the next, but he stopped for a moment, looking confused. He walked back over to Chopper, wondering if he moved or not, but he was too stupid to realize this, so he pecked the fourth statue and went back to Chopper.

Chopper was able to jump to avoid getting pecked while Dodo walked to the next one and pecked it - but then he quickly came back to Chopper to peck him…to have him jump once again. Now things were getting frustrating for him.

Dodo pecked the fourth statue, and when he walked over to Chopper, he was about to peck, but he stopped and left the room. What was strange was when Dodo ran out of the room and into the background before returning. But he failed once again at pecking Chopper after he jumped.

With that, Dodo finally gave up and left the room, panting. Chopper jumped off the pedestal and gave a thumbs up.

"Now to get everyone else in..."

Walking into the hallway, he went down to the second floor and when he got by the stairs to go down to the third floor, he saw two pedestals, with one being empty. However, he also heard a voice.

"I'm absolutely exhausted!" Chopper jumped up from the voice and jumped onto the pedestal to be safe (thankfully, he was still painted gold). Two Paratroopa Guards flew up the stairs.

"I hate being a guard! Valentina only gives us the most boring jobs to do! But I guess this beats Dodo's job. Dodo has to polish Valentina's statues EVERY single day!"

"Ha! Here's how I'd do it." Both Koopas poked Chopper with their spears, which caused him to rocket up.

"_**OWW!**_" Chopper cried as he landed on the pedestal, no longer a gold color, leaving both Paratroopa Guards shocked.

"Hey, tell me something, do statues…move?"

"No. Statues don't move."

"Then…explain…THIS!" Both guards stepped away from Chopper, who tilted his head.

"It's…one of those hi-tech,…er,…life-like…realistic ones. …Let's get outta here." Both Paratroopa Guards screamed as he flew away toward the stairs.

"OK, now to get going," Chopper used his speed to run all the way down to the front gate. He saw the same Paratroopa Guards were guarding the door. He COULD just attack them and knock them out…but that wouldn't be good.

"Hmmm…" Chopper saw a bathroom on the first floor and noticed a Koopa Guard walked out of the bathroom, who seemed beat.

"Man, I'm TIRED! I better go get some rest…if Valentina doesn't find me, that is!" the Koopa walked up the stairs and headed to the right. Chopper followed him up the stairs and noticed a picture of Valentina on the wall. He took out the black marker he got from before and drew a mustache on the picture of Valentina.

"Heh heh heh!" he grinned as he followed the Koopa into the room he was going in. Once he got in, some punching and kicking sounds were heard outside.

As soon as the door opened, Chopper came out with the Koopa helmet and sunglasses. He also wore some toy wings on him and held a spear. He got a red toy shell on his back too to make him look like a Koopa.

"This may not be the best disguise ever…but it's something at least!" he shrugged as he walked down to the front and opened the gate, and his friends noticed him walk out.

"Hey, why is Chopper in a…"

"Are you two guarding this gate?" Chopper asked. He had a Colonel's badge on, so he was at a higher rank.

"Yeah, what do you wanna know about it?" one guard asked.

"Hey! How DARE you talk to me like that! I'm your COLONEL! You better be listening to me right now!"

"Oh! I'm sorry, sir! Please forgive me!"

"It's not our fault! Honest!" another cried. "We're just so bored here and we want to have something to eat! Queen Valentina's been making us sit here forever!"

"Well it's time we had a talk about this! You two! In my office! Now!" Chopper ordered as both Koopas were sweating and hurried into the castle.

"Impressive," Bow smirked.

"You may have done some odd things in the past…but that was something I never expected you to have done!" Koopla gawked.

"Great work, Chopper! So where's that so-called 'ladies man'?" Ghoster asked.

"He's uh…with Valentina right now." Chopper answered as he removed his disguise. "I know, it's weird. But it's true. Forget that though. We need to go back and find that Power Star!"

"I sure hope we find my parents," Mallow said worriedly. "It's been so long since I've seen them. If they're in prison, then Valentina's going to PAY!"

"Don't worry. We'll make sure we take care of her. Let's get going now." Chopper opened the gate, and everyone headed into Nimbus Castle.

* * *

**Inside-**

"Wow, so this is where I live?" Mallow gaped. "This place looks spectacular! I never knew this castle would be beautiful! And it even matches my hair! I can't WAIT to see my parents! I feel so happy!"

"Too bad I never lived in a place like this," Bruce frowned as Geno tried to find where the Power Star was.

"Bad news… For some reason, I can't find where the Power Star is." Geno frowned. "I think it's some kind of power in here that's preventing me from doing it. It's like I'm feeling the power EVERYWHERE! Even in you, Chopper, and also you too, Bow!"

"You can't be serious. There's no way that I have the Power Star." Bow objected. "I think someone is really screwing us up right now, and I don't like it one bit."

"I'll check what's around with my X-ray vision," Kayzee decided as she had two green rays coming from her eyes and she began to check the room. Sadly, nothing could be found.

"Kayzee, did you find anything with that X-ray vision?" Bruce asked as Kayzee floated down and hung her head low as she shook her head.

"Sorry, but I couldn't find anything. Why did we have to be in a place that's SO confusing! I'd prefer to be in a city than a huge castle, because I'd have a better time getting through there."

"I wonder how Yosho's doing," Koopla wondered. "He _should_ be handling things right now, but I don't think he'll succeed. You've seen him before, right? He says he's a ladies man, but he's been failin' all the time!"

"Well the good thing is that Yosho's distracting Valentina, and that's what we needed," C-2 Choppor concluded. "But… What's the bird's name since she said that he's the prince?"

"His name's Dodo, I think. I was almost discovered by him, but he's too stupid to know that I wasn't a statue." Chopper explained. "He's gotta polish all of the statues EVERY day. Yeah, that's not something I would want to do for a job."

"Oh… THAT is not a good job." Bruce stated. "I feel kind of bad for him. Doesn't he want to leave like Joe did?

"I don't think so. He's more loyal to her than Joe. He just listens to her, but it doesn't seem like he cares so much. Poor bird..."

"Hey, Chopper, we should make some pranks on some of the guys here. Wouldn't that be freakin' sweet to do?" Ghoster asked as Chopper gave him a shrug and went up the stairs to check which way to go.

"Let's go to the right! Valentina's room is probably to the left so that would be a bad idea." Mallow informed as he began to head up the stairs while everyone else followed. They were on the second floor, and they were being cautious of any enemies around.

"I have to admit, these hallways are pretty big. Whoever designed this castle must have had A LOT of time to make it..." Bow trailed. "Only a king and queen with a lot of power in their hands can have a castle like this. Maybe that's what Mallow's parents are like."

"No they're not! I don't think they'd be like that anyway." the prince objected. "I saw a Star at Star Hill that said for me to come home safe and sound. They sound more caring than powerful. I hope that IS the truth…"

Chopper searched through the rooms. He opened a door and found nothing except a TV and a couch. The couch seemed to be fluffy and made out of clouds. No one was in the room, so they were safe for now.

"There's nothing in here. No Power Star or anything." Chopper confirmed. "We should check the other rooms for some more things."

"We'll need to look through every single room if we're going to find that Power Star," Geno noted. "I don't know how many rooms there are, but there must be A LOT if there are eight floors to this castle."

While walking through the hallway, Kayzee had her arms behind her back while being happy. But there was a little problem for her. She noticed while floating, on the ground, there was a spider, and because of this spider, Kayzee ended up screaming. Everyone heard her scream as she was flying away from the bug.

"OK, WHAT are you afraid of? There's nothing in here that's scary!" Koopla assured.

"I think she was screaming because of THAT," Bruce noted as he used his foot to point down at the spider.

"Oh... Well, I guess it makes sense, considering she's a little girl, no offense to you, Kayzee."

"Now THAT was pretty funny…" Ghoster snickered as he took his eyes off and juggled them. "Hey, look at me! I'm juggling my eyes!"

Ghoster cackled as it caused Kayzee to cover her eyes in fear. Chopper hit Ghoster a little, making his eyes go back into him. It didn't even look slightly gross.

Geno picked up the spider and went to the window and let the spider out. "There, it's gone now. No need to worry now, Kayzee."

"O-OK... Thanks, Geno..."

They went up to the third floor to search for anything interesting. In one room, Chopper was able to use his Rocket Jump to make an Ultimate Shroom come down so he could take it. Afterward, they went into another room with a fireplace and couch.

"Ooh! This place looks nice!" Parakarry grinned. "I could sit on that couch and relax all day! When did they ever have this kind of stuff here?"

"I have no idea, but it's nice here." Mallow smiled as he sat down on the couch and looked at the fireplace. He seemed to be really relaxing, but C-2 Choppor pulled him off the couch since they were going to leave anyway.

"Let's try the upstairs," C-2 Choppor suggested as they walked up the stairs, but then they heard someone shouting. They turned around to see the Koopa Chopper beat up before, which made him gasp.

"Hey! You're the one who took my stuff!" the Koopa Colonel yelled. "I'm going to get you now, you pale green child! I'll have you in the dungeon before you know it! …Or maybe I'll even go with the death penalty!"

A fireball was hurled at the Koopa, and when it hit him, the front part of his body was covered in soot and fell to the ground. Thankfully, he wasn't dead. That just knocked him out.

"OK… We're safe right now. Let's go to the eighth floor to find what we can." Chopper suggested as he rushed up to the upper floor and saw on the fourth floor that the stairs going to the fifth floor…were being blocked.

"Are you kidding me? We can't even go up to the fifth floor? Wow, this is just bad…" Ghoster face palmed.

A Koopa guard walked out of the room and was holding onto a key. It noticed the ten of them were right by the stairs, which made it gulp the second it saw them. Chopper noticed it and shot an ice ball at the Koopa's feet, preventing iy from moving.

"Oh man… This ain't good! Must…tell…Queen Valentina!" the Koopa cried as it got his keys taken by Chopper, who put them away to hold onto.

"So… Where do you think we put this key?" Mallow asked. "I don't see any locks around here. …Hold on a minute! What about the other stairway when we first entered the castle! We could take a look over there!"

"Good idea," Chopper nodded. "We'll check there!"

"Wait... We have to backtrack?" Bruce groaned.

"So much for having fun..." Bow trailed. "I thought this would be exciting!"

* * *

**First floor-**

Everyone ran all the way down to the first floor and took the stairs to the left. The hallway looked the same, but the stairs were all the way to the left instead of the right.

"Gee, I hope Yosho's doing OK. He better not be getting into any trouble right now with Valentina." Geno said worriedly. "If she finds out that he's with us, then there's going to be a big problem going on with him…and us."

"Then we can't waste any time. We're GOING to the top to find my parents, who could be in ANY of these rooms! …But I have a feeling they're not in any of these rooms, sadly."

"If we find some clues, maybe we can use them to find where your parents are. We just need to search thoroughly." Chopper stated. "C-2 Choppor, try to search for any hidden things in this hallway and the rooms."

"Of course," C-2 Choppor began to search for anything hidden in the rooms. He couldn't find anything around, unfortunately. Nothing at all except for Koopa guards in the rooms.

"I hope there aren't any bugs! They're so gross!" Kayzee spoke up.

"Relax, Kayzee. There's not going to be any of those I think. We just NEED to be careful where we go. That's all."

"If we end up running into this Dodo, I might have to hide us from him," Bow suggested. "But we're pretty much clear right now."

After climbing up to the fourth floor, they found a door instead of stairs that was locked. They all looked confused at this, but Chopper knew this lock could be unlocked with the key, so he put it in, and the lock came off.

"There we go, now let's get going!" Koopla declared as everyone headed into door to find...an elevator? Well, it could go up to the eighth floor, but they headed up to the fifth floor instead to find out where Mallow's parents could be.

Once the elevator door opened, everyone came toppling out of the door because of how tight it was in there.

"Phew… We're finally out of that elevator. It feels like I can FINALLY breathe!" Chopper began to breathe in some fresh air in the castle thanks to the windows.

"That elevator was nice…but not with everyone being in it," Geno said. "Next time we're taking the stairs. Let's hope there are stairs."

"Sorry Geno, but I don't think there are any stairs on this side of the castle," Mallow noted. "I think it's because my parents have this side of the castle for them…and if that's true, then they must be here! Mom, Dad, I'm coming to find you!"

Parakarry flew right in front of Mallow to stop him. Koopla also got in the way to stop him as well.

"Slow down there, Mallow," Parakarry advised. "You're not going to move on ahead. We're going together, remember? We're a team."

"And you might find something that you probably wouldn't be able to get through," Koopla added. "There are just SOME things that are too dangerous, and if you get spotted, what will you do?"

"It's not recommended to go off alone," C-2 Choppor stated. "If one of us is alone, there will be a BIG problem with fighting enemies. Even at Diamond-Rank, it's not so easy."

Chopper opened one of the doors to find a red carpet and an Upgrade Block. This caught his attention as he entered the place. He hit the Upgrade Block and he began to think who to upgrade.

"Let's see… Oh, what the heck. Parakarry, come over here!" Parakarry smiled as he flew over to Chopper to get an upgrade. He managed to learn the move Fly, which would allow him soar up in the air to avoid attacks. He would come down at all enemies with a quick flying attack, which only costs 3 FP.

"Man, I've been patient, and you STILL don't choose to upgrade me," Bruce sighed. "What gives, Chopper? Am I not useful to you now?"

"Relax, you'll be next. I promise." Chopper assured.

"You better promise..."

They left the room, and Ghoster wanted to search for a couple of things with his Ghost Vision. He noticed that there was a ghost bug in the room, which made Kayzee scream.

"_EEEEEEEEK!_ There's a big gross bug in the room!" Kayzee screamed as Chopper gasped and covered her mouth, giving her a sign not to say anything. Ghoster stopped using his Ghost Vision to make the bug disappear.

"Relax, Kayzee. That's just a ghost." Ghoster assured. "You can't see it, and it won't see you. Don't even worry about it."

"It was so big and scary!" Kayzee cried as she hugged Bloopi tight. "But at least I have you here, Bloopi..."

"OK… Now let's see what's around here." Chopper began to search through the rooms, while C-2 Choppor scanned them. Chopper saw a purple door and was about to open it.

"Wait! Don't go in there. Valentina is inside." C-2 Choppor warned Chopper brought his hand away from the knob and stepped away from the door so Valentina wouldn't have noticed him.

"That's Valentina's room? Oh… Then we REALLY need to be quiet right now…" Chopper whispered. "Hopefully Yosho's doing fine..."

* * *

**Valentina's room-**

"Aw yeah! Queen Valentina, I'm ready now!" Yosho fist pumped. "So, are we gonna make out right now, 'cause I'm ready fer it now! Yer gonna have the best kiss of yer life."

Valentina slowly laughed. "Ah, we'll get to that... Actually, I think we could go ahead right now. So, are you ready?"

"Oh yeah!" Yosho puckered up, but he ended up trapped in a light blue barrier. "Hey, baby! What're ya doin'? What about that kiss?"

Valentina began to laugh evilly as she grinned.

"You seriously think that I wouldn't know you're with Chopper? I'm not that stupid, you know. I'm the queen of Nimbus Land! There's NO way that Chopper and Prince Mallow will even find that Power Star AND find the king and queen! How about you join them?" Valentina grabbed her martini glass and she blew something out at Yosho, which made him disappear.

* * *

**?-**

Once Yosho woke up, he found himself in a dark cave-like room somewhere in the castle. He noticed it was a dungeon with a doorway barred shut.

"Oh no… I'm stuck in here!" Yosho gasped. "I thought I was goin' to get a lady, but I was wrong! Valentina was just tricking me! I don't care about tryin' to be a gentlemen right now! She's goin' to get it now!"

"Did Valentina also keep you prisoner here too?" Yosho turned his head and saw two cloud people. It was male and female with crowns resting on their heads. The male was a light pink with a brown mustache and a brown curl of hair while the female had a pin curl and was a yellow color like Mallow.

"Wait a minute… Are you two actually…"

"Yes, we're King and Queen Nimbus," Queen Nimbus nodded. "Valentina had us trapped in this dungeon for so long. Nobody has even come because of how this place is hidden. I guess we'll never see our little Mallow again."

"I can almost remember him being taken away during a storm. It was tragic." King Nimbus sniffled.

"Oh, gee… That sounds bad." Yosho frowned until he realized something. "Wait! I happen to know where yer son is! He's comin' this way! He an' his friend Chopper are goin' to come an' save us! ...I hope."

* * *

**Sixth floor-**

Chopper and his friends rushed back into the elevator to head up to the sixth floor. They noticed some Shy Guys were patrolling this area, so they had to fight against them.

"OK… I think it's safe to look around here. Let's take a look." Chopper looked through the doors and found Shy Guys and Koopa Guards, so they had to face off against them as well. Parakarry defeated the enemies by coming down toward them with Fly. Sadly they didn't find anything around on the sixth floor, which got them pretty annoyed.

"Ugh, this place just has so much," Bow groaned. "How are we going to find Mallow's parents when we're not getting anything?"

"We still have the seventh and eighth floor, you know," Mallow mentioned. "Let's go check on those two floors."

They went up the elevator again and checked around the seventh floor. C-2 Choppor DID get something. It was something interesting.

"Chopper, I'm finding some kind of egg in one of these rooms," C-2 Choppor informed as he opened the door near the balcony, where they saw a big egg. They noticed it was cracking, which made them jump a little.

"Is that egg seriously cracking right now? This…is not good." Koopla gulped as a dark pink dinosaur-like creature with a cannon for a mouth and a red bow named Birdo popped out of the egg.

"Oh… Look what we have here!" Birdo gasped. "I never knew I'd meet people such as you! I'm Birdo! Do you want to play?"

"I'd love to play!" Kayzee squealed until she noticed everyone left the room. Once she turned around, an egg was being shot toward her, which made her fly out of the room.

Birdo came out of the room and began to shoot out eggs. "Tee hee! Come back here!"

"What a weeeeeird species. I bet Yosho could go with her." Chopper cringed as they ran out into the balcony while Birdo was still after them. This got everyone to get in their fighting stances.

Birdo was about to rush toward them, but Mallow was able to make a cloud appear to carry her away from them, making her gasp.

"What are you doing? I thought you wanted to play! I'll get yooooooooooooou!" Birdo shouted as the cloud carried her away from Nimbus Castle.

"There we go. Now she's taken care of…" Mallow sighed. "That was a little close."

Everyone looked up at the sky, and they could see some of the stars twinkle. It made some of them feel at peace.

"My… This is a nice spot, isn't it?" Bow smiled.

"I agree! This is a nice place…" Chopper smiled as he looked up, but his expression changed when he saw a couple of more stars disappear. "Geno… How many stars have disappeared? I'm just curious."

"Hmm… About three hundred million." Geno deduced. Everyone froze for a moment and ran back into the castle to go up to the eight floor. C-2 Choppor began to check thoroughly and saw a lot of enemies in the hallway…and Dodo.

"THIS…could be a problem." Ghoster gulped.

There was a yellow ? block, so Chopper hit it and a Star came out. Once he grabbed it, he was invincible, allowing him to run pat the enemies and knock them away, as well as Dodo.

"Hold on, Chopper! I'm getting something! Over here!" C-2 Choppor alarmed as he pointed to the door in the middle room. Once they opened it, they found a rocking chair, a red rug, book shelves, and a fireplace.

"What? What's in here, Choppor?" Chopper asked.

"Over there," he pointed to a crack on the wall to the right, which got Bruce's attention.

"All right, time to let it rip!" Bruce declared as Chopper picked up Bruce and threw him to the wall. He blew it up, and it revealed a secret room which looked like a dungeon, where they met up with three people. Two of them were people that made Mallow gasp.

"Mom! Dad!" Mallow cried.

"Mallow! You're safe!" Queen Nimbus cried.

"My son! We're so glad you're here!" King Nimbus smiled. "We didn't think you would ever come here!"

"Hey, guys! Ya managed to make it here!" Yosho smiled.

"Hey, what ever happened to you being with Valentina?" Parakarry asked.

"She found out about me and threw me into this cell. Now I'm really ticked off now. Yer right, Chopper! She IS cruel…"

"Well, at least you realized it by now," Koopla smiled as she nodded. "Good job!"

"There's no time to waste. We must go." C-2 Choppor warned, sensing Valentina's presence as he shot the door to make it open to head out.

"Excellent, now we just need to find that Power Star," Geno declared as Mallow gave his parents a hug.

"I've missed you so much! You don't know how happy I am to see you!" Mallow cried with tears of joy,

"Wow… Mallow is so happy. He's lucky that he's not like me." Chopper smiled sadly.

"What do you mean by that?" Bow asked.

"He couldn't find his parents, but then he found them. While I can't be with them anymore..."

"Oh... I understand how you feel.

"We better go now, because that Valentina person's coming here!" Ghoster warned.

Everyone nodded and ran off back into the hallway. Valentina was walking by, not noticing them. Thankfully, Dodo managed to recover from being knocked back by Chopper's star and noticed them coming their way.

Dodo pecked her to get her attention, only going, "Hush…" as she walked, but Dodo pecked her once again.

"I SAID SHUT UP, ALREADY!" Valentina screamed as she noticed all thirteen coming her. "What the…? How on earth did Chopper make it here? And how did King and Queen Nimbus escape? Wait a minute… This isn't possible! How did you all get in here?"

"VALENTINA! Hand over the POWER STAR! NOW!" Mallow yelled as he charged at Valentina, but he ended up tripping instead.

"How utterly rude!" Valentina huffed. "And who in blazes are YOU supposed to be anyway?"

"Do not speak to his majesty like that…" C-2 Choppor warned as he aimed his arm gun at Valentina. "I'm not afraid to stun you with this..."

"What do you mean "his majesty", robot?"

"I'm the REAL prince, Valentina! That's right!" Mallow stated.

"You little brat! I don't know how you and Chopper figured it all out, but I'm still not going to give away the Power Star! I got better things to do!" Valentina rushed over to a staircase to go to the top of the castle, while Dodo followed her

"We can't let her get away!" Chopper cried.

"C'mon, Mom and Dad! Maybe it's time you saw what Valentina deserves!" Mallow declared.

"So you're looking for the Power Stars? I see…" King Nimbus trailed. "Mallow, we'll go tell the people we're fine and explain everything. You need to go help your friend Chopper stop Valentina and get the Power Star. We'll know you're fine even if you don't come back to us."

"Good luck, Mallow!" Queen Nimbus said as Mallow nodded and followed Chopper and his friends up the staircase to reach the top of Nimbus Castle to put an end to this once and for all.

* * *

**Boss chapter's next! It's going to be one heck of a battle...above the castle! I wonder if anything interesting will happen...**


	83. Valentina: Taking Down the New Queen

Chopper and his friends were all heading up the stairs, and when they got to the top of the stairs, a Save Block and Heart Block were waiting up there. Chopper hit the Heart Block and Save Block in that order and found a balcony, which seemed to have a cloud that led even higher than Nimbus Castle.

"Whoa… We're going to be going up high!" Bruce gasped. "I never knew Valentina would be THAT high up…"

They jumped onto the cloud, and it took them far from the castle upward. The stars were getting brighter and the sky became darker as they went higher up. Though, they're technically not in space right now. There's still ways to go to actually be up in space. But there's a lot around this higher place. They were able to jump off the cloud to land on a huge cloud afterward.

"Whoa… Look at THIS cloud!" Mallow gasped. "This is the biggest cloud I've ever been on! It's impressive!"

Yosho saw Valentina on the cloud and clenched his fist in anger at her. "_**YOU!**_ How could ya just leave me in that dirty dungeon cell like that with two cloud people? Yer really a cruel woman, ya know that?"

"Hand over the Power Star right now and things won't be messy, Valentina," C-2 Choppor demanded as he aimed his weapon at her. "And if you want it to be messy, then I will make it. I'm not one for fighting, but if I have to do it for the Mushroom Kingdom, then I will."

"Yeah! How could you treat your henchmen with disrespect anyway?" Chopper cried. "I mean look at Joe! You slapped him in the face and he looked terrible! That's not what you do to people! That's ABUSE!"

"Like I really care about my henchmen," Valentina scoffed. "You people are just wasting my time. If you want to fight, then go on ahead! I most certainly can take you on."

"This won't be long then…" Geno trailed.

"I really hate bad people, and I'm going to make sure you'll be gone!" Kayzee shouted. "I hated how you lied to everyone and hurt that poor Paratroopa! We'll take you down no problem!"

"Say all you want to me. That isn't going to change a thing in this fight." Valentina hissed. "However there's no way I'm doing this alone. I can't fail King Bowser. I am truly his strongest minion, and letting him down like this would be a complete disaster for me."

"What do you mean you're not going to be doing this alone?" Koopla questioned.

"This better not be some kind of trick," Bruce said as he readied himself. "Because if it is, oh man, I'm going to explode right in front of your FACE! I'll do it for Bombette!"

"Attacking a lady isn't a problem for me. Especially one who uses a fan such as _myself_." Bow smirked. "I'll gladly show her what REAL royalty is like."

"O ho, ho, ho! I know you all think you can get this Power Star, but I'm not going to let you do it! I've got a little treat just for you!" Valentina smirked as she fanned herself.

"A treat, you say? Go ahead! Show us your little treat! I bet it doesn't bite either!" Ghoster scoffed as he clenched his fists.

"Careful, Ghoster… You don't know what she's got behind her sleeves…" warned Parakarry. "It could be something dangerous you know."

"Dodo! DODO!" Valentina called for Dodo, but he didn't seem to come. She looked VERY annoyed by this right now. "Ooh! That bird has a permanent brain cramp! Dodo! Did you hear me! Get over here NOW! I need some help…entertaining Chopper! So MOVE IT! Come here NOW!"

**Tattle: **_That's Queen Valentina. Well… She WAS queen, but since you rescued Mallow's parents, the King and Queen of Nimbus Land, she's just called Valentina. Max HP: 200, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 2. So THIS really is Bowser's strongest minion. Heh… It's quite funny that a female is stronger than all of Bowser's minions. Then again, that can sometimes happen. Watch out for her attacks. Blowing from her martini lets her deal some big damage to you. She can poison you, paralyze you, and even freeze you. She'll also use her fan, but that's pretty much it…except she might heal off some of her HP._

"Dodo! DODO! Come here this minute!" Valentina called out as Dodo immediately came down to help Valentina. "Don't just sit there. HELP ME!"

Dodo went over to Bow, C-2 Choppor, and Geno and grabbed them to fly away on another cloud to battle.

**Tattle: **_That's Dodo. She's one of Valentina's servants. Max HP: 130, Attack Power: 11, Defense Power: 0. He can be a little threatening, but all he does is peck at you with his beak. Just attack him enough so that he'll run away from you and go back to Valentina. Only your partners can fight him right now though._

C-2 Choppor started off by firing a blast at Dodo, which dealt 8 damage and making Dodo flinch. Bow followed up by floating over to Dodo and smacking him eight times, with Geno finishing up with a Geno Beam.

Dodo was able to make a peck attack on C-2 Choppor, but he was still able to hold off the damage he took from him.

"We need to get back to Chopper…but we're stuck with Dodo right now," Geno noted. "Let's just try to make him run away so we can get back to Chopper and everyone else."

"Sounds like a good idea," Bow said while smacking Dodo. Geno nodded with his arms crossed and fired a Geno Beam at Dodo after Bow's attack. They kept guarding against Dodo's attacks and kept attacking him. After about four more attacks, Dodo began to flee.

"There he goes. We can follow him back to Chopper." C-2 Choppor declared as he began to hover up with his jetpack and chase after Dodo, helping Geno get across as well. Bow simply flew on over there since she had no legs.

* * *

**Fight with Valentina-**

Meanwhile, back with Chopper and the rest of his friends, Chopper walked over to Valentina and used his D-Down Jump to stomp on her head and make her cringe.

"Ouch! What kind of jump is THAT?!" Valentina exclaimed. "It really hurts for some reason! No… I can't let myself be in pain from this kid."

"Let's see how you like this!" Mallow shouted as he used his Shocker on Valentina, making a huge lightning bolt come down and electrocute her. Valentina fired a small purple ball of energy at Chopper, who was lucky enough to guard the attack, taking less damage than a normal guard thanks to his Damage Dodge Badge.

"I'm glad I put this thing on!" Chopper smiled as he used his Power Bounce on Valentina and was able to stomp on her nine times to deal 10 damage. Mallow used his Star Rain on Valentina this time, dealing about 10 damage, ignoring her defense..

Valentina smirked and blew her wine to make crystals fall on Chopper. He was able to guard them all so he wouldn't take as much damage, but some landed on the cloud.

"Hmmm…" Chopper became Suplex Chopper and grabbed them and brought them down right on Valentina.

"That seems to be working just fine," Koopla noted as Parakarry attacked next by flying up high with his Fly ability. However, that meant that he would have to wait next turn.

"Oh, would you look at that? Your little postman friends just flew off. This makes things a lot easier for me." Valentina cackled as she fired another ball of energy from her wine at Chopper, but he managed to grab it and bring it down on her instead.

"What? How on earth did you manage to do THAT? This isn't right at all… But your other friends should be finished by Dodo now. He'll definitely…" Valentina stopped when he saw Parakarry flying down toward her and getting in his shell to strike down at her. After getting hit, Valentina saw Dodo coming back onto the cloud, along with Bow, C-2 Choppor, and Geno.

"Sorry that we were back there… We had to deal with that bird." Geno assured.

"Dodo? How could you lose already? Well, come on! Get over here!" Valentina ordered as she made ice saws come at Chopper, who was able to guard her attack and take 11 damage.

Chopper used the pulse attack from the Star Rod to deal damage to both Valentina and Dodo. What was also nice was that Dodo didn't really attack that much, which was nice.

"I think I can try something!" Kayzee used her Sing move on both Valentina and Dodo. It did damage to them and made Dodo fall asleep.

"Great… Dodo is asleep." Valentina groaned as she threw her fan toward Chopper, but Bow managed to make him invisible to keep him from getting hit by the fan. One thing for sure was that it was close.

Chopper became visible again and whacked Valentina with his hammer to deal only 6 damage. Geno followed up with a Geno Blast attack after that. With that, Valentina used her ability to paralyze Chopper, who managed to guard it so he wouldn't become paralyzed.

"Man, Valentina is not really an easy person to fight," Chopper sighed. "I guess that explains why she's really strong…"

Chopper used his D-Down Jump on Valentina to take away 8 from her, and then following up, Mallow used his Thunderbolt to hit both Valentina and Dodo. Dodo woke up, but he immediately ran away.

"Dodo! What are you doing! Come back here, you stupid bird! Ugh… Fine! I'll just handle this myself then! I don't need you!" Valentina yelled as she poured her martini on the cloud and made six flowers appear.

"Hey, what're these things?" Yosho asked.

"These things will recover my HP each time you make an attack on me," Valentina. "I'll also recover some HP each turn because of these! I'm not going as easy on you like before now."

"Oh boy… This isn't good." Chopper sighed. "Wait, Koopla! Use your Fire Shell to take out the flowers!"

"All right, then!" Koopla got in her shell and flames surrounded her as she hit the flowers and Valentina, making the flowers get destroyed from her shell.

"All right now!" Chopper ran toward Valentina and grabbed her and made a punching attack to knock her down. Her bird hat was messed up.

"You… How dare you attack a queen like that! Very well… Take this!" Valentina blew her martini and a bunch of wind began to blow Chopper. He was trying his best to stay on the cloud, only taking 4 damage as he lost his Suplex ability.

"Oh boy… Not good." Chopper decided to become Tornado Chopper and spun around in a tornado to attack Valentina. He managed to pick her up and make her fall to the ground to deal 8 damage. C-2 Choppor aimed at Valentina and he fired a blast at her afterward,

"This might work…" Valentina trailed as she made an attack that ended up stunning Koopla to prevent her from using any of her attacks.

"Gah! Darn it! She's got me paralyzed!" Koopla screeched. "How am I supposed to make an attack now? !"

Chopper sighed and he used his D-Down Jump on Valentina to deal 8 damage, followed up by Mallow's Thunderbolt. Valentina threw her fan at Chopper, and it knocked him down, making his power come off him.

"Let's see how you like my hammer, Valentina!" Chopper shouted as he walked over to Valentina and whacked her with his hammer with a D-Down Pound.

"This is getting a bit too much for me…" Valentina trailed as she got attacked by Bow's Power Smack, which left her with 30 HP. Things weren't going smooth for her right now, and she needed to do something, so she poured her martini on the clouds again and some flowers appeared. Without Koopla, they couldn't do much to destroy these flowers.

"Oh god… This is bad. I'll start off with something." Chopper shot a fireball at the first flower, which burned it down. Kayzee used her Heat Vision to take out the next flower. There were only four left, and each one could recover 4 HP, which let her recover 16 HP.

"See? How do you like that?" Valentina grinned. "Now I'm going to recover all the damage you've dealt to me soon enough!"

"Oh yeah?" Chopper became Fire Chopper and used his Fireball to destroy all the flowers and deal damage to Valentina.

"There we go! Good thinking, Chopper!" Ghoster complimented as he used his psychic attack on deal 8 damage to Valentina. Afterward, she used some crystals to hit Chopper, who tried to guard it but failed.

"I'm gonna need to recover," Chopper took out a Jelly Ultra and ate it to recover 50 HP and 50 FP.

"Time for an explosion!" Bruce walked over to Valentina and he exploded right in front of her, which left her black with soot.

"You pests! Take this!" Valentina made it rain crystals in the sky, and everyone began to dodge them quickly. Chopper tried to smash them, C-2 Choppor fired blasts at them, and Geno fired his Geno Beam at them.

"Whoa! This is crazy!" Chopper cried as he was able to get to Valentina and use his D-Down Jump to stomp on her head. After that, Yosho laid an egg.

"This is fer what ya did to me before!" Yosho declared as he threw an egg at Valentina, which hit her directly in the face.

"This isn't good…" Valentina blew her martini to make Chopper become frozen, but it had no effect due to him being covered in flames. "I almost forgot! He's got that Fire ability on him right now!"

Chopper smirked and spewed out fired at her while Geno fired his Geno Beam at her to leave her with only 8 HP.

Valentina blew her martini once again to make wind come at Chopper. His feet were moving in a fast pace in order to avoid the attack. Sadly, his ability came off, and he was panting.

"She's weak now! We have a chance of attacking!" Mallow declared. "Go ahead, Chopper!"

"No, Mallow. _You _can do the honors of taking her down!" Chopper advised. "One thunderbolt and it's over!"

"Really? I guess you're right. She tried to make a fake prince, so I better do it! Valentina, you better be ready for this!"

Mallow summoned a huge lightning bolt down on Valentina, which sizzled her up and made her drop 48 Star Points for Chopper to level up and upgrade his FP to 70. With her kneeling on the ground in pain, the Power Star dropped from her.

"I don't believe this! I was beaten by a little brat! How was this possible? Dodo! Get over here now!" Upon hearing this, Dodo came over to her, who certainly didn't look too pleased. "Oh, so NOW you decide to show up! I already lost, so we're getting out of here! I can't believe I've failed King Bowser… His strongest minion... Beaten by Chopper and his friends. This just isn't right…"

Dodo grabbed her with her talons and began to fly away. After they were gone, Mallow was happy.

"It feels so nice that my parents are back! I can just shed tears of joy!" Mallow cried as Chopper became Parasol Chopper and he held his umbrella up. It then began to rain.

"Oh man… Don't cry please! It's pouring out here!" Bruce cried.

"It's OK! Those were happy tears!" Mallow assured as he stopped crying. "I'm so happy I'm able to see my parents again! We need to go see them again to see what's going on."

"Yes… But for now we need to get the Power Star." Chopper noted as Mallow agreed, so he walked over to the Power Star and picked it up, letting the Star Rod float out of his hands and toward the Power Star.

Once it went into the Star Rod, it was bright, but still incomplete.

"It's about time," Geno smiled.

**You got the sixth Power Star! Only one more remains!**

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_And so, after exploring this cloudy land, Chopper and his friends were able to make it to Nimbus Land to defeat Valentina and also find Mallow's real parents. Now everyone knows that Mallow is actually the prince of Nimbus Land, making him get more respect from his fellow friends. But… It doesn't feel like Valentina would give up like this so easily. She let herself lose the Power Star… Something doesn't feel right._

"All right!" Chopper cheered as he put away the Star Rod. "We only need one more Power Star! I can't believe we made it this far!"

"I know! We're going to restore the Mushroom Kingdom in no time!" Mallow cheered. "We better go down to see my parents!"

Chopper and his friends began to walk over to the cloud that brought them up to the cloud, but suddenly they heard something coming from behind. They saw Valentina throwing a ball of energy at the cloud!

"What the… Valentina hasn't given up yet?" Chopper gaped as he got in a fighting stance.

"O, ho, ho, ho, ho! Not yet I haven't! I'm not going to lose so easily!" Valentina shouted. "If you were able to get that Power Star, I might as well get rid of you! Enjoy your fall!"

As the flew off, the heroes noticed the the cloud was destroyed, making everyone fall down from the sky. As Chopper began to fall, he noticed ten beams that appeared as his partners fell to the ground.

"What on earth were those?" Chopper wondered.


	84. Chopper Meets Fairisp

A little lower down and far from Nimbus Castle, Chopper was lying face flat on a long, cloudy pathway. From what he could recall, he saw ten beams appear around the kingdom, but for what reason?"

"Ohhhhh… I'm not feeling so good..." Chopper moaned as he got up and felt a little bit of pain from the fight against Valentina.

"Huh? I'm still up in the sky?" he looked around, but he didn't see Nimbus Land or King and Queen Nimbus around anywhere. "Guys? Koopla? Bruce? Parakarry? Bow? C-2 Choppor? Yosho? Kayzee? Mallow? Ghoster? Geno? Are you guys around here!"

Unfortunately, he got no response.

He looked down began to check where he was from below. Unfortunately, he couldn't find anything around. No ocean in sight. It was like there were other clouds covering the place.

"I can't just stay here… I need to find where my friends are…" Chopper pulled out the Star Rod and saw it was safe. He only needed one more Power Star… "Only one more Power Star remains..."

Chopper put the Star Rod away and began to slowly walk along the cloudy path. He wished that he could just speed through this area, but he was a little too exhausted to do that.

"_I must find my friends… I don't want them to be in any trouble. But I don't know where they are now… What am I supposed to do?" _

Unfortunately, Chopper tripped on the cloud. He was even too weak to push himself up.

"Don't give up yet, Chopper," Chopper mumbled to himself as he began to use his arms to keep moving. Unfortunately, because of his stubby arms, he wasn't doing such a good job. What mattered was that he found his friends as of now.

"I need…to use that Ultimate Shroom…" he tired to grab the Ultimate Shroom, but he didn't have the strength to pick it up. Chopper slowly closed his eyes, but when he opened them and looked up, he saw Bowser and Maquano as a ghost laughing at them. He then saw one at Staris laughing at him because of how weak he was.

He blinked once again and he saw a spirit of a similar friend walking toward him. It looked like Chopper's friend.

"Fl-Flyer…?" Chopper tried to reach for him, but suddenly the spirit was surrounded by some darkness. He noticed that all he could see in that darkness is two glowing yellow eyes and a sword before fading away.

"No! Come back, Flyer…" Chopper moaned as he raised his arm, but then it came down. There was nothing he could do now. It's over…for him at least.

However, flying around in the sky was the pink wisp. She didn't seem to be pleased as of now.

"_Ugh, this is getting really annoying finding Chopper. I couldn't find him anywhere after following him through a path to a park, a desert, a forest I couldn't get through, a box full of mechanical things, an island, a flower place, a cold area, a castle, a river, a creepy world, a forest, a casino, and the ocean."_ the wisp breathed heavily._ "I look around here up in the sky and I STILL don't find him! When will I find him? He's gotta be here SOMEWHERE!"_

The wisp began to fly down from the clouds, but she stopped for a moment and saw a pale green lump on a cloud.

"_Wait a minute… Is that really…? Oh my gosh! I found him! …But is he all right?" t_he wisp flew down over to Chopper and tried poking him.

"_Hey! Wake up! Stop sleeping and get up already!" _Chopper was moaning and slowly got up and saw the fairy.

"Huh…? Who are you?" Chopper asked lightly.

"_Wow… You don't look so good."_ she noticed._ "Anyway, I've been looking all over for you! I'm a fairy, you see. I came here for your help. I had to go through some of your friends to find you, but I didn't succeed with you."_

"My friends?" Chopper recalled his friends telling him something. "…Wait, I heard about them talking about a vision they've seen five hundred years ago. Does this mean…that you made them see that?"

"_Yes, I've done that. They weren't lying about that."_

"Why didn't I believe them? I feel awful..." Chopper trailed. "Well, what's your name?"

"_My name is __**Fairisp**__. I am a fairy that lives in Star Haven. I needed to come down to you so I could give you a hand. It's about Staris. Let me show you something. It all happened eleven years ago."_

Fairisp went right in front of Chopper, and she blurred his vision, making his vision fade away.

* * *

**Star Shrine, eleven years ago-**

"What… What is this place?" Chopper asked as he looked around at the shrine. "Fairisp? Where are you?" he looked around for her, but she was nowhere to be found. Sadly, there wasn't much Chopper could do.

So, he decided to walk around the place. In the middle of the huge place was shallow pool of water. He still didn't have the strength to jump, so he went in the water to walk to the other side. He looked at all the Star Kids playing when he made it over to the shrine. He saw on the ground some kind of drawing. It had Staris on it and also the Star Rod. The seven Star Spirits were around someone that resembled Chopper.

"Is that…me?" Chopper gaped as it looked like he was a yellow color and was fighting against Staris, who looked much different than before. He definitely did not look like Staris's fifth transformation.

"I don't get it. Why am I on this picture?"

"Oh, hello there. I didn't know you were watching the Star Kids play." Chopper stopped and turned around to meet someone he knew for a long time.

"M-Mom...?"

"No no, that's not my name," Tonberria laughed. "I don't have a child. But Toalune and I were thinking about having one.

"I'm from… No, I'm just someone who came here to see Staris." Chopper sighed as his head hung low.

"Aren't those Star Kids having so much fun?" she asked as she looked at the Star Kids. "They're all happy, and it's all because of Staris. I heard he's very nice, according to the Star Kids. …Oh, you don't look so good. What happened to you?"

"I got into a fight, and this is what happened."

"One of Bowser's minions, I presume? I had to help save the princess from him. Luckily, I worked together with the famous Mario to stop Bowser. It wasn't easy, but we succeeded. I never knew he actually liked the princess."

Chopper still looked at the drawing of what he's seeing. It's like it's telling him that Staris can't get the last two Star Spirits, or it would be the end of the Mushroom Kingdom for sure.

However, seeing his mother here, he realized something.

"Wait! I need to tell you something! It's VERY important!" Chopper cried.

"Yes? What do you need to tell me?"

"It's about what's going to happen seven years later! It's VERY important to listen to this! You see… That's when…"

Unfortunately, Chopper's vision began to fade away. When he noticed it, he began to cry out for his mother as he tried to reach out for her until he couldn't see her anymore.

* * *

**Present day-**

"Mom… No…" Chopper trailed as a tear came down his face. Unfortunately, that didn't help when Fairisp slapped him.

"_Chopper! Snap out of it! Did you see that drawing right by the shrine?"_ Fairips asked._ "You saw what will happen if Staris gets all seven Star Spirits! He looked HUGE on there!" _

"I know… But why did I leave that place now? I wanted to tell my mother about what happened four years ago. I could've saved my planet…"

"_You don't want to mess time up. It's a VERY bad thing. That's why I brought you back here. Just because I wasn't there doesn't mean I couldn't hear everything, you know."_

They saw something flying by. It looked like an airship that belonged to Bowser. It looked like it was upgraded to travel at incredible speeds. When it flew past Chopper, the strong wind was enough to blow him off the cloud.

"_**Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhh!**_" Chopper screamed as he began to plummet to his doom. However, he soon closed his eyes as a sad look appeared on his face.

"_No! Just when I found him, I lose him once again! I didn't want this to happen!" _Fairisp cried. _"I didn't give him the item needed to complete the plan to defeat his enemy..."_


	85. Chapter 14 Interlude

"_**WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT?**_"

Inside Bowser's Castle at the entrance, which had a red rug leading up to a throne that Bowser was sitting on, he was enraged from the news that Kammy Koopa told her.

"You're telling me Queen Valentina lost to Chopper and has gotten the sixth Power Star!?" Bowser roared as he stomped his foot on the ground. "Gwah! I can't believe it! He just defeated my strongest minion!"

"Your Grouchiness! Simmer down!" Kammy cried. "Remember your blood level! You can't be going off angry like this! Don't you remember last time what happened?"

Bowser began to think about what happened. He remembered the castle having a big hole from the flames he spewed out.

"Oh, yeah… But I'm out of minions to guard the Power Stars. I didn't even send one out for the last one! …Wait, I don't remember where that last one is. I think we better go see Maquano about this."

Bowser and Kammy left their castle to go to Maquano's Castle, where they saw Bob coming over to the castle on his motorcycle. He went in first and went to the fourth floor where Maquano was at. Bowser and Kammy decided to follow him up there.

* * *

**Fourth floor-**

Maquano was sitting down on a chair in his own private room, but then the door slammed right open, which made him fall off his chair.

"Hey, Maquano! I've missed you, buddy!" Bob cheered.

"You… Get out of here NOW!" Maquano roared as he got up.

"Not yet! I came here for a reason! Noogies! Noogies for the nerd!" Bob began to go after Maquano to give him a noogie, but he got punched in the face by Maquano instead.

"Don't even THINK about it. I'm tired of having you around here. Wherever I go, you ALWAYS follow me. It's like you're stalking me, and it's preventing me from destroying Chopper."

"Like I care. I already saw your computer crash, and also I REALLY had to go to the bathroom. So I decided to take a wiz on your cape."

Maquano looked at his cape and looked enraged. "You've gone too far now, Bob. I think this is it for you."

"What do you mean?" Bob suddenly found a sword impaled through his chest. "Hey! What're you doing?"

"Something I should've done a long time ago," Maquano grinned. He pulled his sword out of Bob, who disintegrated into darkness. He put his sword away, now feeling satisfied.

_"Maquano, you in here?_" Bowser asked as he knocked on the door, which the demon knight opened.

"Don't worry, I got rid of Bob," Maquano assured. "We don't have to worry about him any longer."

"We've got some bad news," Kammy informed. "Chopper has gotten the sixth Power Star."

"I know, Camikon already told me," As if on cue, Camikon came in and walked over to Maquano.

"Lord Maquano, where is the last Power Star located?" Camikon asked.

"The last Power Star is someplace safe. Don't worry about it, guys. But I discovered something else. Chopper and his friends have been separated, and everyone but Chopper fell into a teleporter room around the Mushroom Kingdom. That's right, they went into a teleporter too. And do you know where they went? They were taken to Chopper's home planet, Clara!"

"His home planet, you say?" Bowser gaped. "So THAT must be where the last Power Star is right now… That's where you tossed it to?"

"Yes, you're correct. That Power Star I threw up into the stars went to his planet. But, I've got things all covered. Bowser, your minions were no match for Chopper. And I must say this: They suck."

"Are you saying that you're a lot better than me? Gwa ha ha ha! Oh, you're so foolish! I've got tougher minions than you do! I bet not even YOUR minions could hold onto a Power Star!"

"Bowser, the last Power Star is being held by one of my strongest minions," Maquano explained. "I was able to find him about six days ago. Chopper won't stand a chance against him. He became so strong, that he's even stronger than my Hellspawn Royal Guards! THAT'S how powerful he is. I bet none of your minions have reached that level, Bowser."

"Oh… He's right, King Bowser." Kammy agreed. "I think he's being serious right now."

"Oh, really? Then show us this minion you got!" Bowser demanded. "I want to see him and you can prove how strong he is!"

"Why, certainly. Camikon…you made sure no one looked into that room, right?" Maquano asked as the two wizards gulped.

"…Yes," Camikon lied.

"OK, good. Now, let's see my most powerful minion." Maquano walked to a door that said "Lord Maquano Only". "I'll only let you in here ONCE. Although I'm sure he's probably going to be coming out. He's been sitting in there just for the right time…and to get some great power. I'm planning on making him second-in-command."

"What? Lord Maquano! What about me?" Camikon gaped.

"Oh, you… You're still what you are. He'll be good for fighting against Chopper. He'll lead BOTH the Hellspawns and your minions, Bowser."

"What? You want my minions to go there too? ALL of them?" Bowser gaped.

"Well, you can if you want. You DO want to take care of Chopper, right? You can go ahead and send them to Chopper's planet. The place is pretty big, so you can probably take it over."

"Ah, excellent idea, Maquano!" Bowser smirked as Maquano opened the door, while Bowser turned to Kammy.

"Kammy, go tell the minions to get ready. You know, the ones guarding the Star Spirits and the Power Stars. We're sending them after Chopper. He won't stand a chance against all of them!"

"Certainly, King Bowser!" Kammy nodded as she left the castle to return to Bowser's Castle. Camikon went to go get the Hellspawns prepared for Clara.

They saw lying down on a bed a mysterious masked person. He seemed to be asleep right now, so all that could be seen right was a silver mask with the mask having vertical and horizontal openings.

"The time has come. You're going to Clara, **Sir Flyknightis**…" Maquano declared as yellow eyes appeared from Sir Flyknightis. Bowser was surprised himself.

"Whoa… Why does he remind me of…?" Bowser stammered. "Well, you know what I'm going to say. He's…the smallest minion I've ever seen!"

"Don't underestimate him. He's got some strong powers, and his weapons will help him fight Chopper. Yes, he's ready to go now." Maquano grinned. "I'd say this guy is five times stronger than that dumb queen Valentina!"

"Hmmmmm... We'll see about that!"

* * *

**?-**

While Chopper was unconscious, the spirit of Eldstar appeared and flew over him, looking down at the exhausted pale green boy.

_"Chopper, listen to me… Your friends…and the Power Star. They are on your home planet now."_ Eldstar informed. _"You must head back home if you are to find the last Power Star. It's being held by some strange masked person. We don't know who this person is, but he's holding the Power Star. It won't be as easy as the other ones. All of Bowser's minions will be there waiting for you, including the Hellspawns. The strange masked person is the one leading them. I suggest you be careful. That's all I can tell you. My power is beginning to fade. …G…ood…lu…c…k…C…h…o…p…p…e…r…"_

Eldstar's spirit faded away, and it revealed Chopper sleeping in Peach's bed in her room. Peach was sitting down on a chair right beside him. Perhaps he landed in Toad Town where Peach saw him.

"Hi, Princess Peach!" Twink greeted as he flew over to Peach. "How's Chopper doing right now? It's been a while since he fell down from the sky!"

"He still hasn't woken up," Peach replied. "Poor little guy, he suffered some bad injuries when he came down here. I don't know what's happened, but I feel sorry for him."

Chopper slowly opened his eyes and noticed he was in Peach's room.

"Oh! Chopper! You're awake!" Peach gasped.

"Huh? Where am I right now?" Chopper asked.

"Don't try to move. You're still a little too weak right now. Here, have some of this. Twink and I worked very hard on this." Peach took out some Mushroom Soup, which smelled good according to his antennas (they can sense whether something's good or not, or if there's any danger).

"It'll make your heart feel better!" Twink smiled as Chopper took the soup and slowly gulped it down. He blinked a few times and was able to jump out of the bed and land on the ground like some kind of rocket.

"Oh man! That was GOOOOOOOD!" Chopper smiled as his HP and FP were fully recovered. For some reason, he felt incredible!

"I'm glad you're awake," Peach smiled. "What happened up at the sky? Where are your friends?"

"I don't exactly remember, but we found Mallow's parents and he ended up being a prince. We chased Valentina up on a very high cloud, and after beating her and getting the Power Star, she destroyed the cloud and we all ended up falling down. I even saw that vision…just like Choppor, Koopla, Kayzee, Bow, and Geno… It was just so intense being alone on a cloud, weak and unable to do much. I even fell off the cloud because of an airship."

"An airship? We saw one flying over here." Twink recalled. "It was really strange, but we also heard some good news! Mario is going to be coming back first thing tomorrow morning!"

"Mario's coming here? Oh, man! I would LOVE to meet him! …But I can't do that now. I was told something. I think the last Power Star…is on my planet! If that's the case, then I'm going to have to check out myself!"

"OK, you can go. You're feeling better anyway." Peach nodded. "Good luck on finding the last Power Star!"

Chopper waved goodbye for now and left Peach's room. Once he came out of the door, Toadsmeth noticed him and walked over to him.

"Chopper! You're all right! THAT is good news! I thought you would be dead!" Toadsmeth gasped.

"What?"

"Er… Nothing. Listen, I apologize for that bad aim. You can give me as much blame as you want. You can jump on my, pound me, burn me, or even freeze me. I give you full permission to let you do this. I will make sure that I get as much pain from you as possible."

"Relax, Toadsmeth. I already got the sixth Power Star. I'm fine now. I just need to go to the teleporter machine to go back home."

"Home? But what about saving the Mushroom Kingdom? That's what you're supposed to be doing, right? You're going to leave this place in chaos?"

"No, that's where the last Power Star is. I think Eldstar told me this. He said an unknown person wearing a mask is holding it. I don't know who this masked person is, but I think he may be the strongest one of both Bowser and Maquano's minions. Yeah, that much I think."

"OK then… You might as well head back there." Toadsmeth said as Chopper waved goodbye to him and began to run to the first area of Toad Town near the small gray building.

"If my friends are there, then that must mean my planet will be in danger! I don't want this to happen anyway. I gotta go back!" Chopper opened the door and looked shocked to see someone already in the teleporter room.

"No way..."

It looked like the masked person Maquano had been talking about, Sir Flyknightis. The yellow eyes reminded Chopper of that spirit he saw on the clouds. The masked boy was holding a golden sword with the top of the hilt curved down instead of being curved up like Maquano's sword hilt. It looked like the sword was made of the same material as Chopper's hammer. He was wearing silver gauntlets and boots and wore a gray cape with a symbol of a wing on it. Sir Flyknightis had silver shoulder pads with a yellow stripe trim with his left shoulder pad also having a symbol of a wing. Like Chopper, he was a spherical shape, but yellow instead of pale green and also had gray pointy wings on his head. His left gauntlet could seemingly change to a wrist blaster.

"Hey, who are you?" Chopper asked as Flyknightis turned around and looked at Chopper. He blinked a couple of times as he stared at him.

He brought his left arm up, and his gauntlet turned to a wrist blaster, which fired a blast at Chopper, who managed to avoid the attack.

"Man, you sure are a silent person," Chopper said as he landed on the ground. "But why do you remind me of my friend? I don't get it…"

Flyknightis swung his sword, and it was surrounded by lightning that struck down by Chopper, which made him jump up.

"Whoa… You sure have something. But I got this!" Chopper shot an ice ball at Flyknightis, but his sword simply swung it away, destroying it completely. He slowly shook his head at Chopper and turned around to walk into the teleporter.

"Hey! Wait!" Chopper tried to chase him, but before Flyknightis teleported, he swung his sword to damage the teleporter machine and prevent it from functioning.

"No!" Chopper cried as the winged warrior disappeared. "So… This masked boy is the one who's considered to be the strong one, huh? …And he's smaller than all the other minions I've faced before!"

Chopper walked out of the teleporter room and decided he might as well use some of the beans to buy some Badges from Fawful, so he went down to the sewers under Peach's Castle to see him.

* * *

**Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge-**

"Hmm? The Green Antenna has the arriving once again? Fawful welcomes you once again!" Fawful grinned as Chopper came back. "What brings you the showing?"

"Hey, Fawful… Here, I want to trade some of these beans for…that Multi-Hand Badge!" Chopper said as he pointed to the Badge, so Fawful tossed it to him, and Chopper gave the beans to him.

"Ah, beans! Fawful has been craving for beans like a hungry bear! BUT… Fawful still has gotten something! It is full of fury!"

"You got something? Could you show it to me?" Chopper asked. Fawful nodded and went to the back of his shop and got gloves that got Chopper's attention.

"Fawful calls them Diamond Gloves! They are the rarest of the rare gloves in the kingdom made of mushrooms!"

"Oh, WOW! I might NEED those! …But I'm all out of beans."

"I have chortles! Fawful has a deal to give you! There are thirteen Gold Beans that Fawful craves for, and they're found in the places of a sandwich around here! …Which have the meaning of by telling you that they're underground. Find all fourteen, and Fawful shall have a trade, and then I will have more fury!"

"So you want me to go find thirteen Gold Beans for you? Doesn't sound so bad… I've been around each place, so I won't have much of a problem. I'll be back with those beans."

* * *

**Toad Town-**

Chopper left the sewers and was back outside in Toad Town. While walking out of the gate to Peach's Castle, he bumped into Luigi on his way out.

"Ow! Oh, sorry, Luigi! I didn't mean to bump into you. I'm in a hurry right now!" Chopper apologized.

"That's OK," Luigi assured until he realized who it was. "Man, it's been a while since we spoke! What're you doing right now? I was just going to see how you were doing, but seeing you here, I guess you're fine."

"I need to go find fourteen Gold Beans to get Diamond Gloves. They might REALLY help me, since I ran into some masked boy that I have no idea who he is."

"A masked boy? Oh, you're not the only one. He came to my house and tried to get answers from me without even saying a word! Not only that, but he made something on the grass with his sword. It looked like his name, which said 'Sir Flyknightis.'"

"Sir Flyknightis? So that's who he is." Chopper slowly nodded. "He tried to attack me, and it's like that lighting he uses from his sword is unstoppable! It comes right down and there's nothing that can be done!"

While they spoke, Merlon came out of his house and noticed Chopper. "Ah! There you are, Chopper! I was about to go looking for you, but you're here now. Come on into my house. You can bring in Luigi if you want."

"Okey-dokey!" Luigi nodded as he and Chopper walked into Merlon's house.

"Listen, Chopper. You're friends have been taken to your home planet by Bowser's minions." Merlon explained. "Some of them fell into the teleporter rooms, while others were taken. As for the Power Star, it's being held by a mysterious person wearing a mask."

"I know, I saw him," Chopper nodded. "He was going to my planet and succeeded in doing it. I tried to stop him, but he was just too strong. He even destroyed the teleporter machine before going!"

"Oh, then that is not a good thing. The only thing that could fix something like that is if we had some light power. Yes, light power is essentially the strongest kind of power in the world. It can stop any darkness, and it can repair anything damaged. Many people used this power to fend off the darkness, but as of today, there's very little of that now. It's VERY rare, and there's no way you can really find it. But, some are in things such as gloves, or are within you."

"Wait… I was told I could get these gloves if I got fourteen Gold Beans."

"Gold Beans? Well, that might work. They're not easy to find, but if you get them, then you'll be in luck. Hopefully those gloves are truly the right ones."

"I'll come with you, Chopper," Luigi declared. "You might need some of my help to find them. I've found many before back eleven years ago, and still I can find them."

"Really? That's sounds good!" Chopper smiled. "I'd love to have you travel with me to find the Gold Beans!

"I wish you luck on finding those beans," Merlon said. "They could be the key to getting to your planet…and that may not be so easy."

"All right, we'll keep note of that.

They left Merlon's house and began to start their adventure on finding the Gold Beans. They pretty much had to go to nearly every single are they've been in before.

Once they were in the park, Luigi found something, so Chopper used his Rocket Jump to go down into the ground and pick up a Gold Bean.

"Here we go!" Chopper held up the bean, and they proceeded onto Dry Dry Desert. They found a Gold Bean in there, and then they headed to Forever Forest next. They had to go into the third floor room in Boo's Mansion.

Chopper and Luigi began to search in the room, and Bootler appeared.

"Chopper, is that you? What on earth are you doing?" Bootler asked.

"Searching for a Gold Bean. Aha!" Chopper went underground with his Rocket Jump to get a Gold Bean.

"What happened to Lady Bow? I thought you said you would take care of her while she traveled with you..."

"Oh… We got separated up in the sky." Chopper sweat dropped. "I feel kind of bad right now."

"Well make sure she comes back here unharmed," Bootler suggested. "I know you might be able to go help her, so I won't bother you about it."

Chopper and Luigi left Boo's Mansion to go to the Mechanical Box. They found a Gold Bean in the Gray Area, where Chopper fought C-1 TM, so they headed to Yoshi's Island afterward using the boat and found a Gold Bean on the beach.

* * *

**City of Flowersville-**

At the City of Flowersville, Chopper and Luigi were nearly exhausted. They had been getting a lot of the Gold Beans, but they stopped for a moment when they saw Kojo Pete attacking the city again.

"Mwa ha ha ha ha ha!" Kojo Pete cackled as he was controlling a destructive robot that was destroying the place. However, Blayzee and Tayzee flew at the robot and defeated Kojo Pete.

"Curse you Dayzeeflower Girls!" Kojo growled as he slowly got up from his destroyed robot.

"That's the third time this week!" Tayzee groaned. "When are you going to give up already?"

"You realize we're going to beat you every time you attack this place," Blayzee noted. "You just never learn to quit now, do you?"

"I just want to take over this place," Kojo Pete muttered. "That's all I want, and you're not helping!"

"Hey! I see you're doing fine here." Chopper said, walking over to them.

"This is a VERY weird place. I don't think I've been here before..." Luigi trailed.

"Who's that green weirdo?" Tayzee asked.

"Hey!"

"I'm talking about the one behind you. I don't know who he is, but why do I care?"

"Aw man… How come no one pays attention to me?" Luigi sweat dropped. "Why can't I go on my own adventure? …You know what? Maybe it's time Luigi got his own little adventure. You like that idea, Chopper?"

"Sure! Hey, the Gold Bean!" Chopper noticed the X on the ground and went down and got the Gold Bean.

"Hey, Chopper… How's Kayzee?" Blayzee asked.

"Well, she's doing just fine. That is, until I lost her and the rest of my friends..."

"Well that's good! ...Wait, did you say she's not here?" Chopper's eyes widened when he saw a familiar ghost behind him, which scared Luigi. Blayzee continued to prattle on, but Chopper didn't pay attention to her. "Hey! Are you even listening to me?"

"Oh please, Blayzee! You always have to keep babbling about unnecessary things!" Tayzee groaned. "That's why they didn't even listen!"

"Shut up, Tayzee!" Blayzee snapped until they felt Hauntost tapping them from behind their shoulders.

"Hey, you girls! I got something for you!" the two girls turned around and got licked by Hauntost's tongue

"Gross!" they shrieked, becoming paralyzed.

"I thought you were dead!" Chopper gaped.

"Not exactly! You can't exactly kill a ghost!" Hauntost grinned as he grabbed the two girls and Kojo Pete. "I just came here because we needed bait! Sir Flyknightis wanted us to get bait, so we'll take these girls…and also this Koopa!"

"Hey! I am Kojo Pete, soon-to-be ruler of the world! You better let me go at once!" demanded Kojo Pete.

"Take this, ghost!" Tayzee tried to punch Hauntost, but since he was a ghost, she couldn't do much.

"You can't REALLY hurt you ghost! It doesn't work!" Hauntost cackled as he made a rope and he pulled it, making a beam come down on them and making them go into the airship that Chopper remembered falling off the cliud from it.

"Oh man… It looks like all the minions are getting prepared and are working together." Chopper gulped. "This…could be bad. We gotta find the rest of the Gold Beans and FAST!"

"OK!" Luigi agreed as they headed to the remaining places, collecting Gold Beans. They went to Shiver Mountain to get one, and then they headed over to Tadpole Pond to get one, since there was no chance of going to Bowser's Castle. The Ghost Pass had one, and even Star Hill had a Gold Bean there. Thankfully, Metal Chopper was not seen around.

"Thank goodness Metal Chopper isn't here right now," Chopper sighed.

"He's someone that's really threatening, isn't he?" Luigi asked as Chopper nodded and got the Gold Bean and headed to Nightclub Casino to find a Gold Bean in the Garbage Pit.

They went to the ocean and onto Science Island to find a Gold Bean underground and then headed over to a spring that was on the island to go back up to Nimbus Land. Chopper found a Gold Bean there, and they quickly left to return to Toad Town.

* * *

**Toad Town-**

"All right, we got…thirteen Gold Beans? Luigi, did we forget any?" Chopper asked.

"I don't know. I guess you can turn those beans in for right now since you're here." Luigi suggested. "I need to go fix that mark on the grass by my house. I just hope Flyknightis doesn't come back to destroy the garden. My bro wouldn't be happy with that. It was good traveling with you!"

"Same here, Luigi!"

"Maybe some day we'll be going on an adventure together. If that day happens, then that would be nice." Luigi began to head back to his house with Chopper waving goodbye.

* * *

**Fawful's Bean 'n' Badge-**

"Here you go, Fawful. I got all thirteen Gold Beans." Chopper said as he put the bag of Gold Beans in front of Fawful.

"With a Gold Bean such as this, Fawful shall have greater fury!" Fawful cackled. "I will have the ruling one day… The day may be far for Fawful, but once the timer on the microwave goes off, the day of reckoning will belong to Fawful!"

"Uh… I can hear what you're saying." Chopper noted as he saw a Gold Bean in Fawful's hands. "Don't tell me you actually had one of them!"

"So you bring beans to Fawful? Give them here!" Chopper took them out and he gave them to Fawful as he grinned. "Excellent! Here you go, Green Antenna!"

**You got the Diamond Gloves! The attack power of Chopper's Hand ability increases! Now Chopper can use light to fix things and get rid of darkness! Use it on dark enemies and they'll take more damage from it!**

Chopper equipped them and fired a light ball of energy, which came toward Fawful and knocked him down.

_"Oog… I have pain…_"

"Sorry Fawful…" Chopper apologized. "You're kind of weird, but thanks to you, I can save the Mushroom Kingdom!"

He left his shop as Fawful slowly got up, with a red glow coming from his glasses.

"Oh, don't you have the worrying, Green Antenna. You may have the fury…but one day Fawful will take that fury like a football player getting his chocolate on his potato salad!"

* * *

**Toad Town-**

Chopper ran to the teleporter room and saw the teleporting machine was still not working, but with a light ball, he was able to fix it up.

"All right, time to go find my friends and also get that last Power Star from Flyknightis! …But I need to be on the watch for Staris too. He can't get those last two Star Spirits." Chopper said as he pressed the button to go to his home planet, and he disappeared from the green beam shooting down at him. He hoped that he could find his friends as well.

* * *

**I had to let Luigi have a part in this chapter, so I did! That, and also Fawful...who kind of seems like he wants to get revenge... Although, I will admit the backtracking was a little on the annoying side...**

**Chapter 15 begins next time! It's a long one, but it's hands down one of my favorites with one of my favorite boss fights!**


	86. Back on Chopper's Home Planet

**CHAPTER 15**

**-The Battle for Planet Clara-**

Meanwhile, at the entrance of a gray castle, there were Koopatrol Scouts and Hellspawns standing in two lines. A Koopatrol Scout was sleeping, while a Hellspawn noticed him sleeping and hit him.

"Ow! Hey! What was that for?!" the Koopatrol Scout exclaimed. "You didn't have to do that, you know. I'm right here!"

"Well I was trying to wake you up. You can't be sleeping when **he **comes to the castle. He doesn't like it when we sleep on the job." the Hellspawn explained.

"Yeah, whatever. I'm sleeping." the Koopatrol fell asleep again as a snot bubble came out of his nostrils, but then Sir Flyknightis came walking toward the castle, his cape blowing through the wind the wind. The snot bubble on the Koopatrol popped and he woke up, saluting to him.

"No worries, Sir Flyknightis! I wasn't sleeping!"

* * *

**Bottom of the jungle-**

Chopper walked out of the teleporter building and looked at the environment around him. He spread his arms out to get a glimpse of the fresh air from his home planet, which felt great to him.

"Ah! It feels great to be back home!" Chopper sighed. "…Well I'm not necessarily home right now. I can go to my house and consider it to be home. I think that would be best to do right now - as long as I don't run into any enemies on the way."

Chopper ran through the jungle, moving as fast as he could now that he didn't have any of his partners to hold him back. There were Koopatrol Hunters who could fire spikes from their shell and have green shiny armor, unlike the scouts, who wore light blue.

"Whoa! Guys! Look over there! It's Chopper!" a Koopatrol Hunter alarmed as it fired spikes toward Chopper, but he became Needle Chopper to protect himself from the spikes by surrounding himself with his own needles.

"I'm not letting my guard down so easily!" Chopper declared as he fired needles from his helmet at the Koopatrols, which knocked them down. This allowed Chopper to run away easily. He removed his helmet and threw it at one of those Koopatrols afterward.

"Damn. He got away…" a Koopatrol Hunter sighed as it got up. "Sir Flyknightis would've REALLY liked to see him captured. It's a shame..."

"Hey, I heard that the airship dropped three people down somewhere in the jungle. I don't exactly know WHERE, but I heard they're somewhere. King Bowser would've been pleased if we captured Chopper, though, and so would Sir Flyknightis."

After a quick run through the jungle, he saw his house up ahead, but a Darkling got in the way.

"I don't think so, Chopper! You're not going anywhere!" Three more appeared as Chopper stopped in front of them.

"Oh… This isn't good." he gulped as he could see that they could deal at least 12 damage. They were definitely stronger than the ones that he faced in Koopa Bros. Park. They had around 28 HP, and they could duplicate into more.

"Wait a minute… I got that Multi-Hand attack from Fawful! I can use that against them! …And since they're made of darkness…" Chopper conjured up a light ball in his hand, which made the Darklings shocked.

"What's he doing? I didn't expect him to have something like THAT! We gotta get outta here! Before he destroys us all!" It was too late, Chopper shot four light balls rapidly at the Darklings, which made them get enveloped by light and destroyed.

"All right!" Chopper waggled his finger after winning the fight and he got himself 8 Star Points. With that, heran to the front door of his mushroom house and began to pant. "OK… I'm finally home. It's been a while since I came here. I better see how things are doing here."

He decided to check and see if the door was locked. To his surprise, it wasn't.

"Wait… I locked this door when I left!" Chopper opened the door and saw his room in a mess.

"Oh no… Was I robbed?" Chopper looked around his house and noticed nothing was stolen, but things were knocked over or broken. He made sure the food was all right, and it was. On a table, he noticed a picture with him and his friend Flyer was shattered in two.

"Huh…?" he saw the table itself was literally broken, but the difference was that it seemed to be cut and blasted. But one thing he noticed was on the wall, there was a wing symbol. He remembered seeing that on Flyknightis's shoulder pad and cape and realized who caused this.

"Flyknightis… Why would you even do this?" Chopper also noticed that the picture was also touched. It had fingerprints left on it. "Are those Flyknightis's fingerprints? His fingerprints reminds me of Flyer's for some reason. ...Honestly, I don't know why he would do this..."

He heard a beeping sound on the ground, where he saw a communicator. It looks like he dropped it, so Chopper immediately picked it up and he answered it.

_"Sir Flyknightis, there's no sight of Chopper anywhere,"_ the voice sounded just like Red from the Koopa Bros._ "I don't know where he went, but he should still be in the jungle." _

"Uh… You can't find him? Oh, that's a shame. Just return to the airship then."

_"Hey, your voice sounds…kind of different. Are you catching a cold? Well, let's hope you get a little better. Anyway, we have a little problem... We saw two girls and also some crazy Koopa heading toward the desert. We'll patrol the place for now. You know how to get to the desert, right?"_

"Of course, I've been here—I mean Lord Maquano told me where the desert is," Chopper assured. "Don't you worry about me now, OK?"

_"Uh… Sure thing, we'll be going now." _Red put away his communicator, and Chopper decided to hold onto it for now. Just then his own communicator went off, so he took it out to talk to Toadsmeth.

_"Ah, Chopper! I was wondering where you were."_ Toadsmeth said._ "You are on your planet, right? Good, because things are looking fine here without that airship in the way."_

"Professor, you know that the stuff in my house was knocked down and destroyed by Sir Flyknightis? He somehow got into my house and destroyed one of my favorite pictures and also put a feather symbol on the wall!"

_"Flyknightis? I'm sorry, but I don't… Wait! Don't tell me he's that masked boy that led the airship to take some people from places and place them here! It took my Hearoscope!"  
_

"Oh… I'm sorry about…the Hearoscope. Listen, I need to get going. I can't stay here forever, because they might find me in here. It would be an obvious hiding place, you know."

_"All right, I'll see you then, Chopper."_

"Now to get out of here," Chopper put away his communicator and opened the door, but he saw a strange note on the ground. He picked it up and began to read it..

_Dear Chopper,_

_We need help. Swamp under attack by bad guys. Dangerous jungle this become. We die soon by bad guys. Help us._

_The Treedos_

"The Treedos want my help?" Chopper gawked. "They don't usually ask for any help from me. They're peaceful people…but then again, I'm someone who fights against evil that's around, so I suppose I got no other choice but to go."

Chopper ran out of his house and he locked it this time, unlike what happened before. He quickly began to run through the jungle with his speed, jumping over pits around and stomping on Goombas.

"I can't believe there are Goombas here. I mean, they aren't even that tough! They're just mushrooms…"

The jungle area reminded him of when he first went out to go save the world. He took this exact route to head to the lake, and it was the only route to go anyway. A purple Piranha Plant emerged from the ground to attack Chopper, but he was able to shoot a fireball at it and burn it down. He stomped on a Koopa after that to flip it over and finished it off with a Power Bounce.

After a little bit of running through the jungle, he saw up in the sky three familiar faces flying. He stopped and saw them flying toward the direction where the desert was.

"Are those…the Frenzyweed Boys?" Chopper gaped. "How on Clara did they make it here? This doesn't make much sense! …Unless that airship managed to take them and bring them here… Now I'm wondering how the airship got here..."

He ran through a loop and also a corkscrew up ahead and shot light balls at Darklings that were coming toward him and also kicked some Koopas to knock them away. He saw one Koopa holding a wand.

"Hmmm… I wonder what that wand has." Chopper jumped on the Koopa to knock it down and began to inhale it wand.

"Hey! Don't inhale that! I need that to reflect projectiles and fire mirrors!" the Koopa ended up letting it go, which went into Chopper's mouth. "Gah! I worked hard to get that thing you know!"

Chopper swallowed the wand and now held onto a wand with a crystal ball on the top, a red and teal dual-toned jester hat, and his skin had a white tint while his shoes and gloves became a gray color.

"Uh oh… I think I'm colorless now! Nah, I just turned white because of that ability." Chopper chuckled as he saw a projectile from a Darkling coming toward him, so he used a mirror to reflect the attack.

"Whoa!" the Darkling got out of the way, but it didn't notice a glassy blade come toward it and destroying it instantly.

"OK, I better get going. That vine up ahead should take me to the swamp. It shouldn't be so bad right now." Chopper got on the vine and began to grind down a huge hole in a circle, and into a tunnel that leads into the swamp.

In a bush nearby, voices could be heard. The Koopa Bros. came out of the bush and flashed their thumbs. Red smirked as he saw Chopper grinding down on the vines.

"Heh heh… Well boys, looks like we found out where Chopper's going!" Red snickered. "Now we can get our revenge against him! …And it won't be like last time. You know what I'm saying right, Yellow?

"Whoa, Red. What're you saying?" Yellow gawked. "We're going to go down to the swamp and give him a beating?"

Red simply gave Yellow a bonk on the head.

"No, because if we just go down to go after him, things may not turn out what they're going to be. THIS time I'll have either Black or Green do some of the stuff."

"Yeah, like Yellow could do anything," Green snickered.

"Oh, lay off him already, Green," Black suggested. "We're all on this together, you know. So what if Yellow screwed up? I've got something that'll take Chopper down no problem! …Not to mention I got some new gloves. They fit me much better." he looked at his black gloves that he replaced with his green ones. Even the others had gloves matching their masks.

"OK, listen. We're going to go down to the swamp and we're going to capture Chopper." Red declared. "King Bowser wants us to bring him to his castle ALIVE. I don't know why, since he really wants Chopper dead."

"Maybe he wants to interrogate him and get answers from him about the princess," Yellow shrugged. "If we end up killing him, then that's a problem. But I don't understand why we're going after an eight year old child."

"Yes, you have a good point, Yellow. Anyway, we better get a move on. Chopper's a fast one, and we'll have to be pretty sneaky. We better leave some traps for him. Let's move!"

The Koopa Bros jumped down to the hole…but they saw below there was a pool of water as Red muttered, "…or not!" as they fell into the big pool of water. Sadly, they didn't notice a vine for them to grab onto.

* * *

**Swamp-**

When Chopper came off the vine and landed on the ground, he noticed all of the murky water around him. He remembered coming through this swamp once, but he didn't come here on his first adventured.

"Finally, I'm in the swamp," Chopper sighed. "I don't see any enemies that look threatening, so I should be safe from any enemies."

Chopper jumped onto a log, which began to carry him across the water more land. However, two black Shy Guys with masks called Snifits with propellers jumped out of the water and began to fire cannonballs at Chopper.

"Whoa!" Chopper reflected the cannonballs with a mirror, and t he cannonballs went back at the Snifits, knocking them into some trees and making them explode. Chopper sighed as he headed to the next area, hitting the Save Block on his way. There was another log that he jumped on it to go through some more water.

"I wonder where those Treedos are. It doesn't feel safe to be here without them..." he found some land over to the north and he went over there with the log. He found a huge beanstalk that could go up to the upper area of the jungle, but nothing else was around except for a pathway to the right. He saw a wall up ahead with a door. Chopper was confused, but he walked over to the door anyway and knocked on it. No one came out, but he noticed a sign on the door.

_Find a way in yourself._

"What? They expect me to get in there myself? Wait a minute…" Chopper saw an X on the ground so he used his Rocket Jump to go into the ground and ended up getting inside of the place, which had a dark brown ceiling and floor. Chopper had a light ball appear so he had more light. In fact, he threw it up to give the place some light.

"Ah, you make it. Welcome boy." he saw a tree person with leaves being his hair and two holes for his eyes. His arms were branches and the leaves were fingers too. The tree was wearing some leaves around his waist, while the female Treedos had leaves around their waists and around their chest area.

"So you're the Treedos that wanted my help? What's going on around here?"

"Five armored guys and girl come," a Treedo explained. "They threaten us with axes. They be dangerous."

"We protect ourselves with machine guns. But they retreat to upper jungle. They be planning something."

"Who are they? In fact, who sent them? I REALLY need to know who's been doing this." Chopper explained. "I'm trying to find the Power Star, and if I know who did it, I can certainly tell they attacked just to get me over here."

"The people who came are **Axem Rangers**. They work for evil and take orders from strange masked boy who try to threaten us. He really dangerous…"

"Axem Rangers? I don't know who they are…but I know for a fact that Flyknightis is behind this. He even wrecked my home himself!" Chopper frowned until he heard the door knocking. "Is that a good sign?"

"Uh oh. We be under attack!" the Treedos got their guns ready and kicked the door open and aimed their guns at the person at the door.

"Hold on, let me see who it is," Chopper walked past the Treedos and saw Geno at the front door.

"Chopper? Is that you?" Geno gasped as Chopper jumped up in surprise. "Don't attack! I know him! This is Geno."

"Oh... We apologize." the Treedos lowered their weapons as Chopper walked over to his wooden friend.

"What happened, Geno? How did you get here?"

"Well… After falling, I ended up falling into Toad Town into a teleporter machine that took me here." Geno explained. "I ended up in the jungle and saw how big it was. I decided to go search around to see if I could find you or any of our friends, but I had no luck. Coming here, I wanted to go ask for some help, but then I found them aiming their guns at me until you showed up. I'm glad that you're all right."

"It feels great that I found one of you guys, but there's a big problem right now. The Treedos were attacked by five people called the Axem Rangers, and they're being led by a masked boy named Sir Flyknightis."

"Oh, I saw the Axem Rangers, but they didn't see me. They seemed to be following a boy with a mask. It feels like a young boy is commanding them and a big army. I think they're planning on taking over this world. However, I felt the Power Star coming from him, so he must be holding it. Last time I saw him, he was going to a castle."

"Trinado's Castle!" Chopper gaped. "That must be where they are! Geno, we need to head on over there and stop them! Maybe Trinado might actually be around, but we've got no time to lose. Treedos, I'll find those Axem Rangers for you."

**Geno rejoined your party!**

"You take beanstalk to upper jungle," a Treedo suggested. "They go up there. Take it now before they come back."

"Got it," Geno nodded as he and Chopper left the house and made their way over to the beanstalk.

"OK, we gotta climb up this thing. Think you can do it, Geno?" Chopper asked as Geno gave a nod. With that, the two of them began to climb up the beanstalk. They found themselves going up to the upper jungle, where they found many beanstalks holding onto some platforms with light green grass and the walls being brown with some moss on it. When Chopper made it to the top, he grabbed Geno's hand and pulled him up.

"So this is the upper jungle? It looks pretty interesting…" Geno squinted to see a castle further up ahead. He could see an airship over there, which seemed to alert him. "Over there, Chopper! There's the airship and castle! We can probably make it before it's too late!"

Geno jumped onto a round platform to get to a higher ledge on the floating area and saw a vine making a loop leading to a vine hanging from a branch that could help get them over to a platform.

"Oh, that vine. I'll handle that. I'm sure you're not heavy, so you won't be a big problem." Chopper picked up Geno and began to grind on the vine to the platform, though he grabbed the vine first and then jumped on the platform.

"This is a very strange jungle," Geno commented. "First everything's giant, then there's tree people, and then there's a place high up from the jungle. Honestly, this jungle is VERY weird…"

"This planet does have weird things, but it isn't just a jungle, you know. It's got A LOT more than this. We're only on the first continent, while there are seven overall."

"Seven continents! …Boy, you're planet must be HUGE. ...But enough about that. We gotta go find that masked boy in that castle and also destroy that airship. There must be an army in there."

"Actually… Every single minion I've…well, sort of we, faced is in that ship. Yeah, each and every one is in there." Chopper explained while running through the loop and also holding Geno up while going through it and jumping off the ramp onto another platform.

"You gotta be kidding me. That's A LOT to deal with." Geno gaped as he put Chopper down. Doesn't that guy over there count?"

"Who?"

"Him," Geno pointed to Popple, who was reaching for a medallion on a short tree, but sadly, he couldn't reach it.

"Wait… Popple? What's he doing here?" Chopper gawked as they walked over to him. Thankfully, he didn't seem to notice them.

"Must…get…medallion!" Popple grunted before he heard Chopper greet him. When he turned around, he gaped at them. "Oh! What is this! Boo, I say! Y-You guys again? But wait… I thought there were eleven…but I only see two… I don't get this..."

"We've been separated, and I only found Geno," Chopper explained. "But what are you doing here? How did you get here?"

"I've fallen into some machine after my escape, but I lost the treasure! I came here and now and I'm…picking at this tree, see?"

"You look like you're trying to get that medallion," Geno noticed. "It looks like it might gain us access to somewhere."

"But I found this treasure first! It's mine, see?" Popple whacked the tree again and the medallion came down, which let him grab it. He was about to get out of this area but Chopper quickly blocked his way.

"Fine! I'll go the other way!" Popple walked down over to the beanstalk but Geno got in the way.

"No, we suggest you give us that medallion right now," Geno demanded. "It's for your own good, you bean thief."

Popple kept taking other ways, but Chopper and Geno were still able to keep him from moving any further. They eventually had him cornered, leaving the shadow thief to sweat drop.

"Oh, sure, you guys are real tough, teaming up on me! Don't think you can beat me just 'cause I'm alone. It's my solo debut on the battle lines, see?"

"All right! We'll fight for the medallion!" Chopper declared as he got in his fighting stance.

**Tattle: **_So Popple's alone this time, huh? It sure reminds me of when you first met him, Chopper, Max HP: 140, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 1. He's still the same as always, and it shouldn't be as hard now without Rookie with him. He'll usually steal things from you and use his sack to attack. Since all you have is Geno, just keep using him to fight. He is already a great partner to have in battle anyways. But where could Rookie be right now?_

Chopper charged up a light ball and fired it at Popple, which knocked him back and almost made him fall off the platform.

"Whoa, when did you get THAT power?" Geno gaped.

"A weirdo gave them to me if I found fourteen Gold Beans," Chopper explained. I did it and got the Diamond Gloves. They're pretty cool from what I've seen!

"I see," Geno nodded as he fired his Geno Beam at Popple, which didn't knock him back, but he certainly got hurt from it. Popple got behind Chopper and tried to make a surprise attack on him, but he was able to guard Popple's attack.

Chopper decided to shoot a mirror blade at Popple with his Mirror ability, which gave him a cut on his shirt.

"Boo, I say! Look at my shirt! You ruined it now, see?" Popple roared.

"Oh, shut up," Geno suggested as he fired another Geno Beam at Popple. However, this only made him angrier.

"It's time I threw something out from the sack!" Popple began to reach into his sack to throw many things at Chopper. He ended up throwing some coins and Bob-ombs for the most part, but he also threw a Mushroom at Chopper that made him recover 5 HP. Popple grinned as he began to run toward Chopper to steal something, but he managed to push him away easily to prevent anything from getting stolen.

"Watch it now, Popple! There's no way I'm letting you steal MY stuff!" Chopper warned as he attacked with a Power Bounce and stomped on him nine times. Since they still had a lot of FP left, Geno decided to use his Geno Flash by turning into a cannon and firing a ball of energy at Popple, which exploded.

Popple didn't know what else to do, so he ran over to Chopper and stomped on him to knock away his Mirror ability. One thing for sure was that he wasn't pleased with that.

"Hey! That one wasn't easy to get!" Chopper yelled as he used his D-Down Hand to fire a light ball of energy at Popple, followed by Geno's Geno Beam. Popple had grinned as he took out his sack and pulled out a Poison Shroom.

"Oh, yes… This'll get you, see? You'll be poisoned before you know it!" Popple cackled as he threw a Poison Shroom at Chopper, who was able to whack it away with his hammer and make it fall into the jungle.

"I wonder if anyone got poisoned from it," Geno said with concern. "We wouldn't want anything like that to happen..."

"Yeah, that's true... But for now, let's not worry about it." Chopper suggested as he used his Power Bounce on Popple and stomped on him eleven times, leaving him with 60 HP left. Geno decided to go with his Geno Flash again to deal 12 damage to Popple. The shadow thief clenched his fists and took out a flamethrower.

"Where the heck did you even get a flamethrower? !" Chopper gaped. "Those things aren't even easy to get!"

"I still saved this from my sack! You'll burn now, see?" Popple shot fire from the flamethrower, which turned Chopper black with soot.

"Oh boy… This again…" Geno sighed as he grabbed Chopper and quickly shook the soot off of him. Chopper quickly shook himself and used a defense-piercing light ball on Popple afterward.

"I still don't understand how that pale green drip has that immense light power," Popple pondered. "Only Popple the great shadow thief deserves such power!"

"You wish," Geno replied as he used his Geno Blast on Popple, which left him with only 32 HP left. Popple began to pant, but he didn't give up just yet. He began to throw many things from his sack at Chopper. He even threw out some of his coins and Super Shrooms that Chopper received.

"Hey, thanks Popple!" Chopper thanked after swallowing the Super Shroom. "And to thank you, I'll let you have this!"

Chopper walked over to Popple and whacked him in the head with his hammer as Geno couldn't help but chuckle a bit.

"Heh… Well I might as well add something." Geno fired a Geno Beam at Popple, which began to make him feel exhausted.

"I'm not giving up, see? I can take you on without Rookie! He's nothing right now!" Popple growled as he searched through his sack. "Ah! Here it is!" he took out the portrait that belonged to the Goombas and whacked Chopper in the head with it.

"I still have this from before! I didn't get my chance to sell it, but I will sometime, see? …When this is all over, that is!"

"No one would want to buy that thing…" Chopper growled as he stomped on Popple and moved out of the way to let Geno fire his Geno Beam at him. "That portrait belongs that Goomba family, and you're taking it without permission!"

"Urgh... I'm a thief... Thieves don't care if we take things without permission..." Popple wheezed as he whacked Chopper in the head with his sack, only to get hit by a light ball afterward, which knocked him over and gave Chopper 32 Star Points.

"…N-No! B-But I'm not giving up, see?" Popple got himself up and ran toward the castle up ahead, leaving the medallion behind him.

"Chopper, it's that medallion!" Geno noticed. "We better take it..."

"Yeah, I think it'll be important," Chopper agreed as he picked up the medallion. "You know... I did feel like I was having fun in that fight, even though fighting is not something that's supposed to be good..."

"I'll admit that, but I couldn't help but find some of that stuff funny with Popple," Geno chuckled. "But anyway, we should head to the castle before we're too late."

Chopper agreed and ran toward the castle with the long path leading them there. He was going as fast as he could, until Geno called him, which caused him to break and trip, which made him fall face flat on the ground.

"Whoa, Chopper! Wait for me!" Geno cried. "You know I can't run as fast as you, right? It takes me a while to get to places, so maybe you should carry me to the castle so neither of us has to worry."

"Uh… Sure, I guess." Chopper sighed as he picked up Geno and began to head toward the castle. When they got there, they stopped when they saw the airship leaving the castle, to their disappointment. "Oh no! The airship's leaving! Are we already too late to stop it? Dang it... There's probably nothing in that castle, so there's no point in going through there."

"Wait… It may not be over yet. We should check what's inside of the castle first. Just because the airship left doesn't mean their leader hasn't. He could still be in there with whoever lives in the castle."

"Maybe…" Chopper trailed and saw Popple getting in without the guards noticing. This made him looked surprised. They thought he wouldn't have made it through. "Hey! Popple was able to get in there! How on Clara was THAT possible?"

"I have no idea. There are only six guards over there, so maybe we have a chance of getting through. If they try to attack us then we'll be ready for anything."

"Ummmmmmm… OK, I suppose that might work. _Just as long as they don't get their big weapons_…" Chopper trailed as he and Geno walked to the front entrance of the gray castle. The three Koopatrol Scouts and three Hellspawn Grunts happened to notice them..

"Hey! It's… Why, sir! What are you doing here without your armor and mask?" the Hellspawn Grunt asked, too stupid to realize it was Chopper. "I thought you always wore that mask at all times!"

"Hmm? What are you all talking about?" Geno asked as Chopper immediately covered Geno's mouth to keep him quiet.

"Shhhhh! This might be a good thing to do!" Chopper whispered. "They think I'm their leader Flyknightis!"

"We thought you went into the castle to speak to King Trinado, sir!" the Koopatrol Scout explained. "We weren't aware that you left the castle! Forgive us, sir!"

The Koopatrol who was sleeping woke up and noticed everyone's attention to Chopper. "What are you guys talking about? Who's that weirdo?"

The Koopatrol Scout talking before slapped the Koopatrol. "Aren't you aware that our leader is standing right in front of us? Show some respect for him!"

"Huh…? Oh! Right! Sir! What are you doing without your own armor and weapons? We need to get you in something good for seeing King Trinado! He's been dying to meet you, sir! So hurry on and go in and change into these! We'll give you something for your friend as well!"

The Koopatrol gave Chopper the armor, mask, and the cape while he looked confused. It's like he looked like Sir Flyknightis without his mask on?

A Hellspawn gave Geno a Koopatrol outfit and they moved out of the way. "Well, thank you very much. We'll be going now." Geno thanked.

Chopper and Geno walked into the castle and got into their armor. Chopper's mask gave him glowing green eyes when and Geno's armor couldn't really fit, but he was able to get it on while it looked uncomfortable.

"This isn't really working out for me, Chopper," Geno noted. "It's too tight in this armor. How do these Koopas fit in them anyways?"

"I don't know," Chopper shrugged. "We should just check around here for anything and be on the lookout for Flyknightis and possibly Trinado."

"We need to be aware of anything around here," Geno stopped immediately when he saw a lava pit down below them. "Like that!"

"Relax, we'll just jump over it. I can do that with these Diamond Shoes anyways." Chopper assured as he made a big jump over the lava pit. Geno was able to jump over as well. Afterward, they noticed some poison gas up ahead.

"Oh… Poison gas. Just great… Hold on a minute." Chopper became Tornado Chopper and became a tornado to get rid of all the poison gas, which led up to an elevator. With that, he removed his ability.

"I'm surprised you still have your mask and armor after becoming Tornado Chopper," Geno realized. "I wonder where the enemies are anyway."

"I dunno, maybe they're having party on the beach…or maybe they're playing chess," Chopper could imagine two Koopatrols playing chess.

_"Check mate, loser!" A Koopatrol to the left of the game board said. The Koopatrol who lost didn't look happy. He grabbed the board and slammed it on the winner's head, which made the board go through the spikes and was on his body while left dazed as the Koopatrol left.  
_

"Yup… I think that might happen." Chopper smirked as Geno pressed the button on the elevator and it opened, so they headed on in to go up to the next level.

"So this is another one of those castles with an elevator. It's…interesting, I suppose." Geno commented as the elevator door opened, and they made it into another room with trapdoors. They could tell by the darker spots in the room.

"I remember this. Don't try to fall down these holes. We'll just end up going back to the beginning of the castle, and you wouldn't want that, right?"

Geno shook his head as they saw some Koopatrols and Hellspawns cleaning the castle up of some bugs. They saw the two walking by.

"Why, sir! I didn't know you were here!" a Hellspawn gasped and saluted. "I thought you were at the top floor in King Trinado's headquarters! …Well maybe you had other things to do, sir. Be careful of the falling light bulbs. They're here for when Chopper comes in."

The Hellspawn led Chopper and Geno past the trapdoors and showed them a path where the light bulbs won't fall on them. He walked over to the elevator and pressed the button for the door to open.

"King Trinado is up on the 431st floor. Please be careful when going up there, OK?" the Hellspawn informed as they both nodded and they walked in. Chopper pressed the button to the top floor, and the elevator began to go up fast.

"There are 431 floors? That's crazy!" Geno gaped. "That's too many for a castle! But we'll at least find that Flyknightis person…I hope."

After about three minutes, the elevator stopped and the door opened. They were in a big room with a computer terminal across a bridge, and below it was poison. They both noticed that Trinado and Flyknightis were at the terminal along with some other minions, like leaf minions and Hammer Bros. They seemed to be discussing something.

"So… You're saying they found people in the desert?" Trinado deduced. "I heard that two girls and a Koopa went there, but there are two others trapped in the desert too. Don't know who, but I don't really care."

"Yup, that's what it is," a Hammer Bro. nodded. "We better head there right now. We're getting close to conquering this continent."

Chopper and Geno walked across the bridge to the army as Trinado turned his head to Chopper, thinking he was Flyknightis.

"What do you think, Sir Flyknightis? Should we head over to the forest?" Trinado asked until he got whacked in the head by the real Flyknightis, who noticed Chopper and walked over to him.

"Huh…? Am I seeing…two Sir Flyknightises?" a Hammer Bro. gawked. "It must be my imagination… I'm not getting this."

Chopper looked at Flyknightis, who walked over to him and pulled the mask off of him. He saw that it was Chopper in that mask. Trinado gasped and and growled.

Flyknightis looked at Chopper without saying a world a word and looked at Geno before he summoned a powerful tornado which got rid of the armor on him and also on Chopper, showing their real identity.

"Chopper? So it's YOU! Man, have I been WAITING to find you!" Trinado roared as Popple ran into the room and gasped at Trinado.

"R-Rookie? Is that you?" Popple gaped.

"Rookie? Look, bean, I'm not your little pet anymore. I'm the king of these leaf people! What do you want anyway?"

Popple saw the mask on Flyknightis. "THAT! That's what I came for, see?" he ran over to Flyknightis, who used his wind powers to blow him away out of the castle as Trinado laughed.

"Wait a minute… I already know someone who can use wind powers!" Chopper gaped. "Who are you behind that mask?"

"You should reveal yourself right now, or else this might get ugly," Geno wanred. "In fact, you should hand over that Power Star right now."

Flyknightis's used his wings to escape the castle, while Chopper tried to grab him, but he had no luck in getting him. Trinado then walked onto the bridge, taking out his two poison swords.

"All right, playtime's over! Let's just do this already!" Trinado declared.

**Tattle: **_So THIS is where Rookie went, huh? It seems like he's no longer Rookie now. He calls himself Trinado. Max HP: 170, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 2. This guy does what he did as Rookie…but he's got some new tricks up his sleeves. He can jump and spin in a ball to attack you, and can also shoot a vine to immobilize you. You might wanna be careful against him, now. But remember, he's weak to fire, so you might have an advantage if you use fire against him._

Chopper knew what he had to do. He shot a fireball at Trinado, which caused him to be set on fire and take 8 damage instead of 6, which might give them an advantage.

"Ow ow ow ow! It buuuuurns!" Trinado cried as some Hammer Bros. poured water on him to get rid of the fire. "Ahhhhhhh… That's better. Thank you for that." he sighed in relief until he got hit by Geno's Geno Beam.

"Oh, so that's how you want to play, huh? Well then… Take this!" Trinado threw one of his swords at Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack and not get poisoned by his sword.

"All right, time for another one!" Chopper shot another fireball at Trinado to weaken him a little more and also allowed Geno to use another Geno Beam on him. "Maybe we better use some stronger attacks on him…"

Unfortunately, Chopper didn't notice Trinado jump and spin in a ball and come down at him. It almost knocked him off the bridge, but Geno was able to help him.

"Don't worry, I got you," Geno assured as he pulled him up.

"Thanks, Geno. Now then…" Chopper became Fire Chopper and used his Fireball ability to ram into Trinado, and then Geno used his Geno Blast on the leaf king afterward.

"Gah! It's time to summon my minions! Leafions! Come forth!" Trinado called for some Leafions and three of them came down. "Yes… Good… These Leafions of mine will help me heal off any damage each turn. I'll be recovering 20 HP each turn, so you better be careful now!"

"Well, at least I still got the Fireball attack to deal with them," Chopper smirked as used his Fireball attack on the Leafions and Trinado, which destroyed the Leafions and dealt damage to Trinado as well. Geno fired another Geno Beam at Trinado.

Trinado quickly shook his head and fired a solar beam at Chopper. He jumped up a little and he tried to stop it by breathing out some fire. Both collided and there was an explosion. Chopper was holding onto the edge of the bridge, and so was Trinado.

"Oh boy… This isn't good." Chopper looked at Trinado and shot a fireball from his mouth at him.

"Ack! Hammer Bros.! Help me!" Trinado cried as the Hammer Bros. grabbed Trinado's hand and pulled him up.

"OW! Man, you're really hot, you know that?"

"I know. Shut up and get me up here already." they pulled Trinado up onto the bridge, and Geno allowed himself to use his Geno Flash, which made him also defeat the Hammer Bros.

Trinado quickly shook himself and swung his vine sword at Chopper, removing his Fire ability and knocking him down.

"Dang it! Fine, I'll use something else!" Chopper became Cutter Chopper and used his Final Cutter attack, which dealt 10 damage to him, followed by another Geno Flash. Trinado had a little soot on him from the flames, which he didn't appreciate.

"Grrrr!" Trinado ran toward Chopper and kicked him, knocking his helmet off, which fell down from the bridge and made him lose his ability.

"Dang it! Fine, I'll use something else…or just this!" Chopper shot a fireball at Trinado, knowing that he didn't need to use his Fire ability. Afterward, Geno fired a Geno Beam at Trinado, leaving him more than halfway finished.

Trinado was able to attack Chopper, but Geno managed to fire a Geno Beam at the poison swords to send them flying away from Chopper. Trinado growled and grabbed his two poison swords.

"Hmmm… Just maybe… I got a good idea!" Chopper smiled as used his Ultra Jump Charge, boosting his Jump attack by 4.

"You sure this is a good idea, Chopper? Wait… My Geno Boost could give you a hand." Geno used his Geno Boost on Chopper and his Attack Power increased by four. "Yeah, this could be very helpful..."

"So you're just trying to get stronger, huh? Well at least I can make my own attack! Take this!" Trinado jumped up and came down on Chopper while in a ball, leaving the pale green boy to pant.

"OK, here it goes," Chopper used his Power Bounce on Trinado, and he was able to stomp on him about nine times. Because of the Attack boost, it left the Leaf King with only 2 HP left.

"Wow, that really did do something. Now let's finish this up." Geno fired a Geno Beam at Trinado, which made him lose his balance and fall into the poison pit.

"_**NOOOOOO! I'll get you, Chopper! You'll regret doing that!**_" Trinado screamed as he fell. After he landed in the pit, Chopper received enough Star Points to upgrade his BP to 42.

"Well, now we took care of that," Chopper sighed. "He's gone for now, but he can survive poison, so we don't need to worry about him as of now.

Geno walked up to the terminal and saw how advanced it was. "Wow… This terminal is impressive. It's the most advanced thing I've ever seen."

"Yeah, it sure is something. This thing can take you to the second continent. I've tried using it before, so I bet it'll work." Chopper pressed the "Desert" button on the terminal, but a picture of Maquano's helmet appeared instead.

_"You must insert the medallion to go to another continent! Heh heh heh…" _

"Wait… You got that medallion, right? You should put it in that slot over here." Geno realized as he pointed to the big coin slot. Chopper nodded and put the medallion in there. It came back out, and a green beam appeared right by them.

"That must be our ride to the desert," Chopper confirmed.

"The desert? Oh… That may be tough. Deserts aren't usually the easiest places to go through..."

"I know, but it's fine there. It's always been like that. Now let's just go into the teleporter."

Chopper and Geno walked into the green beam and were instantly teleported out of the jungle. One thing Chopper hoped was to find his friends, which, chances are, they're around here.

* * *

**Yeah, now you're going to expect to see the chapters get a little longer at this point. But yeah, that's the start of Chapter 15. They take place on different areas that we've seen once before, such as a desert. However, it's a little different here.  
**

**And you'll definitely see a fight in every chapter here, just a heads up.  
**


	87. Desert Exploration

In the lower jungle area, where Chopper's home was, Popple's head was stuck in the ground and was having a hard time getting out. When he managed to push his head out of the ground, he began to pant.

"Rookie… What have you become? You were…my best friend, see? I helped you out in Forever Forest…and you just leave me without caring!" Popple's sadness changed to anger. "And you think it was cool to have your little masked friend blow me out of your castle like that! Well then… If you don't want to be my Rookie anymore, then I'll go find someone else and take care of the pale green drip!"

He began to smile as he folded his arms. "Once I get myself a new Rookie, THEN we'll see who's better! Yes, he or she will be much better than you. You were pretty useless anyways, you stupid Leaf King. I'm gonna prove to you that my new Rookie will be twice as better as you, see? And if not… Boo, I say!"

With some loud cackling, he took off.

* * *

**Desert-**

Out in the desert Blayzee and Tayzee, were floating around, hoping to find any help. Sadly, they haven't been having luck with this for miles.

"Blayzee… Can't we just take a break?" Tayzee asked. "There's no way we're going to find anything around in this barren desert! It's so…barren!"

"No, Tayzee… We need to keep going. It's our only way of seeing what we can find here. Don't even whine about it." Blayzee suggested as she heard moaning. "And I don't understand why Kojo is even following us. Shouldn't he be doing something evil right now?"

The two girls turned around to see Kojo Pete running after them. "Wait up, girls! I can't be out in the desert alone! Help meeee!

"Ugh… What do you want, Kojo?" Blayzee groaned. "Shouldn't you be thinking up of a plan right now?"

"If I was to think of a plan, I would need a place to be in," Kojo Pete explained. "And to be in a place also means to be comfortable to relax! Therefore, I am saying that I need a place to be in so I can destroy the Dayzeeflower Girls! …But I am very thirsty and need some water."

"I don't understand what you just said," Tayzee said as she just punched Kojo in the face and smirked.

"Tayzee! Why did you do that?" Blayzee scolded. "He's not doing anything right now! What gives you the right to go hurt him?"

"He needs to go on his own way. That's what he needs to do. Because that will…" Tayzee paused as she saw a shadow over them. It was an airship, and the pilot happened to notice them coming down.

"_Well, this looks interesting…"_ Axem Red thought._ "That looks like those people from that flower city place… I think we can use them for something… At least that's what Flyknightis would think."_

He brought the airship down the three as Hammer Bros. and Goombas came out of the airship.

"They look pretty threatening!" Blayzee noticed, getting in a fighting stance. "We need to fight them! They've taken us before, and we're not letting them do it again!"

She and Tayzee began to fight all the Goombas and Hammer Bros and were dominating the fight.

"This is just a piece of cake! Is that all you got?" Tayzee scoffed as she finished a Hammer Bro. Once they took care of them, Flyknightis walked out of the airship and looked at all of the minions beaten to a pulp.

"Who's this masked weirdo? Oh whatever, this should be easy!" Tayzee scoffed.

"Wait, Tayzee!" Blayzee cried as Tayzee flew toward Flyknightis, who summoned a tornado that instantly suck her in and spat her at Blayzee, making them fall to the ground in pain. Flyknightis took a step and glared at the three of them. From their perspective, he looked pretty menacing, and even the minions were cheering for him.

"Yeah!"

"Go Sir Flyknightis!"

"You're the man!"

"Don't let two little girls and a weird Koopa stop you!"

"We'll soon rule this world!"

"Are you actually conquering the world?" Kojo asked as he sprung up. "Could I…join you?" Flyknightis raised an eyebrow before pondering, but after a while, he nodded, only to get a hug from him. "Oh, thank you! Now we can crush these Dayzeeflower Girls! Mwa ha ha ha ha!"

Flyknightis kicked Kojo Pete away and gestured him to never do that again.

"Hey! You traitor!" Tayzee growled.

"How could you do this to us? After all we've been through?" Blayzee gaped as Kojo Pete grinned at them. Flyknight moved Kojo aside and pulled out his golden sword. He swung it three times and when he brought it down, lightning struck the two girls to the ground. Everyone cheered for him, especially Kojo Pete. Afterward, Flyknightis took out a small laser cannon with the ability to brainwash people.

"Hold on! Let me do the honors." Kojo Pete declared as he got close to Flyknightis. "It's my full duty to destroy them, and making it my full duty means that I must take responsibilities for it. Therefore, I must have it so…"

Flyknightis bonked his head with the hilt of his sword and handed the laser cannon to him. With that, Kojo Pete began to cackled as he aimed it at the girls, who looked up at him.

"Kojo... What are you doing?" Blayzee moaned.

"Something that'll make you guys more likeable!" Kojo Pete grinned.

"You better not be doing something bad..." Tayzee growled.

"It's bad all right! Now hold still!"

* * *

**Somewhere else in the desert-**

Chopper and Geno found themselves in the barren desert with nothing around. There were no enemies and not even water. With the sun being out, it made the place hot.

"So this is the second continent, huh? This desert is so vast…" Geno trailed. "I can't tell how much there would be here. Chopper, you've been here before, right? Wouldn't you know about this place?"

"Well I know it's certain we're here…but it's so hot!" Chopper wheezed as he tried to fan himself with his hand. "I wish there was water here! I could imagine if Koopla was in this desert. She HATES the desert…"

"You're right. Being flat means that there's nowhere to hide, and that means the airship would know we're going after them, which isn't good... If we missed anybody in the jungle, then that's another problem."

"Then we better get moving," Chopper suggested as he picked up Geno and began to run through the desert. Little did they know that there was a robot version of Chopper who was listening to their conversation.

"Yes… Go right ahead, Chopper. Go through this desert" Metal Chopper grinned. "You won't be seeing anything for hours! And once you are weak, I'll destroy you! Not even that Flyknightis person will stop me from destroying you!"

* * *

**Some time later-**

"Whoa, Chopper! Watch out for that tornado!" Geno warned as Chopper was running past some cacti. The tornado looked the tornadoes from Dry Dry Desert, so he simply tried to avoid them. However, after a while, Chopper was starting to sweat and put Geno down.

"Chopper, are you all right? You seem a bit tired." Geno noticed.

"Well duh… You're lucky you're a doll. They can't get all tired in this weather." Chopper wheezed looked up and wiped his forehead. "Maybe we should just walk."

"I suppose you're right," Geno agreed as they walked, but when they got near a cactus, Chopper stopped.

"Hold on a second… Flyer told me that cacti have water stored in them!" Chopper recalled. "I think if I can somehow get them open, then I can have some more energy!"

"But how could you do that?" Geno asked. "If you touch them you're just going to get yourself hurt and… Wait, Sword ability, right?"

"You betcha!" Chopper became Sword Chopper and took out an empty bottle he took with him. He used the sword to cut through the cactus and make some water come out of it. Chopper filled it up with water and began to drink from it.

"I don't understand… Couldn't you have just become Water Chopper to drink some water?" Geno wondered as Chopper spat the water out. "That would've been the easy thing to do."

"You know, you have an excellent point, Geno. I just hurt a poor cactus for nothing!" Chopper frowned as he removed his Sword ability and used his Water ability to become hydrated again. After that, Chopper removed his ability, picked up Geno and took off. They noticed something off at the distance. It looked like a pyramid.

"Hey, look over there! It's a pyramid! We're saved! …Well I wouldn't say that because there are probably enemies there too." Chopper noted as he noticed some quicksand around, but he was smart enough to stay away from it.

"We should be careful around here..." Geno suggested. "There might just be some enemies around here that are probably waiting for us. I suggest we be extra careful around here."

However, they were interrupted when they heard a scream from inside the pyramid.

"Uh oh… I think someone's in trouble right now!" Chopper gulped. "I say we find a way in that pyramid and see who's in trouble."

"I agree with you," Geno saw some rubble blocking the way. It looked like a secret passage way. "Step aside, Chopper. I'll take care of this!"

Geno fired a Geno Beam at the rubble and destroyed it, revealing a secret path for them to take.

"Ooh! This should be nice! Let's head in before we run into some trouble!" Chopper ran in, followed by Geno. They had to travel through a small tunnel to make it into the pyramid, where the way inside was up a ladder. They also noticed darkness around the tile that was blocking the way to get in, so Chopper punched it with a light fist and got rid of the tile.

They found themselves in the pyramid, with the ground being a light brown color. There was quicksand in the inner part of the square-shaped room. They were in the outer part of the interior, where there was no quicksand. There were also platforms around that could take you up to the pyramid's exit.

"So this is what's inside the pyramid?" Geno gawked. "I've seen better, but this is a rather odd one to be sure. Look at the place! ...But where's the screaming coming from?"

"I don't know," Chopper shrugged, but then they heard some more screaming, they saw a giant Sand Bug come out of the quicksand, holding onto someone that they knew. If there's one thing Chopper knew, it was the fact that this person feared bugs.

"KAYZEE!" they shouted in unison as Kayzee stopped screaming and noticed the two.

"Chopper! Geno! You're here!" Kayzee gasped. "Help me with this bug! It's really scary and gross!"

Chopper became Cutter Chopper and grabbed the cutter blade from his helmet and threw at the arm where Kayzee was being held, cutting it off and allowing Kayzee to be free. Afterward, he removed his ability.

"Yay! I'm free!" Kayzee turned to the Sand Bug and punched it, knocking it to the wall. "Quick! Finish it before I scream once again!"

"Geno Whirl!" Geno shouted as he used his Geno Whirl attack to destroy the Sand Bug instantly, disintegrating it from their sight. With that, Kayzee cheerfully flew down to the two.

"Guys! I'm so glad you're here! I didn't know if I would ever find any of you…but then that gross bug appeared and grabbed me! …All I had with me was Bloopi, and it was scary here and hot outside."

"Don't worry, Kayzee, you're safe," Chopper assured. "At least for right now…since there's a whole army after me."

**Kayzee rejoined your party!**

"I know, but I just feel so happy to see you two! I guess I should repay you!" Kayzee gave both of them a hug, though Chopper didn't really find it that comfortable. "You know, hugging you reminds me of hugging Bloopi, Geno!"

"Well, I guess it's because I'm a doll," Geno shrugged. "What else is there to say?"

"I say we out of here," Chopper declared. "I saw a spring over there that could take us to those platforms in the middle of the room, but there's quicksand!"

"I can help you over it. I'm supposed to help you fly over things, you know that." Kayzee said as Chopper nodded. "Then let's get going! Weee!" she grabbed Chopper and Geno and flew over to the platform and let go of them afterward. They jumped on the spring to reach the platforms and Chopper helped Geno up the platforms.

Once they got to the exit, they all saw that it was getting dark outside, which meant it was going to get cold.

"Oh boy… It's nighttime outside..." Chopper trailed. "While it's hot during the day, it's freezing at night."

"I suppose it's better than it being hot," Geno shrugged. "You're not sweating, and you don't get as thirsty. It shouldn't be a problem."

"Then let's go!" Kayzee flew out of the pyramid with Chopper and Geno following her.

* * *

**Outside-**

Once Chopper, Kayzee, and Geno walked out of the pyramid, the door shut behind them. They could see two torches next to the door. Looking up, they could see the rest of the pyramid. Afterward, Chopper took a look around to see if there was anything he could find. Sadly he had no luck. There was nothing he could find up ahead.

"I can't see a thing around here! It's so barren outside." Kayzee frowned as she took out Bloopi and hugged it. "Bloopi, you need to be careful out here. It's really dangerous and I'm starting to get worried that we'll freeze!"

At this point, she began to shiver. "Man... I wish we had something to warm us up..." Kayzee looked over at Chopper, who was holding a light ball in his hands. When he looked at her, he jumped a bit.

"Uhhhh... I don't think I can warm you up." Chopper sweat dropped, but he noticed she was looking at the light ball. "Oh... You're not talking about me... Well that's a relief!"

"Well it looks like it got her attention," Geno noted.

"Where did you get that kind of power in your hands?" Kayzee asked. "All you ever had was fire and ice! You got light also?"

"Oh, some green bean weirdo gave them to me. I think his name's Fawful." Chopper recalled. "Yes, I know his names sounds like awful - which I don't know why he's got that kind of name. But anyway, this lets me destroy darkness.

"Kayzee, how did you end up here anyway?" Geno wondered. "That's something you didn't necessarily tell us."

"Well after falling from the clouds, I fell into a teleporter that was in my own city!" Kayzee explained. "It was so weird that I fell there, and I ended up in the desert. I tried to see what was around by flying through the desert, and all I found was a pyramid. I went inside, but I found nothing, and then a Sand Bug came out and scared me! I ran from it, but it got to me first! Then you two came and I was safe. At least he didn't get a hold of Bloopi."

"That's a good thing," Chopper smiled. "But we're going to need to be careful still. It's still not safe around here because…"

When his communicator went off, he frowned as he picked it up.

"That doesn't sound like Toadsmeth's communicator..." Kayzee trailed.

"Shhh! You might want to stay quiet! I need to take this!" Choppe shushed as he took out his communicator.

"_Ah, Sir Flyknightis! I was expecting you to call me earlier. You see, I have found out a way to destroy the Dayzeeflower Girls! Mua ha ha ha ha!" _

_"Dang it... Kojo Pete?"_ Chopper thought._ "_Oh? What is it? Is there anything else around too?"

"_Hmmm? You're speaking? You sound like one of those brats that the girl Kayzee is traveling with. Still, I need to find her. Blayzee and Tayzee are already on my side. I still need to find her. That's all I wanted to say…hold on! We got an archaeologist and threw him over to the beach. That's all."_

Chopper nodded and put away his communicator. "I think Blayzee and Tayzee are here, as well as Kojo Pete. Not only that, but I think I saw the Frenzyweed Boys flying over the jungle."

"What? My sisters are here and also Kojo? AND the Frenzyweed Boys?" Kayzee gaped. "This is bad! All of my enemies are here!"

"And I think Kolorado is here! Oh man, I haven't seen him in…ten chapters! We better get going before anything happens!" Chopper picked up Geno and began to run through the desert again, while Kayzee flew over.

* * *

**Ten minutes later-**

They found a desert castle up ahead. It was kind of similar to the castle in the jungle, but its design was a little different, like it wasn't 431 floors.

"So this is the castle. Yup, the rock person Stoneard lives in here." Chopper stated. "He's strong, but he's a little on the slow side."

They noticed at the entrance, there was someone kneeling on the ground. He looked like he was beaten and battered. To their surprise, they saw C-2 Choppor.

"CHOPPOR!"

C-2 Choppor turned around and saw them. With all of the dirt on him, he didn't appear silver.

"What happened to you? Look at yourself!" Geno gasped.

"Th… That masked boy… He came here and attacked." C-2 Choppor moaned. "He…and my brother came here to beat me up. I also saw two flower girls go in here…and they knocked me down. I think it was Blayzee and Tayzee…"

"What? They hurt you too? My sisters wouldn't do that!" Kayzee gasped. "They fight bad guys! Not good guys!"

"Something's not right with them. Let me recover first. Initiating...Recovery Mode." C-2 Choppor healed himself and slowly got up.

**C-2 Choppor rejoined your party!**

"I am fully at your service once again, Chopper. I fell into a teleporter in the desert and ended up here in the castle. I managed to find my way out, but I was beaten. I'm sorry to say this, but the airship that was here earlier left."

"Dang it! We missed the airship!" Chopper groaned. "So… We need to get out of this desert and follow it. Any ideas on what we should do?"

C-2 Choppor opened the door to the castle. "We'll need to make our way through the castle."

"Well, I suppose that's all where we can go to right now," Geno shrugged.

They headed in and found a round tube-like path and below them was a bottomless pit, so they began to move on the path. There was a ramp up ahead that led to a door.

"This shouldn't be hard!" Chopper assured as he jumped off the ramp. Kayzee was helping Geno get across, and C-2 Choppor used his jetpack to go over the pit. They landed on a ledge and found a door. Chopper opened it and headed in. There, they could see Pokeys made of brown rocks lurking around. While they looked tough, C-2 Choppor was able to blast them with ease.

Once they were gone, a door was revealed to go outside. They walked outside and saw a square-shaped area, and up ahead was an elevator across the quicksand.

"I got this!" Kayzee grabbed Chopper she flew him over the quicksand. Bandits were in this area and tried to grab Geno, but C-2 Choppor blasted at them, sending them flying to the walls.

"We need to get moving," C-2 Choppor suggested. "They're just going to keep coming back if we don't do anything."

He grabbed Geno and carried him over the quicksand, firing at the Pokeys around him. They landed right by the elevator and C-2 Choppor put Geno down and saw the buttons when they walked in. Geno pressed the button to go to the top floor and waited patiently for the door to open.

"So where did Flyknightis and C-1 Triple Mega go, Choppor?" Chopper asked.

"I don't know. After they beat me, they left along with the airship. I wanted to do something, but I couldn't." Suddenly the elevator stopped moving. One of the wires for the elevator wasn't working. Chopper used a light ball to fix it, making the elevator began work again.

"Good thing you have that ability," Geno sighed. "We'd be in big trouble if you couldn't use that."

"Light power? That's rarely seen around here..." C-2 Choppor trailed. "I didn't think you would actually get that! Strange…"

"Kind of strange that light power is rare..." Chopper trailed.

The elevator door opened, and they all walked out. There was a Save Block and Heart Block Chopper hit, and then they walked into the big door. The room they walked into was the room that belonged to Stoneard. It was big, and there was a terminal ahead at the end of the room. There was some quicksand in the room, but it wasn't like Trinado's room. Thankfully, a bridge was nowhere to be seen.

"That must be the terminal! Let's go!" Chopper ran toward the terminal, but two people came crashing down into the room. It was Blayzee and Tayzee, who appeared to be facing in the wrong direction.

"Blayzee! Tayzee! You're safe!" Kayzee cheered as she flew over to her sisters, but then they turned around and whacked her, sending her flying to the wall.

"What the…! You realize you just hurt your own sister!" Chopper gaped.

"Obey Kojo Pete and Sir Flyknightis!" they shouted in unison as Chopper's antennas sprung up, forcing him in a fighting stance.

"They've been brainwashed! That explains why they attacked you, Choppor!"

"This is not good. Why would they do this?" Geno gasped. "I bet Flyknightis has something to do with this…"

"They're going to attack!" Chopper cried as they flew toward them. Thankfully, they were able to avoid their attack, but Kayzee didn't feel good facing against them.

**Tattle: **_Those two girls are Kayzee's sisters, Blayzee and Tayzee. I have no idea what happened to them, but this is a big problem. Chopper, I really don't think it would be nice to attack…but you really have no other choice. I'll give you their stats anyways. Max HP: 90 for both, Attack Power: 11 for Blayzee, 12 for Tayzee. They have 0 defense also. They'll do attacks that Kayzee has. Blayzee will use ice breath or fire breath, and Tayzee can make some earthquakes. I wonder where Stoneard is though…_

"OK… We should focus on both of them. I think that's what's best." Chopper began to charge up a light ball and used his Multi-Hand to fire multiple light balls at them which dealt a good 8 damage. Kayzee was going to attack, but a feeling in her head told her not to.

"I just can't attack my own sisters…" she sniffled. "I work with them and it's not right to hurt someone from my own family…"

"They're already brainwashed," C-2 Choppor stated. "We really have no other choice…unless I tried something. I don't know if it'll work, though."

"Fine, I'll try something," Kayzee flew to her sisters and used her scream to make it so noisy and loud. The waves hit them and made them take 10 damage. Blayzee used her ice breath in order to freeze Chopper. He got hurt by it, but he didn't become frozen.

Tayzee unleashed an earthquake in the room, and it almost made everyone hit the ceiling. Kayzee was able to help Chopper before he hit anything.

"OK… Let's try this again." Chopper used his Multi-Hand to shoot some light balls at the two, and then Geno turned into a cannon.

"This should weaken them a little. I don't want to risk harming them, but at least just stop them." he fired a ball of energy at them, which exploded. The two Dayzeeflower Girls both tried to work together this time and grabbed C-2 Choppor. He was able to get them off by whacking them with his gun.

"I apologize for that, but I had to do it," C-2 Choppor apologized as he got back down and used his Laser Cannon to fire a huge laser blast at them. Chopper pulled out the Star Rod and used the pulse attack to damage them. At least they weren't severely injured.

"You must obey Kojo Pete and Sir Flyknightis! They are your friends!" the two girls shouted as they fired a blast at Chopper, but Kayzee got in the way and moved Chopper.

"Whew… Thanks Kayzee. That sure was a close one!" Chopper sighed as he became Plasma Chopper and used his attack to zap Blayzee and Kayzee with a Spark Bolt. Kayzee once again used her scream to make them take 10 more damage, but she still didn't feel happy about this.

The two girls struck Chopper, but despite hitting him, they both got electrocuted thanks to Chopper's Plasma ability. With their HP severely low, Chopper was ready to finish the fight off.

"Stop!" Kayzee cried, making Chopper stop. "I know we have no choice, but isn't there another way?"

"Hmmm… I got something." C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at the two girls, making Kayzee gasp. But instead, he sprayed something from the fruit he got at the sky at them.

"Mmmmm! That smells so good!" Blayzee coughed as she smiled.

"I don't know what just happened. But I love that smell." Tayzee agreed.

"Blayzee! Tayzee! You're all right!" Kayzee cried as she flew over to hug her sisters. "I have no idea what was going on!"

"We don't know what happened either," Blayzee coughed. "It's just so weird… Were we…fighting you and your friends?"

"Yeah, you were…" Chopper trailed until he heard another voice.

"Awww! Look at the wittle girls hugging each other!"

They looked up and saw Bindweed, Thornbush, and Poison Ivy were watching and laughing at them.

"Hey! You can't say that!" Blayzee scolded. "What are you even doing here?"

"Oh, we were just going around places minding our own business," Thornbush scolded. "We didn't expect you girls to be here! We're going to make you cry when we're done with you!"

"Hey! That was my line, dang it!" Poison Ivy cried.

"Both of you shut up!" Bindweed snapped before looking at Chopper and his friends. "Look over there too! It's those other guys we saw before! We'll give them a beating too!"

"Now we have to deal with some freaking weeds?" Chopper gawked. "Oh, come on! It's almost like pulling weeds out of the garden all of the sudden!"

There was a big clash between the three girls and the three boys. They began to punch and kick each other as well as use heat vision. However, Chopper, Geno, and C-2 Choppor were up in the sky too. Chopper was grabbing onto Thornbush's leg, and Geno was holding onto Chopper's foot.

"This isn't very pleasant…" Geno trailed.

"Tell me about it! I can't hold on forever!" Chopper saw that they were leaving the continent and heading over the ocean. C-2 Choppor was following them with his jetpack.

"Hey! Get these two off of my leg!" Thornbush cried, moving his leg to get Chopper and Geno off.

"I'll get them!" Bindweed punched Blayzee away and flew toward Chopper to punch him. He kept dodging the attacks and punched him with an ice fist.

"Ha! Take that!" Chopper scoffed.

Tayzee came toward Poison Ivy. He used his power to make a shovel to whack her, but Tayzee used her heat vision to stop him. C-2 Choppor got hit by Poison Ivy, but he was able to whack him with his arm gun. However, Chopper couldn't hold onto Thornbush forever and ended up letting go.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAGHHHH!**_" Chopper and Geno cried as they plummted. Kayzee saw them fall, and since she was distracted, she got hit by Thornbush, which sent her flying the ocean with them.

"Kayzee!" Blayzee and Tayzee cried C-2 as Choppor headed on down using his jetpack. One thing for sure was that they were not in a safe area as of now.

* * *

**Well, there's another point to that fruit spray now. :P  
**

**Do you guys like the water? How about water levels? If you said no to the latter, then I can agree...for some levels. Anyway, yeah, the next area is the ocean and beach, if you couldn't tell.  
**


	88. Battle Over the Waters

When Chopper, Geno and Kayzee fell into the water, they saw some fish that swimming around, including sharks. But the thing is, the sharks on Clara were peaceful creatures and only fight if someone is trying to hurt them. Some people have said that water dragons rescued them when they heard them crying for help. C-2 Choppor was able to come down to help Chopper, Kayzee, and Geno. Thankfully, Kayzee opened her eyes and went up to the surface to breathe. Geno only floated up to the surface, due to being made of water

"Huh? The ocean…" Chopper swam up to the surface and looked up to see the battle was getting a little further. All four of them were technically up on the surface.

"I'm not all dirty now. That's good." C-2 Choppor noticed as all the dirt came off him. Everyone else noticed the same thing too. "I still think I can leave a little present for those weeds."

"What do you mean, Choppor? They're flying away already." Kayzee noted. "Are my sisters just leaving us here to swim through this ocean? If they are, then they're not being good sisters!"

"Don't worry, this will be good," C-2 Choppor assured began to load something up for his gun. He then scanned the Frenzyweed Boys out in the distance and fired a missile that went after them.

"A homing missile, huh? That's not a bad idea." Geno commented. "That'll work nicely for a secret weapon, if you know what I mean."

Chopper heard something and when he turned around he saw the airship flying away from them. He told everyone else to look and they saw it too.

"C-2 Choppor, think you can destroy that airship with your gun?" Chopper asked.

"Negative. That airship has tough armor on it, so there's no chance of me destroying it." C-2 Choppor replied. "Not even my Laser Cannon can destroy it. They probably have some fast repairs, so chances of destroying it are slim."

"Why don't we just see what's underwater?" Geno suggested. "I think we'll find something down there if we look."

"But I can't breathe underwater!" Kayzee whined. "I may have superpowers, but I don't have any to breathe underwater!"

"Well you need to get used to it. If there's anything that can supply oxygen down there, then we'll try to find it." C-2 Choppor assured. "How long can you hold your breath?"

"I can hold it for…about ten minutes."

The three looked at each other with their eyes widened and looked back at Kayzee, who noticed their widened eyes.

"Wow."

* * *

**Underwater-**

Down below the surface, some Marine Koopas were talking to Mermen, which have the ability to oxygen to someone by using their mouths. There are Mermaids that could do the same thing, but sadly, there weren't any around to help them.

"Ugh, I don't really feel comfortable when I'm getting this oxygen from the Mermen," a Marine Koopa sighed. "I wish we could've gone to a Mermaid instead. It would've been a lot better for us rather than these guys."

"Really? Well I like using them." the other Marine Koopa replied as the first Marine Koopa slowly backed away from him.

* * *

**Back by the heroes-**

Chopper was swimming as fast as he could underwater, but he wasn't able to swim as fast as C-2 Choppor, who was using his jetpack to make himself move much faster. He was also holding on to Geno, who couldn't stay underwater because wood floats up, but he appreciated C-2 Choppor's help. He took a look at the clams around, and when they opened their mouths they had pearls in them.

"Look at all of these clams. They sure have a lot of stuff in them." Geno noticed. "Those pearls must be worth a lot in the Mushroom Kingdom."

"I bet they are," Chopper agreed as he saw Mermen on a rock. They were about to swim to them, but two Marine Koopas with harpoon guns swam up to them with their guns aimed at them.

"Aha! We found you at long last, Chopper!" one Marine Koopa spat. "King Bowser would be pleased if we captured you, wouldn't it, you little boy? I don't know how you pulled it off, but Bowser is really angry at you. Plus, we got orders from Sir Flyknightis to take you down."

They fired their gun, but Chopper and his friends dodged it, with Chopper shoot an ice ball at the one with the gun to freeze the Koopa afterward. Kayzee flew to the other one and punched it, which sent it further away. Once they were beaten, Chopper heard a familiar voice calling out to him.

"Hey, Chopper! I didn't expect to see you here!" Chopper's antennas sprung up when he saw Bruce and Kolorado sitting inside of a clam and immediately swam over to them.

"I say, my boy! It's been quite a while, hasn't it?" Kolorado greeted.

"Bruce! I never thought you would be here!" Chopper gaped. "How are things here?"

"Well, after falling into Koopa Bros. Park, the Koopa Bros. grabbed me and took me into a teleporter and threw me into this ocean," Koopla explained. "Luckily these Mermaids rescued me, and I also saw Kolorado coming down, so I told them he was a friend of mine, and now we're here."

"That's interesting… You were rescued by Mermaids." Geno deduced. "I could imagine if Yosho got rescued by them. Chances are he would flirt with them."

"So, Chopper, my boy! How are things lately?" Kolorado asked. "This ocean is rather…nice! Do you live on this planet? It sure is nice! I would certainly like to find any artifacts around here!"

"I think there are plenty of artifacts around here. Are we near the beach or something?" Chopper asked as the Mermaids nodded, which made Kayzee fly out of the water to take a deep breath. Geno began to float up to the surface afterward.

"Well it seems like we're going to be getting onto land," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "That's great, since most of us are best on land."

"I'm coming with you!" Bruce declared. "I haven't seen you at all for a while, and it would be best if I did that!"

**Bruce rejoined your party!**

"I think I'll come with you too, my boy!" Kolorado added. "We haven't gone on an adventure for a while now, haven't we? It'll be like Yoshi's Island all over again!"

"We're chasing down an airship though, not searching for artifacts," Chopper noted. "But, I suppose you can come with us. One guess, you got thrown into a teleporter and into the water too?"

"You're certainly right, my boy. But no time for that now. We need to get a move on before we get into some big trouble!"

"Good point," Chopper began to swim, grabbing onto Bruce's foot. They began to swim through the ocean, seeing the floor moving up instead of being flat. They must be getting near land.

"This is it! We're finally getting to the beach!" Chopper and his friends jumped up to the surface and saw land up ahead. It looked like it was a big island. Thankfully, Chopper had a feeling they would be safe.

* * *

**On the island-**

Actually, I was wrong. The Koopa Bros. appeared to be on this island, and when they saw the six swimming to the island, they grinned.

"Black! Green! Yellow! I think this is our chance at long last to capture Chopper and his friends that somehow got back to him!" Red declared. "Yup, we can finally please King Bowser! Now, where's that cannon that we took with us?"

"Uh…" Yellow sweat dropped. "I left it at the jungle continent, sadly…"

"You WHAT? Aw, come on! Whenever I give something to you, you always screw things up! I should give things to Black! …Or Green!"

"We don't need that! We're the coolest of the cool!" Green assured.

"Hmm… Yes, you're right. Us, the Koopa Bros., are definitely cooler than any other baddie Bowser has. We're cooler than Sir Flyknightis as well as that Kojo Pete dude who begged to join."

"This isn't worth talking about. Let's go capture them and bring them back to King Bowser. Simple as that." Black suggested.

They all agreed, but they heard something from behind. They ran in fear, despite the fact that it was only a Hellspawn.

"Hey! Why are you running? We're on the same side!" the Hellspawn cried. "Oh, never mind..."

* * *

**Beach-**

Chopper sighed in relief as they got on the water and waked onto the beach. He took the time to shake the water off him while some of the water droplets landed on C-2 Choppor.

"My sisters have been fighting the Frenzyweed Boys for a long time!" Kayzee noticed. "I feel like I need to go back up there and help them! Chopper, can I go up there and give them a hand?"

"Go right ahead. Be my guest." Chopper shrugged.

"OK! Hold Bloopi for me!" Kayzee gave Chopper Bloopi, who looked confused as he took it as she flew up into the sky. They could see a ray of light red, light blue, and light green up in the sky and also red, blue, and green

"They're still fighting. Huh… I wonder why they haven't stopped to take a break." Geno wondered. "That's one question I won't understand. Wait a minute… Shouldn't the missile have gotten them already, Choppor?"

"Missile? What missile?" Bruce asked until there was an explosion that sent the six in the sky flying down. "Was it that?"

"Uh oh… Don't tell me I hit the girls too." C-2 Choppor sweat dropped as began saw where they fell and he used his scanner to check where not only the Dayzeeflower girls went, but also the Frenzyweed Boys went too.

"Lifeforms detected. Position K24. Pursue and find." C-2 Choppor moved on toward the beach without using his wheels on the bottom of his feet.

"What's Position K24?" Kolorado asked.

"No idea," Chopper shrugged.

"Hey, Chopper. I think some of these rocks around here can be blown up." Bruce noticed. "So if you see any cracks, throw me at 'em and I'll blow 'em up!"

"Understood. Let's go follow C-2 and see what he found." Chopper suggested as he followed C-2 Choppor with Geno followed. Poor Bruce was having a hard time keeping up with them, though.

"I say, Chopper! Can't you let me keep up with you?" Kolorado begged. "I'm not a speedster, you know! I'm just a mere archaeologist!"

"I hear you, Kolorado! I can't really keep up either!" Bruce agreed. "I'm the slowest one, even slower than Mallow!"

There were some Piranha Plants that tried to attack C-2 Choppor, but he blasted right through them and used his jetpack in order to move faster. Thankfully, Chopper was able to keep up with him.

"So how far are we from uh… Position K24?" Chopper asked.

"Not much further…" C-2 Choppor confirmed until he suddenly heard giggling and laughter coming from somewhere in the island, making him. It didn't sound like Kayzee though. "Detecting unknown lifeforms in island."

"Really? Let's check in there." Geno suggested.

They headed into the island, passing by the trees. Bruce and Kolorado followed them, and they could hear another voice that got their attention.

"An' then after I beat her down, the ladies came to me, and I was pretty much a hunk, like I am now. Check out these muscles! HUH! …Wait, who're you? OW! Watch it, ya little squirt!"

When they got past some trees, they saw a hot tub and two Mermaids in the water with a glass, and in the middle, Yosho was getting back in. He had a bump on his head for some reason.

"Yosho?" Chopper gawked as Yosho gaped and dropped his drink in the water.

"What in the…! Aw, man! Ya just HAD to ruin the moment, Chopper!" Yosho groaned. "I have no idea why yer here, but go away. I'm winnin' over these lovely ladies here, an' yer gonna get in the way!"

His black jacket was hanging from a tree, and then Poison Ivy appeared from a tree and put the jacket on.

"Hey, look at me! I'm the coolest Frenzyweed Boy!" Poison Ivy said stupidly. "Yup, and this weirdo's really getting in my way!"

"Hey! Gimme back my jacket, pipsqueak!" Yosho roared as he got out of the pool and began to chase Poison Ivy around the area. "Yer messin' with the wrong Yoshi here! I'm tryin' to get the ladies here, ya know!"

"Oh, geez..." Chopper face palmed as he jumped on Poison Ivy's head and grabbed Yosho's jacket. He threw it to Yosho, which he managed to get on. He gave a double thumbs up and grinned.

"Hey! That's not fair! Gimme back that jacket! Only I deserve something like that!" Poison Ivy whined as Tayzee came ramming into Poison Ivy, making them go somewhere else in the island.

"Look, Yosho… You're coming with us." Chopper stated. "Sorry, but you wanted to join me in the first place, and you're staying."

"Aw, man!" Yosho pouted. "Sorry, ladies… Looks like this hot guy's gotta go."

"We didn't really like you anyway," the Mermaids mentioned, making Yosho look baffled as they left.

"It happened again..."

**Yosho rejoined your party!**

"Ooh! An Upgrade Block!" Chopper saw an Upgrade Block near the pool and jumped under it. "OK, I guess you're up Bruce. Just like I said before."

"Yes! It's about time!" Bruce cheered as he got his last upgrade to Diamond-Rank. He could use Ultra 'Splosion, which could blow everything up and ignore defense as well. While it's great, it could use up a lot of FP.

"Ah, we found another one!" Kolorado noticed. "We should be able to get through this place in no time now now that you found five of your friends, Chopper! You're halfway there!"

"Yup, and now we gotta beat it!" Chopper began to go back out in the beach, and everyone else followed him. While Chopper was running, he saw Kayzee and Thornbush fighting over the water and Blayzee and Bindweed were fighting on the beach. He started to run faster, seeing the airship getting further away.

"We don't have time to stop now. We need to catch that airship." C-2 Choppor stated. "We've lost our chance to get over to it easily…if we didn't go see Yosho, that is."

"Well it ain't my fault I landed here! If I didn't fall in that teleporter, I would've been tryin' to find some of the ladies!" Yosho explained. "That Valentina was just a jerk, an' I was thinkin' those Mermaids would've been with me fer the rest of my life! …But ya HAD to come! I ended up fallin' in a teleporter on Yoshi Mountain, if ya wanted to know. Anyway, how're things goin' on right now? I see ya only got some guys."

"Kayzee's with us, but she's fighting over the water, you see?" Chopper mentioned as he pointed out toward the ocean.

"I say, it's a nice ocean, my boy!" Kolorado smiled. "Don't suppose there's anything there?"

"Heads up, Chopper!" Geno warned as the Frenzyweed Boys came down, blocking their way.

"Not so fast! You're not going to be leaving this place!" Bindweed declared. "Just because we're too busy fighting those girly Dayzeeflower Girls doesn't mean we don't have to pay attention to you!"

"Get out of the way this instant!" demanded Kolorado. "We're on an adventure here! Move aside now, boys! Or else my boy here will take care of you. You shan't stop us now!"

"Pffffft! Like you can do anything, gramps! You're too old to stop us! We're super powered boys that can just do this!" Thornbush used his heat vision on Kolorado's butt, making him snicker.

"Ow ow OW! HOT! Oh, it burns! Really!" Kolorado cried as he ran around in pain. He put his butt in the water, extinguishing the flames while the Frenzyweed Boyd laughed obnoxiously.

"Oh man! Did you see that?!" Bindweed laughed. "His biscuits were burnin'!"

"It was hilarious!" Thornbush laughed obnoxiously as Kolorado walked back to the group and clenched his fists in anger.

"Ah… Now then… You made me do this. _**Archaeology Powers!** **GOOO!**_" Kolorado charged at the Frenzyweed Boys and knocked them away like bowling pins. Chopper held up a sign with a red 10 on it, while Geno was holding a sign that appeared to be upside down, but he turned it over to reveal it to be a 9.5.

"Heh… Cool!" Bruce commented as he followed Kolorado along with the rest. The Frenzyweed Boys were following them, but the Dayzeeflower Girls attacked them, and the boys fell right in front of the group.

"Aw, come on! Why can't you just leave us alone already?" Chopper groaned as he readied his hammer.

"No matter how many times we beat you, you just never give up!" Blayzee groaned. "Even when we blew you up and somehow came back!"

"Just leave us alone for once already!" Kayzee demanded.

"You should've been taken down a long time ago!" Tayzee exclaimed.

The Frenzyweed Boys had their arms crossed when they got up and were smirking.

"Yeah? Well you can't stop a good thing right here, babe!" Bindweed stated as he pointed to himself, making the Dayzeeflower Girls giggle.

"Hey! Ya stole my line!" Yosho shouted as he shook a fist. Chopper, on the other hand, was face palming.

"Oh, forget this!" Chopper threw a rock right at Bindweed's head, leaving him dizzy. The other two tried to attack Chopper, but he surrounded his fists with light and used a speed attack on the other two to knock them down. They were able to get up, but Bruce ran in with his fuse running.

"It's time I gave you all a good bomb!" Bruce shouted as he exploded in front of them. When he fell, Geno managed to catch him.

"Run, guys!" Geno cried as they fled from the Frenzyweed Boys, who were able to get up and quickly shake their heads. They saw they were getting to the end of the beach and knew there was going to be something there.

There were surfboards in front of the heroes.

"Let's grab those boards!" Chopper suggested.

"What? You can't be serious, boy! I don't know how to surf!" Kolorado cried.

"Well too bad. We're doin' it!" Yosho stated.

"Chopper, my boy… I don't feel comfortable doing this. I'm afraid I might fall in the water and lose my hat! We archaeologists don't travel over the ocean, and we certainly don't like violence. Boys and girls fighting each other is a terrible thing! The girls might end up crying, and the boys will just laugh at them for crying! That's not how the world should be like!"

"Calm down, dude. We're just goin' surfin', and they can take care of themselves. They don't look they're gettin' hurt, so don't whine about it, OK?"

They got on their surfboards and began to go toward the waves that were coming their way. Chopper remembered his first time surfing. It was hard at first, but he was able to get used to it and actually enjoy himself for once.

"This is pretty fun. Let's see what I can do here." Geno said as he surfed the waves. One thing no one would expect to see would be a wooden doll surfing over the ocean

"Whoawhoawhoawhoa!" Bruce stumbled around and was starting to lose his balance. "I feel like I'm about to fall off of this thing! I need some help, people! Gimme some help right now!" Bruce cried.

"Just balance on the board. It's plain and simple, Bruce. Bob-ombs are able to surf anyway." Chopper informed. "Just stay calm and don't worry. You'll be fine. I'm being honest right now."

"Umm… Uh… OK…" Bruce began to balance, and he was actually doing it. "Hey! It's working!"

Bruce began to surf, and he was really enjoying it. He had fun as he went over a wave and tried to perform a trick. It was strange, but they were having fun. That is, until Geno realized something.

"Hold on a minute… How on earth are we able to do this?" Geno wondered. "We're made of paper, and we would've been flat on the surfboard. This just doesn't make any sense. Shouldn't we have been blown away by now?"

"Don't…say…a word…on that… " Chopper suggested. "We don't want the people to know about this."

Unfortunately, despite their surfing, they weren't doing a good job at getting closer to the airship.

"We're getting' further from the ship! This ain't a good thing, Chopper!" Yosho groaned as they could see ice breath come down toward him. "Aw, crap!"

Chopper became Fire Chopper and shot a fireball at the ice, melting it and keeping Yosho from freezing.

"Ship detected up ahead," C-2 Choppor warned.

"What? A ship's coming by here? Yeah, you're probably right, Choppor. But whose ship is it?" Chopper wondered as heat vision began to fly everywhere, as well as some Dayzeeflower Girls and Frenzyweed Boys that were falling in the water and flying back out.

* * *

**Pirate ship-**

On the ship, a skeleton captain with a captain's hat, a dark gray pirate jacket and purple shirt and a leg made of steel was grinning as he looked down at the great treasure he had. This pirate, known as Captain Steelfoot, was once a great pirate who helped his crew. That is, until he was cursed when he killed a sea monster. He lost his leg and turned into an evil captain working for Maquano.

"Yar har har! Ah, yes! What a great discovery, crew! We've gotten some good treasure to keep us rich fer centuries! An' it's all thanks to Lord Maquano! Cheers!"

Captain Steelfoot raised his root beer as he began to chug it down. However, it ended up leaking out of him because he was made of bones.

"Er… Captain! Yer root beer is leaking from ye!" one of his crew members informed, making Captain Steelfoot angry.

"Arr! This be me tenth outfit I've changed into! I be gettin' sick of this!" Captain Steelfoot growled as he was going to walk into his room, but then something stopped him. He heard wings flapping, and when he turned around, he saw Flyknightis land right on the ship.

"Captain! It be Sir Flyknightis! The powerful child knight! …But why he be a child? Fer some reason, he looks familiar…"

"Whuh? Oh! Sir Flyknightis! I didn't notice ye'd be 'ere!" Captain Steelfoot gaped. "Me apologies, sir! What'd ye be doin' 'ere right now? I thought ye were with them Axem Rangers in the airship.

Flyknightis shook his head and he pointed up to the sky. He saw a battle going on, and it was looking intense.

"Arr! Shiver me timbers! What're three girls an' three boys fightin' fer? Well, it looks entertainin' to me! Seein' people gettin' killed is what we pirates always love to enjoy. Thanks fer tellin' Sir Flyknightis!"

Flyknightis slapped Steelfoot in the face and pointed to the water, where Chopper was catching up, and then he pointed to the airship. He shook his head to Steelfoot, telling him not to let Chopper get to the airship.

"Whuh? Izzat Chopper over there? We hate 'im so! Crew, don't let that boy get to the airship, and DON'T let him get to that Poison Forest especially!" Steelfoot shouted. Flyknightis nodded and he began to fly up and soar away. But then he looked back at Chopper. There was something strange about him that he felt, but he quickly shook his head and flew off the ship, going to the Poison Forest.

Chopper realized that the ship belonged to an enemy of his named Captain Steelfoot, another minion of Bowser's. He tried to hit the captain with a fireball, but one of his pirates got hit instead. Another thing that was unfortunately was that Kayzee flew right by Chopper with Thornbush flying after her, and because of the splash, Chopper lost his ability.

"Yar har har har! Oh, poor little Chopper!" Captain Steelfoot cackled as he noticed Chopper. "He just lost his own ability! It sure sucks fer ye!"

"Who is that captain up there?" Geno wondered. "He looks…rather odd. He reminds me of Captain Bonebeard for some reason though."

"I don't know who he is, but I'm gonna sink his ship with an explosion!" Bruce declared as Chopper stopped him for a reason he didn't want to talk about.

"Chopper! You aren't planning on fighting that captain while you're surfing!" Kolorado gawked. "You wouldn't last a minute fighting on that surfboard!"

"No, I know what I'm doing. Don't try to stop me." Chopper suggested.

"Hmmm… So his name's Captain Steelfoot, huh? That's what my scanners are telling me." C-2 Choppor deduced. "He looks pretty threatening. A lot more threatening than when Blayzee and Tayzee were brainwashed."

"What? Whaddya mean by that, robot dude? They were BRAINWASHED?!" Yosho gaped. "Aw man… I wish that green pipsqueak was brainwashed."

"Yosho… I'm green..." Chopper trailed.

"No, I meant that Frenzywhatever pipsqueak! Him! I really wanna kick his little butt fer what he did!"

"Just try an' take me on, Chopper!" Captain Steelfoot scoffed. "I've been ordered by Sir Flyknightis to keep ye from gettin' to the Poison Forest! So bring it on!"

"All right, then! You asked for it!" Chopper smirked as he got himself ready and jumped up using his surfboard. He was able to avoid Blayzee and Bindweed, who were flying down on the water to fight.

"With them fighting, this could get a little annoying..." Chopper trailed.

**Tattle: **_That's Captain Steelfoot. He must be the captain of this whole ship. He doesn't look so easy to take on. Max HP: 180, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 1. He may have one defense point lower than Trinado, but don't underestimate him. He's got some pretty strong attacks to take you down. Be careful of that steel leg too. It looks really tough._

Chopper was able to stomp on Captain Steelfoot's head with a D-Down Jump while on his surfboard, landing back on his surfboard with style.

Yosho laid an egg and he was able to grab it before he fell in the water.

"Take this, weird captain guy!" Yosho shouted as he laid and egg and threw it at Captain Steelfoot, which did 7 damage, considering that he had a point of defense. Captain Steelfoot took out his gun out and began to fire. Chopper avoided the shot but Kolorado ended up getting hit in the butt.

"Ow! My butt is really hurting me today!" Kolorado cried as he noticed his tail was sizzling. "Why do I always have terrible luck whenever I'm with Chopper?"

Chopper immediately jumped up and shot a light ball at Captain Steelfoot, leaving him to gape. "What in the… When did ye get somethin' like THAT? That's not even possible to get!"

"Yup, he does have that move! Now for my attack!" Bruce declared as he jumped off his board and fell right on Captain Steelfoot for a Body Slam that dealt 7 damage. "Whoa, did my Body Slam just do that? Naw, that can't be…"

Captain Steelfoot swung at Bruce, which made him jump up and get back on his board. With him off the ship, he shot a cannonball at Chopper, which knocked him off his board. Thankfully, Blayzee was able to save Chopper before he fell.

"Hey, thanks for saving me!" Chopper thanked.

"You're welcome! That's what I do!" Blayzee replied. "Now remember, Chopper... You don't want to let something like that happen again, because it will..."

Unfortunately, Chopper stopped paying attention to her when he jumped onto Captain Steelfoot's ship, making her groan.

"Sometimes people just don't listen to me so much…" she sighed as Chopper came down on Steelfoot with a Mega Smash, which dealt 11 damage. Geno turned into a cannon and shot a blast at Steelfoot with his Geno Flash. Chopper jumped back onto his surfboard as the blast nearly took out Captain Steelfoot's crew.

"Gah! Ye grateful little!" Captain Steelfoot threw his cutlass at Chopper, who was able to guard the attack with his hammer and sighing in relief that the cutlass didn't reach him, despite taking some damage.

"Hold on a moment… Aha!" Chopper realized as he snapped his finger. He became Parasol Chopper and juggled the bones that were flying from the skeleton pirates. He used them to attack Captain Steelfoot to deal some good damage. Kayzee saw that they were battling the captain, so she knocked Thornbush and used her Heat Vision on Captain Steelfoot.

"OW! What the heck..? Stupid little girl! Ye HAD to interfere with me! Now yer gonna get it!" Captain Steelfoot growled as he began to fire some cannonballs at her, which she managed to dodge. She even kicked one away at Steelfoot, which hit him in the head, knocking it off. His body began to move around, trying to look for his head.

"Over HERE, ye idiot! …Wait, I called meself an idiot!" his body managed to grab his head and put it back on. While that happened, Chopper jumped up and used his Power Bounce on Captain Steelfoot. He was able to stomp on him ten times before jumping off the ship.

C-2 Choppor hovered up with his jetpack and used his Missile Fire move and fired a couple of missiles at Steelfoot. He fired four of them, and each of them did 3 damage. So he basically did 12 damage all together.

"I'm going on the boat now," Chopper decided as he jumped onto the boat, while C-2 Choppor helped Bruce and Geno on. They got their surfboard on there as well.

"What about me, Chopper? Surely you can't leave me standing around!" Kolorado cried. Chopper turned his head to C-2 Choppor, who hovered down to get him to the ship. Chopper though, got kicked by Captain Steelfoot's foot afterward.

"Hey! Why're you attacking a child? That's child abuse right there!" Chopper cried as he tightly gripped his hammer and bashed Captain Steelfoot with a Light Smash. C-2 Choppor fired a normal blast at Captain Steelfoot, which made him use a stunning attack on C-2 Choppor to stun him for three turns, which was another way of him being injured.

"Oh no! Choppor!" Chopper cried as he turned back to Captain Steelfoot and used light power on his feet to use a Light Jump on him, which did about 10 damage. Geno fired his Geno Beam at the captain, making him cringe. Afterward, Captain Steelfoot grabbed some bones on the floor and threw them at Chopper. He held his parasol in the way to block the attacks, which allowed Chopper to strike back with his parasol.

"Let me help again!" Kayzee declared as she flew down and punched Captain Steelfoot in the stomach, knocking him down by the mast. He immediately got his gun out and fired at her, which she managed to avoid.

"Whoa! Watch where you fire, you stupid skeleton!" she used her Heat Vision again, but this time on Captain Steelfoot's butt, making him cry out in pain.

"Ho ho ho! Now how do YOU like it when your biscuits are burning?" Kolorado until he felt his biscuits burning again. Apparently Thornbush came down and used heat vision on his butt.

"Um… If you'll excuse me, I'll be in the water! I'll be back with you, my boy!" Kolorado jumped into the water, and his butt was no longer hot. He was able to climb back on while soaking wet.

"Ahem… Now let me make my attack." Chopper suggested as he used a D-Down Hand and shot a light ball at Captain Steelfoot. The captain walked over to Chopper and knocked him down with his foot.

"OW!" Chopper got back up and fired a light ball at him again. With his HP low, Bruce stepped up.

"I'm ready for a finisher!" Bruce declared.

"Oh yeah! NOW you're talking!" Chopper smirked as he threw Bruce at Captain Steelfoot and exploded in front of him, making the captain explode with his bones falling into the water.

"NOOO! Ye'll pay for this, Chopper! I will NEVER be dead! …Hold on… I AM dead!" Captain Steelfoot realized as his head fell in the water. Chopper did a flip and brought his arms up in victory as he leveled up. He chose to upgrade his HP to 75.

"Cool! We managed to take down that pirate!" Yosho grinned. "Now…where do we go next?"

"To the Poison Forest," Chopper declared as he grabbed a hold of the wheel on the ship. Kayzee flew down to the ship as she realized it was moving.

"Wait… Are you heading into the Poison Forest?" Kayzee asked. "You're going to leave me here out in the ocean to fight?"

"Kayzee! You go with them!" Blayzee suggested. "We'll take care of these Frenzyweed Boys! You got more important things to do anyway!"

"Besides, we don't want to risk having you cry anyway!" Tayzee added as Kayzee stuck her tongue out at her sister.

"Here, your doll's safe," Chopper took out Bloopi and handed it to her. Finally reunited with her doll, she hugged it tightly.

"Thank you!" Kayzee thanked as she gave Chopper a small hug. "I'm glad he didn't suffer any injuries."

"Well, you know me! I try to keep my promises!"

"Yeah, you did keep your promise," Bruce agreed. "Well, you do for the most."

"What?"

"So, to the Poison Forest, I presume?" Geno deduced, interrupting the conversation. "That must be where that airship is going anyway. We better follow it, and FAST!"

"But which way do we go?" Bruce asked.

"Hmmm… Let me think." Kolorado pondered. "I don't know where to go."

"My scanners tell me to go…northeast. That's where we must go." C-2 Choppor confirmed as he pointed to the direction that they need to go, which was where Chopper began to move the ship.

* * *

**The whole Mermen thing is a little reference to that underwater section from Mother 3 (which, honestly, does NOT look like a fun level to play through if you're slow and are forced to start all over if you lose oxygen...). Yes, I tend to reference Mother 3 a lot simply because I like its story and humor. :P  
**

**Next up is the Poison Forest! Yippe... No, that wasn't so cheerful, if you wanted to know. I personally think the Poison Forest is my least favorite area in this chapter. It's probably because I just don't like how it is. :P**

**Oh yeah... Archaeology Powers! GO! *shot***


	89. Poison Dangers

The black ship Chopper was using was heading toward a forest with dark green leaves. They noticed up ahead the water was a light purple color and some light purple clouds were around it. They all seemed to be amazed by this, but to Chopper, he looked a little nervous.

"Gad, look at this, Chopper! This water is just amazing!" Kolorado gasped. "I think I should take some of this with me to show everyone!"

"Don't!" Chopper cried. "That water is EXTREMELY dangerous, and if you touch that, you'll most likely DIE or be poisoned, and pretty badly that is. So… Try your best to stay away from the water here."

"The water's really bad? Oh no… This isn't right at all." Kayzee frowned. "Why does beautiful-looking water have to be incredible deadly?"

Unfortunately, because the boat was too wide for the river, they were forced to stop.

"What a shame that we can't use this boat to go through this river," Bruce sighed. "What do you suppose we do now, Chopper?"

"We should just check around the forest and see what we can find," Chopper explained. "There IS a castle around here, just to let you know. It's got some poison pits there, so we'll have to be careful."

"This reminds me a little of Star Forest…but without all of the poison," Geno noted. "I actually think it's a nice place, even if it has a lot of dark green to it. Let's see what we can find here, though."

"If we're gonna get in some trouble, then count me out!" Yosho declared. "I'm not gonna let someone as hot as myself to be in some big trouble here! …But I suppose I'll come with ya'll. I say we stay away from the river though."

"That's what I'm planning on doing. If you need me, I'll be going into the forest AWAY from here…" Kolorado trailed as he began to walk away. Chopper counted down from three to one with his fingers as if he expected something.

"Three, two, one..."

"_**YAAAAAAAAAAH!**_" Kolorado screamed as he ran back to Chopper. "Th-There are s-s-some f-fiery m-monsters out th-there! Please… Protect me!"

"Protect you? YOU'RE older than me! Why would you want me to protect you? This just doesn't make any sense…" Chopper face palmed as Kayzee went out to check herself. She came back screaming as well. "…Like that!"

"Well why don't you go check it out yourself?" Bruce suggested.

Chopper shrugged and checked the bushes. He could see a Hellspawn aiming his futuristic black and red assault rifle at him.

"Oh..."

"Ah! So you're here!" the Hellspawn Grunt noticed as Chopper took a look at its size. It was about the size of a Koopatrol. "I didn't expect you to make it this far now. I guess that ghost wasn't the only one who showed up here."

"A Hellspawn? Oh come on! This is what you're afraid of? This should be a piece of cake!" Chopper became Water Chopper and squirted water at the Hellspawn, extinguishing the flames. "Quick! Attack him now!"

Geno nodded and fired a Geno Beam at the grunt, while the Hellspawn fired a blast at Chopper while its flames returned. Chopper was able to squirt water at the Hellspawn to get rid of the flames, and then got finished off by Kayzee with a big punch attack.

Chopper gave a thumbs up, Bruce jumped up and cheered, C-2 Choppor fired up in the air, Yosho gave two thumbs up and grinned, Kayzee had her arms behind her back and smiled, and Geno folded his arms and nodded.

Chopper got some flowers and hearts from the Hellspawn and then they walked through the forest. From what they heard, there was a ghost supposedly around. It could either be Bow or Ghoster. But the bad news was that they found a poison river up ahead. Luckily, there was a tree and a branch over the river. There was a vine as well, which gave them an idea to use it.

"I think there's a way to avoid this water," Chopper smiled as he jumped to the vine and grabbed it. He was able to make it to the other side with no problem.

"How am I supposed to get over the river? It's impossible for me to grab the vine!" Bruce cried as Kayzee flew him over to the other side. "Oh, that works!"

When C-2 Choppor scanned the water, he got some interesting information.

"My scanners tell me that someone once drank from this river," C-2 Choppor informed. He was about to continue until they heard moaning coming from a bush. "What was that?"

"I'll go check," Chopper declared as he walked over to the bushes and saw Bow lying on a tree stump. Chopper's antennas sprung up as he noticed how pale and purplish she looked.

"Guys! I found Bow!" Chopper cried before his friends came over to him and saw Bow. They certainly looked shocked.

"She doesn't look good at all," Geno gulped. "Don't suppose SHE drank some of that poison water."

"My scanners are showing that she did indeed drink the water," C-2 Choppor confirmed sadly.

"Your little girlfriend here is sick?" Kolorado gasped. "Oh dear… This won't do. There MUST be something we can do."

"Yeah, we need to do something about it," Chopper agreed. "I don't want Bow to die because… Wait, she's not my girlfriend! …Nor would she die. She's already a ghost. But we still need to do something about it."

"Unnnnghh… Chopper… Help…" Bow moaned as he walked over to her, feeling a little concern over her.

"I will. Don't worry…"

"We need some kind of herb! I think that might help her." Kayzee suggested while Chopper pondered. "Did you hear me? I said a herb might do something to help her!"

"Wait… Choppor, you still got some of that fruit spray stuff?" Chopper mentioned. "Maybe we can try some of that stuff."

"You're not even listening to me!"

"Chopper, we don't know what that'll do," C-2 Choppor replied. "That could possibly make things worse! We were lucky with Blayzee and Tayzee, but for this, I don't think so."

"We got nothing else, Choppor. I think that's our only thing to do." Geno stated.

"Yeah, I think he's got a point, Chopper," Yosho said, taking C-2 Choppor's side. "That robot weirdo may be tellin' the truth. …Wait, I don't like you that much, so I'm agreein' with Chopper!"

"Very well then. We'll try this. But if she gets worse, it's your fault, Chopper." C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at Bow and used the fruit spray on her. She began to taste some of it and suddenly, her paleness faded away as she became pale green again. Even her eyes were sparkling as she got back up.

"_**Gwah hee ha ha!**_" Bow cackled, which made every fall to the ground in fright.

"My boy! You saved your girlfriend! Excellent work, Chopper!" Kolorado congratulated.

"I feel so great! I have no idea what was in that water, but it really made me sick." Bow remembered as she turned to Chopper, blushing. "Thank you so much for that, Chopper... That's another thing you've done for me that really makes me feel happy about you!"

"What? I didn't even give you the spray! C-2 Choppor was the one who used it." Chopper objected. "Thank him!"

"True, but you were the one who wanted to help me," Bow smiled as her appearance changed to her gorgeous look, which made Chopper's eyes widen as he stepped back.

"Oh, baby! Look at ya! Yer pretty cute, ya know! I think I'm ready for somethin'!" Yosho said. Chopper immediately knocked him down.

"Quiet, Yosho. You leave her alone, OK?" Chopper suggested.

"You're such a cutie!" Bow giggled in a girly voice as she kissed Chopper on the cheek, making him cry out in fear. What was stranger was the fact that Bow sounded so strange, like that that wasn't something she would normally sound like.

"Gross!" Chopper cried as he was left dizzy.

"I'll take care of it," C-2 Choppor assured as he bonked Chopper in the head with his gun, making him shake his head as Bow changed back to herself and winked at Chopper, making him shudder a bit.

_"I can't believe I just did that..." _Chopper thought. _"I don't want her to be kissing me_, _but it doesn't look like she'll listen to me!"_

**Bow rejoined your party…even if you still like it or not!**

"Now then, let's go look for that castle and airship that you've been looking for," Bow suggested. "Then after that we can have a date, Chopper!"

"But I don't want to!"

"OK, so we need to carefully look around here," Geno cut in, noticing a noticed a dirt path that was leading to somewhere. "Let's start by going through there."

"Good idea," C-2 Choppor nodded. "Let's get moving."

Everyone began to dash toward the dirt path, with Bruce and Kolorado trying to catch up. However, they stopped when they saw a huge bridge that was sturdy with a big poison waterfall leading down into the ocean. What made it worse was that it was steep down below.

"Gulp! Chopper! I'll be…taking another way!" Kolorado declared as he began to back away. Bow noticed him and pulled him back.

"Oh no you don't! You're coming with us!" Bow declared.

"You even agreed to come with us anyway," Geno recalled. "You wanted to find something, right? Well, we're going to be finding something."

"I'll just fly over here," Kayzee decided. "…I still hope my sisters are doing fine. And what about the professor? He must be worried sick!"

"I hope they're all fine. Let me just test this bridge out." Chopper began to walk across the bridge, seeing as it wasn't all broken. To his surprised, it looked futuristic. "I think we can cross this with no problem. C'mon, guys! Let's get a move on!"

Chopper ran across the bridge with his friends following him across. Unfortunately, they still didn't get a glimpse of the Koopa Bros. watching them in bushes with their binoculars, who appeared to be grinning.

"If it hadn't been for that Star God at Bowser's Castle, we would've been able to show off our awesome new technique!" Red sighed. "I wonder where that Star God even is. I heard from that Maquano guy that he's supposed to be coming here. There's no way he'll be getting in our way! Oh no!"

"Yeah! We're going to go break their legs so they can't even move!" Yellow declared. "I'll even flatten Chopper like a pancake! That'll work pretty well, right? Yeah, I think it's the best idea ever! Red, we're going to give them the whooping of a lifetime!"

"Shhhh!" Red snapped as he bonked Yellow in the head. "You don't want them to hear us, do you? We need to be sneaky here. Ninjikoopas such as us are good at sneaking around and acting fast! That's why when we work as a team, it makes it easier! …So don't say anything right now!"

"I can probably sneak behind them and sack Chopper. I can blend in through this forest a lot better than you guys. I know for sure!" Green remarked until everyone stared at him. "I'll shut up now."

"We gotta act quickly. They're going to be heading out already, so we can't just sit our butts off and do nothing." Black mentioned. "They're going to be at the castle soon!"

"You're right, Black!" Red gasped. "We better get a move on right now! At this rate, Chopper will be at the castle! He's a fast one…but not as fast as the Mighty Koopa Bros.!"

They all flashed their thumbs as they went to follow Chopper.

* * *

**Forked path-**

Chopper and his friends crossed the bridge and were walking through more of the Poison Forest. They could see some light pink clouds over the forest and saw a fork ahead. They could only go two ways because an actual fork was right in front of them. A giant silver one to be exact.

"Yeah, I sure remember this thing..." Chopper trailed. "It makes me wonder if **Poisna** put it here or not..."

"Who's Poisna, if I may ask? Another minion of Maquano's?" Geno asked.

"Yup, she's one of Maquano's minions. She was considered to be a brat as a child and got everything she wanted from her parents. But then they didn't give her whatever she wanted when she was twelve and got REALLY mad and left. Basically, she was spoiled in every way. She learned how to poison things by a mysterious person, who turned out to be Maquano. He offered her an invitation to his army, and she accepted. Right now, she wants to make everything how she wants it to be…by poisoning people, or turning them into jewels. She even turned her own parents into jewels!"

"Wow… So all of that caused her to be evil?" Bow asked. "She's probably had some big problems, and she should've realized that it wouldn't help her later in life."

"Guys, I know which way to go," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "We need to go right if we want to get to the castle."

"OK!" Kayzee flew to the right to go to the castle, but she came back when she said there was a loop in the way that led to a river.

"Yer kiddin' me, right? There's a loop an' a river we gotta cross?" Yosho gaped as he put his hands on his head. "Oh gosh… My brain's hurtin me right now! How's about we go take another way, since we're not tryin' to die here."

"This is the only way to get to Poisna's Castle, Yosho," Geno mentioned. "Don't you want to get a lady? SHE'S a lady, you know."

"Yeah, and you can go propose to her," Bow added.

"Um… Yeah! They're all right! You want to go for the ladies, and that's where you'll go! …Though I still wish I had Bow." Bruce blurted as Bow turned to him. "Uh, I said nothing!"

"Let's just move on, OK?" Chopper sweat dropped as he began to walk to the right way with everyone else. Kolorado took a look at the fork and poked it. Unfortunately, the fork ended up falling on him instead.

"Oof! Chopper, I'll catch up to you!" Kolorado declared as he got the fork off him and followed. He saw Chopper pass through a loop and grind on a vine to get across the poison river.

"How does he learn to do all of this? I say, it's exciting!" Kolorado felt himself being taken up. "No! I must not die in a time like this! I…"

He looked up and saw Kayzee bringing him over the river and whispered, "Shhh! Don't try to shout! You don't want to wake up all the enemies, do you?"

There were Hammer Bros. across the river, and Chopper jumped off and began to shoot light balls at them, knocking them down.

"I think he already did, Kayzee," Geno sighed.

C-2 Choppor released Bruce and came down on some of the Hammer Bros., exploding upon impact. He came back down to Chopper. Some Bob-ombs appeared next, but were set off with Chopper's Multi-Hand, which he shot fireballs at them.

"I love this ability! It's so great!" Chopper smiled as he continued to run to the next area, hitting the Heart Block to recover the damage he took from the fights. They were right at the entrance to the castle, which was dark purple and big.

"Might as well go inside," Bow shrugged as she opened the door and headed in with everyone. They could see a hallway with a red rug and pictures of Poisna. She was human-like, but had purple, poison hair in two large ponytails She was also in a purple robe with many different types of jewels decorated on it and had purple glowing eyes.

"Hubba hubba… Now yer talkin'! We'll go see this lady an' I'll go talk to her!" Yosho drooled until Chopper lightly bonked him on the head.

"Don't be fooled," Chopper advised. "I've known her for a long time, and she's not one to mess around with. She's pretty deadly, especially some of her poison attacks..."

Chopper looked at the picture of Poisna and he took out that marker and drew a mustache on her. "That's much better!"

They walked to the door at the end, whacking away the Darklings, Hellspawns, and the Koopatrols in their way. There were a lot of enemies in the room, so when they got in the next room they saw stairs leading up, so they took them. When they got to the top, they saw more stairs to the left, but also a crack in the wall. Chopper threw Bruce there, who blew the crack up, making a hole which had a chest containing an Ultimate Shroom.

"This is good! Another Ultimate Shroom!" Chopper smiled as he put it away and left the room to go up the stairs to the left.

There, they found another hallway and an elevator that led to the top, so they ignored the other rooms around and beat their way through the enemies. However, in one of the rooms there was an inn place with a Toad, and Chopper slept there to replenish his stats. Afterward, he and his friends went up in the elevator to the roof. They could see snow up at the distance through some mountains past a small ocean.

"Poisna!" Chopper saw Poisna up on the roof, who was talking to Flyknightis. The airship was there, but once he charged at her, the airship began to leave, and Flyknightis flew up to make his escape. "Hey! Come back here, Flyknightis!"

"So he's the one behind all of this? I would've expected it to be someone else." Bow scoffed, looking at Flyknightis. "He's too small to be a leader."

"Ah, Chopper… I was wondering where you were." Poisna said as she turned around to face Chopper. "I'm glad you came here, because I'm pretty sure this'll be the last time you'll ever see this place!"

"Well hello there, lady! How's about you an' me go out on a li'l date? Of course, you'd have to pay, 'cause I don't got much money on me." Yosho suggested before Poisna shot a light purple beam at Yosho, knocking him away.

"Well, she's not into you, Yosho," Geno shrugged. "Anyway, let's just settle this!"

**Tattle: **_That's Poisna. She's one of Maquano's minions, and is the only female one. Max HP: 190, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 0. Just because she's a female doesn't mean that she'll be easy. Trust me, this probably won't be an easy thing for you. She can poison you and also confuse you. Just try to keep Yosho away from her, 'cause he might easily get himself poisoned.  
_

Chopper wasn't going to jump on her because of her poison hair, so he shot a light ball at Poisna. She was already told about the light energy he possessed, so she didn't comment on it.

"I suppose I should help you the most for this fight," Bow suggested as she appeared right in front of Poisna and smacked her eight times.

"Take this!" Poisna blew out a poison scent that Chopper managed to guard, but it still damaged him. Thankfully, he didn't get poisoned. Chopper walked over to Poisna afterward and used his Mega Smash to deal 12 damage to her. Bow followed up with another Smack attack.

Poisna shot a poison beam at Chopper, which knocked him back. Thankfully, the attack wasn't poisonous, so he didn't get poisoned.

"Heh. I never see you fight this hard, Poisna." Chopper noticed. "You just really wanna destroy me for some reason."

"Because you're getting really annoying. That's what!" Poisna shouted as Chopper slowly nodded and became Laser Chopper. He charged up a laser and fired it at her. Geno turned into a cannon and used his Geno Flash attack on Poisna, firing some energy out and exploding upon contact. With her defense at zero, this fight sounded like it would be a breeze.

Poisna summoned some little poison enemies that had unlimited HP and could heal her 30 HP per turn, to the heroes' dismay.

"Dang… These things got unlimited amount of HP!" Kayzee gasped. "How are we supposed to take them down now?"

"Just watch," Bow suggested as she covered her face, making the heroes back away. She used her Spook ability and scared all the small poison enemies.

"Wait! Where are you going? Get back here and help me!" Poisna screamed, who unfortunately didn't see an ice ball coming toward her. She quickly shook herself and fired another blast at Chopper, but due to being a little cold, she ended up missing and hitting something else. "I h-h-hate you, Ch-Chopper..."

"This gives us our chance to strike!" Chopper declared as he walked over to Poisna and used an Ice Smash on her, which dealt 10 damage and made her even colder.

"Ugh, I hate it when it's cold! That's why I hate living by the cold!" Poisna shivered as Bruce walked over to her and exploded in front of her with his Bomb ability.

"Hey, you like me, right?" Poisna asked as she turned her attention to Yosho. "You can do me a little favor if you wanna be with me."

"Ya made the right decision!" Yosho smiled as he zipped on over to her. "Fer I'm Yosho, the hottest guy ya'll ever meet!"

"Attack Chopper and you can go out with me."

"Don't do it, Yosho! She's just trying to trick you!" Geno objected.

"Wait, what? I know yer pretty hot, but why would I attack him? He's a good friend of mine, an' I couldn't do a thing to him!" Yosho stepped away, making Poisna fume as she knocked him away with another energy beam.

"HA! See? Yosho would never try anything like that!" Chopper scoffed as he shot a fireball at Poisna, which got rid of her shivering, but made her feel a little hot. C-2 Choppor aimed at Poisna and fired a blast at her, leaving her with 88 HP left. Poisna, on the other hand, blew her poison breath once again and Chopper ended up getting poisoned.

"Oooog… I hate poison…" Chopper coughed. "Why didn't I defend myself right then?"

"Ha! How do you like that? That's the poison from the water, you know. You'll take double damage from this than regular poison!"

"What?" Chopper gasped, taking 2 damage in the process. He slowly walked over to Poisna afterward and became Plasma Chopper. He unleashed a Plasma Needle on her, electrocuting her.

"Gah!" she screamed from the electricity while Geno decided that it would be best to use his Geno Boost, so he used it on Chopper to raise his Attack Power up by four. Poisna fired another energy beam at Chopper, and since he was poisoned, he had a hard time guarding it, so he got knocked back.

"Man… I'm not doing well right now with this poison on me." Chopper coughed and took 2 more damage. He walked over to Poisna and used his Mega Smash to take 16 out of her, while Bow floated over to Poisna and took out her fan to smack her five times with a Fan Smack. She only did this so the battle could end faster and help cure Chopper of the poison on him.

Poisna once again fired an energy beam, but Bow immediately made Chopper invisible to avoid the attack. After that, Chopper became visible and got hurt by the poison and shot a light ball at her.

"If you don't like heat, then you won't like this!" Kayzee smirked as she used her Heat Vision on Poisna. "I bet that hurt more than ice!"

"It hurts…but I hate ice a lot more," Poisna stated. "I prefer to be in a warmer climate, like that Captain Steelfoot person, who's out in the ocean, and Lord Maquano! He gets that huge castle in that lava place where it's warm! I'd rather be there, but it's not as bad as actually being IN the snowy area."

By now, Chopper's poison wore off, and he decided to become Ice Chopper and blew some icy breath at Poisna, following up with Bow's Smack. Poisna blew some more poison breath, but Chopper guarded it. With that, Bow got her fan out and used her Fan Smack to finish the fight, making Poisna fall over on the ground and give Chopper 39 Star Points.

"That's what happens when you try to poison my Chopper," Bow declared.

"Ummmmm... Yeah! What she said!" Chopper exclaimed, unsure of what else to say.

"I got beaten again? Man, it must stink losing to a kid…" Poisna grumbled as they saw behind her was a catapult, which everyone thought of using when they saw the airship up ahead.

"The airship's going over to there," C-2 Choppor noticed as it flew toward the snowy continent nearby. "We can catch it if we all use the catapult. You all agree on that?"

"I'm fine with it," Chopper nodded. "We need to make sure we're faster this time! …But this adventure here might begin to get cold."

Chopper and his friends one by one used the catapult to launch themselves over to the snowy mountains. Once Poisna slowly rose her head and noticed them leaving, she took out her communicator.

"**Icing**, they're coming toward you. You better be ready to deal with them this time."

* * *

**I think the whole "fork in the road" joke is something you probably see a lot of times, but I didn't care. :P**

**And yes, the name Icing not only sounds like the stuff you put on cake, but is also "ice" and "king" combined. Kind of funny, I guess. :P**


	90. How Cold Can it Get?

As Chopper and his friends began to fall toward the Ice Mountains from using the catapult on the top of Poisna's Castle in the Poison Forest, they could see it getting foggy and felt the cold temperatures hitting them. Everyone was shivering right now except for C-2 Choppor and Geno, for they don't have anything that can make them cold. They could see all the snow coming down from the sky and also the mountains that were being covered in snow. They noticed the airship was flying toward the Ice Castle.

They all landed on the snow and saw it was a little deep on their feet. Mostly for Bruce and Chopper, while Kayzee simply floated off the ground. Kolorado began to shiver from the cold temperatures and his teeth were also chattering, which everyone could hear.

"Where's that chattering coming from? It sounds like we're really close to the chattering. Who's doing it?" Kayzee asked as everyone pointed to the shivering archaeologist. "Aww! He's so cold!"

"Are you serious?" Chopper face palmed.

"I-I-I-I'm f-f-f-fine!" Kolorado assured. "J-J-J-Just a l-l-l-little c-c-c-cold h-h-h-here… D-D-Don't you m-m-mind m-me! I'll be j-j-just f-fine!"

"_**PROFESSOR KOLORADO!**_" This got Kolorado's attention and saw up ahead some Koopa archaeologists and also some Bumpties that were trying to help them stay warm. One Koopa was unfortunately frozen.

"Whoa, there are others here?" Chopper gaped. "I guess the Dayzeeflower Girls and Kolorado weren't the only ones who got taken by that airship. Dang! Why are they doing this to all of these people?"

"I honestly have no idea… It's just so confusing." Geno sighed. "They must want to get a kick into things by bringing people over here. Bowser and Maquano are going to pay for taking innocent people from their homes."

"Yer sayin' that innocent people are bein' taken from their homes?" Yosho gaped. "Oh, god! That's really bad! What're we gonna do now?"

He was about to speak until he heard a familiar voice calling out to him.

"Yosho? Izzat you?" Yosho turned around and saw that it was the Yoshi Elder speaking to him.

"Elder? What're ya doin' here? Don't tell me the airship came down fer ya and swooped ya inside, didn't it?"

"Er… Lemme think about it… Yes! That did happen. But we've found something else too." the Yoshi Elder poked one of the Bumpities with his cane as they brought in a frozen Parakarry.

"Hey! That's Parakarry!" Bow gaped.

"My lady!" Bootler gasped as Bow noticed his appearance. "I'm so glad you're OK! I was worried sick that Chopper left you, because when he came to the mansion, you weren't there."

"Bootler? Look, just still your tongue right now and stop worrying so much. I can take care of myself no problem. You shouldn't be treating me like a child! I'm mature enough to take care of myself!"

"My lady... But..."

"No buts!"

"Guys, maybe we should just move on right now," Bruce suggested. "We all can't stay here forever or else we'll freeze! …But we need Parakarry first!"

"No problem!" Chopper became Fire Chopper and used his fire breath to unfreeze all of the frozen people. Parakarry quickly shook himself after he was thawed.

"Ugh… What happened? ...Oh, no! Now I remember! I left some of my letters at the lake! I need to go get them!" Parakarry was about to fly off, but then he noticed Chopper. "Oh! Chopper! I didn't realize you were here! I was about to fly off for a second there. It's so good to see you're fine!"

"Yeah, we're doing fine. It's pretty cold here, though. We need to go after that airship." Chopper mentioned, pointing to the airship that was flying away from everyone. Parakarry saw it, and when C-2 Choppor took a close look at the back, one of the Axem Rangers was laughing at them. It looked like a black one with sunglasses.

"It looks like one of those people in the airship is laughing at us," C-2 Choppor noticed. "I would certainly like to go over to him right now."

"Well I say we go!" Parakarry declared. "I need to get my letters back anyway. You'll help me, right? I left them right by a castle."

**Parakarry rejoined your party!**

"Umm… I think I'll be staying here." Kolorado declared. "I need to be with my archaeologist friends, Chopper. But maybe we'll see each other later. They said they're looking for artifacts here anyways."

"Lady Bow, I'll stay with you just so nothing bad happens," Bootler stated.

"Don't blame Chopper for this," Bow retorted. "He helped me whenever I was in danger, so I can trust him. You stay here with everyone else. Make plans to help save this planet from that masked boy that's here."

Bootler sighed, and then Chopper and his friends began to move through the harsh snow. Chopper decided to become Ice Chopper to make things a little easier to get around. With that he wasn't having a hard time going through the cold environment.

"Brrrr! I really hate it when it has to be so cold!" Kayzee shivered. "I wish I had a blanket to keep me warm!"

They found some Ice Guys tried to attack them, but Chopper was able to take them out easily with a stomp and a Fire Smash from his hammer. There were also Frost Bros., which shoot ice balls from their mouths instead of fireballs. They aren't really affected by fire, but they were able to take them down.

Chopper looked around in the area for any hidden objects with C-2 Choppor, but they couldn't find anything so they moved on to see a slope going up to a gap between two slopes. One going up for them and one going down. Down below is some water, and water in a cold place will freeze you.

"Well, looks like you're up, Parakarry," Chopper noted as Parakarry nodded and carried Chopper over the gap. He helped Bruce, Yosho, and Geno over too, since they couldn't fly. Bow, C-2 Choppor and Kayzee flew over themselves. Chopper slid down the slope below and moved on to the next part of the area, which had a frozen pond of water.

"This is the pond, Chopper!" Parakarry exclaimed. "My letters are somewhere in the water! Do you think you can go down here and get them?"

"Why sure!" Chopper jumped onto the ice and jumped and used his Rocket Jump to break through the ice. He found three letters underwater, so he swam to the letters and grabbed them. With his Ice ability on, he wasn't left frozen in the ice cold water.

"There we go! Three letters for Parakarry!" he swam up to the surface and froze the spot that he broke through and gave the three letters to Parakarry.

"There we go!" Parakarry smiled as he received his letters and looked at them. "Hmmm… Strange… This one is to someone named Sir Flyknightis."

"Uh oh…" Geno trailed. "Parakarry, that's for the leader of this whole army on my planet. You should know that you know."

"What? Say it ain't so! That's a terrible thing! Why would _I _have to deliver a letter to him? He might try to destroy me! What would he say to me?"

"Last time we saw him, he didn't even say a word," Bow recalled. "It's like he's serious and silent. I don't get what's up with that. Maybe Chopper knows a little more about him."

"He kind of reminds me of my best friend," Chopper pondered. "I don't know why, but he just seems so familiar for some reason. He NEVER said a word at all, and when we look at each other, everything is just blank right then. Kind of strange, actually."

"I guess it's an odd thing. We better be careful if we see him again." Bruce noted.

"My scanners tell me he's in this place," C-2 Choppor stated. "The Ice Castle, that is. He must be not much further ahead."

"Good! Now let's see what we got around here." Chopper ice skated across the frozen pond and got back onto the snow. He noticed some of the trees looked like Christmas Trees with lights on them. "What is this? Christmas?"

"It looks so cute!" Kayzee squealed.

"Well I think it looks dumb…" Yosho trailed as Kayzee glared at him and hit him in the head. Yosho quickly shook his head and shook his fist at the Dayzeeflower Girl.

"Why you little!" Yosho was about to grab Kayzee but she flew out of the way, making him he fall over on the ground, making Kayzee giggle.

"Both of you stop right now," Bow interrupted. "It says here on this sign that there are some Eskimo guys up ahead in a small town. They have Christmas every single day? Uh… This doesn't make much sense."

"But it says free pizza! That works for me!" Chopper smiled as he ran toward the village of the Eskinians, the people of the snowy world. They could see up in the distance the Ice Castle as well. For some reason, it looked like there was something going on over there.

"We better go into the village," Parakarry suggested. "Chopper's pretty much going there, and the pizza sounds nice, since it's hot."

Everyone followed him, except for Yosho, who slowly got up and followed the group, having snow on his face that resembled a beard.

* * *

**Village-**

Chopper and his friends noticed in the village, the Eskinians were in blue, fluffy coats, wore white gloves and boots and had faces made out of ice and yellow eyes. For some reason, some of his friends thought that he looked similar to the Crystal King with those yellow eyes.

Looking around the place, he saw there were some Ice Guys and Ice Block enemies that could use icy breath. They noticed that most of the villagers already hid in their houses to stay safe from harm.

"I thought this place looked all safe and fine," Geno noticed. "Looks like it didn't turn out the way that I thought it would be. I mean look at all of this!"

"What's goin' on here? I thought there'd be pizza! I see no pizza 'round here! C'mon, this ain't right! Hello! Free pizza, please?" Yosho called out, only to get no response.

"Yosho! Be quiet!" C-2 Choppor shushed. "You don't want them to hear us, do you? If they heard us, then we'd be in some big trouble!"

Kayzee was about to scream again, but she stopped, knowing this time it wouldn't be a good idea. Unfortunately, the enemies already saw Chopper and his friends and came running toward them.

"Hey! We were wondering where you were! Heh… This'll be GREAT for us! We've been waiting for a LONG time to get you! No one can really stop us now! Because we're…" the Icy Guy stopped when it got hit in the head by Chopper's hammer.

"Idiot… You don't speak in front of your enemies! That's just going to get you killed!" the Ice Block noted until it was beaten, but by Kayzee's Heat Vision. The melted Ice Block was on the ground with its two yellow eyes blinking.

"Dang it… Next time I better not do that either! …Wait, there's no going to be a next time! No… I can't die!" Unfortunately, the heroes walked away from the Ice Block. "Hey! Don't you leave me here! Help me already, you fools! I'll… I'll try to be cute for you guys! Don't you love to see anything cute?"

Kayzee turned around, but Geno shook his head, so she turned back to follow Chopper and his friends.

"Man, what a beggar," Bruce sighed. "He sounded like he just wanted to be alive so he can just attack us. Don't you guys think so?"

"Yeah, probably. But let's not worry about it." Bow suggested as she looked at all of the igloos and saw nobody.

"I find it strange that no one's coming out to greet us," Parakarry noticed. "I think they're afraid of us. Don't you guys think so? But it's a shame there won't be any free pizza…"

"Yeah, this makes no sense! Ah, screw it! We're goin' up to the castle." Yosho declared, still having the snow beard on his face.

The villagers noticed Yosho with the snow when they took a look out of their window.

"…Santa Claus?"

"Wait, what?" Yosho noticed a bunch of the villagers chasing after him. His sunglasses almost dropped as his eyes widened.

"Run fer it, guys! The villagers want me dead!" Yosho cried as he ran the long pathway up to Ice Castle, and when everyone turned, they saw the villagers too.

"Oh! We better run!" Parakarry gulped as they fled from the Eskinians before they get glomped or squeezed to death. They went up the path to the Ice Castle and succeeded in escaping them.

Yosho wiped the snow off of him and made it up to the entrance to the Ice Castle. It seemed to be a white color with the ground being made of ice, which almost made Geno slip.

"This is really slippery ice… I almost fell!" Geno gasped. Yosho tried to kick the door to the Ice Castle down, but he had no luck with it.

"Dang… This thing won't budge when I kick it!" Yosho said, looking baffled. "I think we're havin' a little problem here!"

"That's because you didn't read the sign," Bow noted as she pointed at the sign. "It says here that you need to PULL."

"Kicking a door down doesn't necessarily work all the time," C-2 Choppor informed. "Your best bet is to shoot it down. But oh well."

Chopper pulled the door open and everyone headed in. Once they were inside, they saw the room had ice everywhere and two doors to the north and a door up some stairs that were locked.

"I say we check in the first room," Bruce suggested as he walked over there but was slipping, but with Parakarry's help, he didn't slip as much. Chopper opened the door and found more ice in the next room. However, there was something underneath the ice in the water.

"Hold on a minute," Chopper used his Rocket Jump and broke through the ice and into the water, getting an Ice Key in the chest and then swimming back up with the key. With that, they left the room to go to the locked door and unlock it with the key.

"Great! Let's move on!" Chopper opened the door and headed in with everyone. They found themselves in a long, flat hallway with nothing else in particular.

"Hey! Stop right there!" a light blue fairy thing with a wand that looked like a spoon and a snowman doll floated down to the eight. She was wearing a light blue hat with a shining ruby in the center.

"Huh? Who're ya? What're ya doin' in a place like this?" Yosho asked.

"Who am I? My name's **Jojora**! I'm a buddy of the cousin of the descendant of the spirit who guarded some other ice palace." Jojora explained. "One's called Joke's End, and the other I don't really know. Why have you come here?"

"We came to get that airship that's over here," Bow answered.

"Oh. OK, then I'll leave you alone." Jojora decided as she flew out of their way. "Don't mind me, OK?"

"Uh… That was weird. Let's just go already." Chopper shrugged as he began to slide down the hallway to the door. They found in the next room some ice blocks to push so they could go onto a switch.

"This could take a while though…so try to make this quick," Geno suggested. Chopper began to push the blocks, and after a while, he got the block in the center and made the blocked door open up. There was a Save Block and Heart Block, so Chopper hit the two before heading on through the door.

They found some stairs going up to a door in the next room. They all nodded and walked up the stairs to the door that was ahead. Once they opened it, they were on the balcony. It was pretty big, and the airship was still there. Icing was there, and he was an ice cube with a crown on his head and was wearing a dark blue robe. He had icy hands and yellow eyes. Because of his robe, it was difficult to see his feet.

"Well now! I've been waiting for you…" Icing said in a cold voice as he turned around. "Oh yes… It's been a while…"

However, he stopped for a moment to look at Chopper. "I'm sorry. I don't remember who you are."

This only caused him to fall over anime style.

"He doesn't remember Chopper?" Bruce gawked. "That's weird..."

"Ah! So you ARE him!" Icing realized. "Man have I been waiting for you to come here! I wanted to make things cool around an enemy! But now that you're here, you'll be a new ice sculpture when you're frozen!"

"Can we not do this, please?" Chopper asked.

"Well, then maybe you oughta chill out."

"This guy makes so many puns..." Bruce trailed.

"He's the reason why I make them!" Chopper smiled, getting in a fighting stance. "Well, I guess we're just going to have to be a little cold against him.

"Hey, that's my line!" Icing cried.

**Tattle: **_That's Icing, the king of this icy land. He doesn't look too bad, really. Max HP: 200, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 1. He can use a lot of ice attacks to freeze you, but if you're Ice Chopper, you won't become frozen. But he can still hurt you with ice attacks. Make sure you use a lot of fire moves on him. It really works well against him._

Chopper simply shot a fireball from his hand at Icing, which did two more damage because of him being made of ice, so that meant he did 9 damage. Kayzee followed up with her Heat Vision, making Icing take 11 damage instead of 9.

Icing pulled out an ice sword and used it to swing at Chopper. He hit Chopper, but he didn't become frozen from the attack.

"Strange… That should've frozen you! …Wait, you got the Ice ability on you…" Icing groaned. He was prepared to get hit by another fireball, which was what he received from Chopper. Unfortunately, he couldn't really take it as much.

"Ow! So hot! Definitely not cool!" Icing shrieked as Geno sighed and used his Geno Beam attack to take 7 out of him. Icing fired some icicles down at Chopper, who was able to guard three of them and then strike back with a fireball.

"I'm going to go for an attack now!" Parakarry declared as he flew over to Icing and used his Sky Dive to deal 7 damage. Icing jumped up and fired an ice beam at Chopper. This missed, but it made a huge block of ice appear on the ground.

"Ah! This should be useful!" Icing realized as he kicked the block at Chopper, throwing him toward the wall. Yosho was able to use his tongue to get the block and spat it out at Icing to deal 13 damage to him.

"Ow! Why can't you cool down for once?"

"Hey! Don't mess with me, buddy!" Yosho retorted.

Chopper jumped off the wall he took out his hammer. Icing gulped and he got hit by Chopper's Fire Smash, taking 11 damage from it. But, since Chopper was close, Icing was able to strike him with his ice sword. While this hit him, Chopper struck back with another Fire Smash.

Bow appeared in front of Icing and used a Power Smack on him to leave him dazed.

"Gah! What's wrong with me today? I was hoping I'd beat you today! I've got the chills!" Icing shot an ice beam at Chopper, but he was able to defend himself from it. Chopper jumped back and shot a fire ball, and then Bruce jumped over Chopper to use his Bomb attack.

"Take THIS!" Bruce exploded right on Icing and landed behind Chopper, quickly shaking himself from the injury he took from blowing up. Icing hissed as he summoned a huge blizzard to attack Chopper. Unfortunately, most of the blizzard didn't get Chopper, so he only took 5 damage instead.

"That's it? Wow…" Chopper trailed as he used his Fire Smash on Icing, with C-2 Choppor following up with a blast.

"Since that blizzard didn't work, I might as well use this!" Icing declared as he fired an Ice Sword Beam at Chopper, which he managed to defend himself against. Chopper had to use a Jelly Ultra, so he ate one to recover 50 HP and 50 FP.

Kayzee used her Heat Vision on Icing, which made him cringe in pain from the heat.

"Oh, now you're going to use recovery items, huh? …I wish I had some with me. But too bad! Take this!" Icing fired an ice beam at Chopper, which made him wince from the ice, despite not freezing. Chopper quickly threw a fireball at Icing, and following up was Bow's Power Smack. When Icing looked at himself, he noticed he was beginning to melt.

"…No… I'm…_MELTING?!_" Icing gaped as he tried to move, but he couldn't. "Gah! Fine, I'll just fight from here!" he summoned an ice block that fell on Chopper, knocking away his Ice ability.

"Excellent. Now I can actually freeze you!"

"Oh yeah? I got this!" Chopper smashed him with his Fire Smash attack, and then to add to it, Parakarry flew up high.

"What's he doing?" Icing asked, but he decided not to care and he fired an ice beam at Chopper, only to have it be guarded by him. Chopper used his D-Down Jump, and then Icing looked up and saw Parakarry flying down toward him.

"This better work!" Parakarry got in his shell and he rammed right into Icing, which knocked him away.

"OOF! …I can't attack! I'm just…melting!" Icing cried as he felt his powers slowly draining away.

"OK, then take this!" Chopper threw another fireball at Icing, and it caused him melt into water, with his robe on the puddle and his eyes on top. While he glared at them, Chopper received 41 Star Points and leveled up to upgrade his FP to 75.

"Curse you, Chopper!" Icing cursed. "If I had arms and legs, I'd ruin you! …Or if I had a mouth! I'd bite you and you'll be injected with powerful ice that'll make you frozen for the rest of your life! Yeah! That's what I'll do! I'm going…"

Chopper simply ignored him and walked over to the airship. It was beginning to leave, making Chopper gasp.

"Guys! That airship's getting away! We need to catch it!" Chopper declared.

"And we better make it fast!" Geno added. They saw the northern lights actually made some kind of bridge of rainbow colors, which made them surprised. It was good enough for them to reach the airship.

"No time to lose! Let's go!" Yosho shouted as they all ran on the bridge and grabbed onto the edge of the airship. It was pretty big, and they noticed the black Axem Ranger from before saw them holding onto the ledge. They were leaving the Ice Mountains and heading to mountains higher up after reaching the next continent.

"Hey, would ya look at this!" Axem Black noticed. "I didn't think ya'd make it here! Yer pretty lucky that ya managed to get here, but I'll take care of this!"

"Who…ARE you?" Chopper asked.

"We're not tellin' anything! Though, I do have a little story for you." Axem Black declared as he stepped on Chopper's thumb, making him let go by the thumb. "This little piggy went to the market!"

"Ow!"

"This little piggy stayed home watching TV!" he shouted as he stepped on his next finger.

"Stop that now!"

"And THIS little piggy had a nice buffet…only to have it eaten by me!" he followed up by stepping on his ringer finger. "And this little piggy had none!"

Chopper was holding onto the airship by his pinky. "And this one… Ooh… This one was about to fall off the airship… Like this!" Axem Black stepped on Chopper's last finger and he began to fall.

"_**AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!**_" Chopper cried as began to plummet toward the mountains while Axem Black got rid of everyone else, who fell down onto the mountains.

"Heh heh heh! That takes care of them!" Axem Black cackled as he went back inside of the ship. "Now I'm satisfied!"


	91. Up on the Mountains

Up in the mountains, Koopla was walking along a path. When she looked down, she noticed how steep it was down below on the light brown mountains. She had a couple of scratches and bruises on her, which could possibly be from a couple of Koopas or Hellspawns she tried to fight back and possibly won or lost. However, she decided to stop for a moment and take a breather.

"Man, I've been walking around these mountains for DAYS!" Koopla panted. "I can't keep moving around like this forever! It's not going to help me with anything! No one's going to help me, so I just might as well just go and…"

She heard someone screaming, and when she looked up, she saw Chopper and his friends coming down toward her. Her eyes widened as she noticed they were about to fall on top of her.

"Oh god! I can't stay here forever!" Koopla attempted to flee, but despite getting out of the way, she got her leg caught in a bear trap, making her screech in pain.

"Gah! Stupid trap! Let me go already!" Koopla tried to pull her leg out of the trap, but she didn't have any luck with that. "Darn it… I was hopin' that this wouldn't happen. I hate bear traps. But come to think of it, why did one just appear here. This wasn't here when I first walked around here."

When she looked up, she saw Axem Black on the airship dropping a couple of bear traps onto the mountains.

"Oh, so HE'S the one who did that! Oh, well I'm certainly going to give him a big whooping when I see him! Let's see how he'll like it!" Koopla growled as Chopper and his friends landed on the ground. They were all piled up, which made it difficult for some people like Chopper to get themselves up up.

"Ow… That really hurt…" Chopper groaned as he managed to get up and looked at his hand. One thing for sure was that it didn't look too good. Meanwhile, when they looked up at the airship, C-2 Choppor happened to notice Axem Black taunting them by shaking his behind at them.

"That's certainly a nice way to respond to us..." C-2 Choppor trailed.

"Let's just ignore that Axem Ranger. Man seriously, ouch…" Chopper cringed as he removed his glove and saw his hand bruised up. "Man! Who ever knew that Axem Ranger had such a strong boot..."

"Ouch… That's not good." Yosho cringed. "Yer lucky that it wasn't somewhere else. That'd be even more painful."

"That's such a bad boo-boo!" Kayzee notice, talking a little babyish. "That Axem Ranger must've really given you a big one right there!"

"He did…and I'm going to get back at him soon enough," Chopper mumbled. "But this is something I can easily take care of."

"Ahem! Did you guys even notice me here?" Koopla asked as everyone noticed her stuck in a bear trap, trying to make a knife.

"Koopla? What happened to YOU?" Geno gaped.

"I don't know what happened. Hmmm… Maybe Koopla was just walking and then she tripped and got caught in this bear trap!" Bruce pondered. "…And that knife she's trying to make is used for writing something!"

"You were probably close, Bruce. But I don't think you were correct." Parakarry replied as the female Koopa clenched her teeth in pain.

"Oh, shut it, you guys! I just got my leg caught in this stupid trap." Koopla screeched. "It's not worth dyin' here so I decided to try to make a knife to cut my foot off. I'm not making any progress, unfortunately."

"I'll take care of this," Chopper threw a light ball at the bear trap and destroyed it, freeing Koopla from the trap. Part of her foot was a little injured though, but she seemed to be just fine.

"Good, thanks for the help, Chopper. Now I'm free from that trap. I saw an Upgrade Block up ahead, and I was thinking about hitting it, but I know I probably couldn't do that, so I was going to wait for you."

**Koopla rejoined your party!**

"All right, now we just need to find Mallow and Ghoster and then we'll have everyone back," Geno deduced. "We'll be able to chase down Flyknightis and get the Power Star then."

"Flyknightis? Is he wearing a weird mask or anything? I think I saw him going up the mountains. I'll show you." Koopla walked up ahead to the Upgrade Block while everyone followed her. Chopper was able to make it to the Upgrade Block ahead and hit it. He decided to upgrade Koopla to become Diamond-Rank. Her attack power went up and also she learned Shell Slam. This would let her attack all enemies, ignoring their defense, but only doing 8 damage.

"Aw, yer lettin' me get the last one? No fair!" Yosho whined.

"Ah-HA! I found you at long last!" Chopper saw Jr. Troopa above a tunnel that was up ahead. He walked over to Chopper, who was actually shocked to see him here rather than annoyed.

"What the…! First Popple and now Jr. Troopa?" Chopper gawked. "How did you get here! This just makes no sense at all!"

"I followed you into the teleporter when you were in Toad Town," Jr. Troopa explained. "Don't think that I've stopped so easily! I still got a lot more waiting for you! Let's finish this!"

"And once guess… You got ANOTHER ability?" Geno wondered.

"You bet I do!" Jr. Troopa grinned as he took out his wand. "Yup, I'm using my wand again! This time I got some more things up my sleeves!"

**Tattle: **_Jr. Troopa AGAIN? Man, it feels like you haven't even seen him in a while. I don't know why he really wants to beat you up. I guess he just has a grudge against everyone he fights. Max HP: 195, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 2. I think you can inhale his wand for a brand new ability. It might be a good idea to do that you know. I don't know why he's still using his wand…but we'll see why._

Chopper walked over and began to inhale Jr. Troopa's wand as he cried, "Hey! Stop it right now!" But it was too late, though. His wand went into Chopper's mouth, and when he swallowed it, he had a dark green pointy hat and was holding a wand similar to Jr. Troopa's in his hands.

"Whoa… I think I just became Sorcerer Chopper." Chopper realized as Bow floated over to Jr. Troopa and used her Power Smack to deal the damage Chopper didn't deal against him.

"You really think I care about losing my wand? HA! Watch this!" Jr. Troopa surrounded himself with electricity and walked over to Chopper to stomp on him. He was able to guard the attack, luckily.

"Whoa… That's different." Chopper gasped as he used his wand's power and fired some magic at Jr. Troopa to take 8 out of him. C-2 Choppor aimed at Jr. Troopa and he fired a blast at him, making the small Koopa angry as he rammed into Chopper, in a fire shield. Luckily, Chopper guarded the attack with ease and took 11 damage.

Chopper shot some fired magic at Jr. Troopa, and following that, Koopla used her Dizzy Shell to make the baby Koopa dizzy. Jr. Troopa tried to attack Chopper with lightning, but he missed while crying, "Shooooooot!" while stomping his foot in anger.

"Heh heh… That's right!" Chopper unleashed a lightning bolt down on Jr. Troopa that pierced through his defense, which was something that comes in randomly. Geno used his Geno Blast attack after that, and Jr. Troopa tried once again to attack, but he missed once again.

"Well, we're certainly doing well against him! He's missing like crazy!" Geno laughed.

Chopper decided to use a Power Bounce attack on Jr. Troopa. After eleven stomps, he stopped and walked back to everyone else. Parakarry flew high up to get ready for an attack.

"Ha! You just wasted a turn! Now it's time for me to attack!" Jr. Troopa grinned as he zapped Chopper, who got electrocuted and was sizzling from the static electricity.

"Gah!" Chopper quickly shook his head and fired magic at Jr. Troopa. Lighting came down and struck him, which he was hoping to get.

"Heads up!" they all heard Parakarry cry and got out of the way. He flew down toward Jr. Troopa and he got in his shell to strike him to deal 10 damage. Jr. Troopa tried to attack with ice, but he ended up missing the attack, but thankfully, he was no longer dizzy. Chopper decided to go with Time Out by summoning Klevar. Jr. Troopa was frozen (in time, not by ice) for about four turns.

"That worked out well. Here, let me give you this." Geno used the Geno Boost on Chopper to boost his attack power up by 4.

"OK, time to make a jump!" Chopper began to use his Power Bounce on Jr. Troopa, managing to stomp on him about ten times. Bow used her Power Smack on Jr. Troopa again, and he was still frozen in time. There was nothing he could do to fight back.

"All right, let's try another one…but this time I'll actually TRY to beat him." Chopper used his Ultra Jump Charge to boost his Jump attack by 4, and Geno used his Geno Boost once again.

"Here we go!" Chopper used another Power Bounce on Jr. Troopa, and he was able to stomp on him ten times. Jr. Troopa had 25 HP left, so this didn't feel like it would last any longer. Kayzee used her Heat Vision on Jr. Troopa, and he only had one more turn of being frozen, so they had to do something. Chopper used his Sorcerer powers to make a bunch of flames attack Jr. Troopa and after that, Geno used his Geno Beam.

"Ack! How did you do that? No matter, take this, Chopper!" Jr. Troopa zapped Chopper with lighting, knocking away his ability.

"Meh, who really cares about that? I'll finish this up right now!" Chopper declared as he threw a light ball at Jr. Troopa, knocking him to the ground and dropping 35 Star Points for Chopper.

"Wait, that's all to this chapter? We barely did anythin'!" Yosho gaped.

"Actually, there's still a bit more to this," Chopper noted. "We're pretty much halfway done with it!"

"Oh..."

"Let's just go," Chopper suggested as he headed into the tunnel up ahead with everyone else following him.

* * *

**Cavern-**

Because of how dark it was inside, C-2 Choppor had to turn on his light visors to get a look at what was around. They could see some rubble blocking the way up ahead, which was something everyone knew what to do.

"I should be able to take care of these rocks in the way," Geno assured as he changed his right hand to his star gun and fired a Geno Beam toward it, destroying all the rubble.

"I'm so glad you have those light visors, Choppor," Kayzee sighed. "I'm REALLY afraid of the dark, and if it were to be dark at this second, I would scream!"

Unfortunately C-2 Choppor's light visors ended up turning off and it made Kayzee scream in horror because of it.

"Settle down, Kayzee! The batteries on my light visors are dead. I just need new ones…" C-2 Choppor trailed. "But I need some light to help me. My visors can't help me see what I'm doing so well."

"Let me help you with it," Chopper offered as he made a light ball appear from his hand and brought it to C-2 Choppor. Now he could see what he was doing and began to put in new batteries for his light visors. With that, they turned back on, making it light around the cave.

"Are you OK now, Choppor? I just wanna make sure in case if you have another blackout." Koopla noted as C-2 Choppor nodded and checked the walls.

"Chopper, I can see some cracks in these rocks. Throw me at the rocks and I'll blow them up!" Bruce said. Chopper nodded and he threw Bruce at one of the rocks, blowing them up and revealing a Sweet Punch. Chopper took it and put it away for later.

"Good thing there's no letters I dropped here," Parakarry smiled as they continued their way through the cavern. "I've never really been to this planet before. But I gotta say… It looks pretty nice! It's a shame I've only seen the snow and mountain area."

"I don't think the Poison Forest would be a place for you, Parakarry," Bow mentioned. "The water there is poisonous and there are so many poison clouds, so don't say that this whole planet is great. I do like it, but the Poison Forest is the only place I hate."

"I hear ya, Bow! That place was just BAD!" Yosho agreed. "I prefer the beach place the most 'cause I got to be in a hot tub with two pretty Mermaids. An' I'm not kiddin' here!"

"You really did? Well that's pretty interesting…" Koopla trailed. "I wish I was there to see it."

"They weren't actually interested in him," Geno whispered.

"Hey! I heard that!" Yosho yelled.

"Guys, settle down... Let's just move on." Chopper sighed as he noticed some of the tunnel had darkness around. Even if C-2 Choppor walked over to the dark part, it would still be dark. With that, he began to ponder.

"Let's see… I should try…this!" Chopper threw a light ball at the darkness, which destroyed it upon impact, revealing a new way to go through. Everyone headed on through and found a bigger area in the cave filled with many ghosts.

"Wait a minute… These ghosts look like the ones we've seen from Ghost Town! What's going on here?" Bow asked. When the ghosts noticed them, they instantly disappeared.

"Yeah, the party's over, I'm afraid," Ghoster sighed as he noticed his friends come in. "But at least you all came! I'm so glad you're all fine!"

"Ghoster? What are you doing here?" Chopper asked as Ghoster was putting an item away that looked like a flower.

"Umm… When I fell from those clouds, I found myself in this cave. I was pretty lonely, since no one was here, but then I saw an airship fly over here and drop a bunch of ghosts. I also noticed that Hauntost was in there sticking his tongue out at me! Man, was I angry… I really wanted to beat him up. And I thought he was DEAD!"

"Yeah, I saw him take Blayzee and Tayzee in the City of Flowersville. He must be in that airship, along with all of those other villains we've seen before." .

"Really? Oh, that's not good. I think we better go chase it. Sorry, guys… But I gotta go."

Groans were heard everywhere from the ghosts as Ghoster floated beside the group.

**Ghoster rejoined your party!**

"Now let me show you the way out of here. Stand over there." Ghoster pointed to the middle of the room, which has some kind of cap on it. They all stood on there and Ghoster removed the cap, making a bunch of water shoot up, carrying them out of the cave and back outside, where they were back on the mountains. They could see a spiral pathway going around a tall mountain.

"Uh oh… Guys, I think that airship is getting away!" Chopper noticed as he pointed to the airship flying past the mountain. This caused Chopper to go full speed, running around the mountain as fast as possible. They could all see the pale green light circling around.

"Wow, I didn't know he could do that!" Kayzee gaped.

"We better follow him, and fast," Geno suggested as he began to head over to the pathway across the small bridge. Everyone but Bruce was heading up there with Chopper.

"Huh? Hey! Wait up, guys!" Bruce began to follow them, but he was not doing so well because of his stubby legs.

* * *

**Top of the mountain-**

Chopper reached to the top of the mountain only to find nothing around. He actually saw at a further mountain a ninja on the top. He was in a black and gray ninja outfit and his skin was a light brown tint with orange eyes. He was a species of hitchhikers that climb up mountains with sharp hands that allow them to climb no problem and also a strong body. But this one was a little different. Not the strong body or anything, but it looks like his legs were built for being quick and nimble.

"Hey, I think I can see…Ninjo over there!" Chopper noticed. "Of course he would be here. It's pretty much obvious…"

Before Chopper could do anything else, something opened up in the airship above, and the Axem Red came out. There was a red rug that came out and he stood at the front.

"Well well well! Looks like you finally managed to show up here!" Axem Red noticed. "But… We're not letting you reach us this easily!"

"All right, first of all… Tell me who the heck you are?" Chopper demanded as he got in a fighting stance. "I have NO idea where you came from, and I don't know what you want!"

"OK then," Axem Red turned around to get everyone else's attention. "C'mon, guys! Get over here right NOW!"

"We fight for evil!" he began as he turned back to Chopper while the other Axem Rangers jumped down.

"We live for disorder!" Axem Black said as he jumped down.

"We like what we do!" the skinny Axem Green shouted

"We struggle for chaos!" Axem Pink declared.

"We are…" the large Axem Yellow began.

"…the AXEM RANGERS!"

"Axem what? What are you guys, the Power Rangers?" Chopper scoffed. "Why should I honestly deal with you guys anyway?

"Ah, so you finally decided to show up now, did you?" Geno asked as Chopper's friends reached the top.

"Yeah, that's right! I think we can just fight here, right now!" Axem Red decided. "That's probably the best thing to do, or otherwise we'll…"

Unfortunately, his words were interrupted by Axem Yellow's growling stomach.

"Er… I'm hungry, Red." Axem Yellow mumbled. "When can we go grab something to eat?"

"Shaddup, Yellow! We're a little busy right now, can't ya see? Now then… If you REALLY wanna battle, then we won't show mercy!" the Axem Rangers got in their fighting stances, but they heard footsteps and stopped.

Axem Red turned around and saw Sir Flyknightis walking across the red carpet. "Heads up! Sir Flyknightis's here! Get ready, Axem Rangers!"

The Axem Rangers stepped off the rug, allowing Flyknightis to walk toward Chopper, who got in his fighting stance.

"You again…" Chopper trailed. "Why're you doing all this? In fact, who ARE you? Show us who you really are already!"

"Hey, you can't tell Sir Flyknightis to remove his mask! It's against the rules to say that! Or else…" Flyknightis gestured Axem Red to quiet down. "Oh, sorry, sir..."

Flyknightis took a look at Chopper, feeling something between them, but he soon blinked and drew his golden sword.

"What's he doing?" Ghoster asked.

"I have no idea…" Koopla trailed as Flyknightis swung his sword three times and struck down, making lightning strike the heroes and knock them down.

"Ack! Man, there's absolutely no way to even stop that move!" Chopper winced as he slowly got up. Flyknightis immediately made a sharp whistle, which made Ninjo's eyes open.

"Hmmm?" he jumped over some mountains and landed on the ground in a ninja stance. "It's been quite a while, hasn't it, Chopper? You remember me, **Ninjo**, right?"

"Yeah, I remember you…" Chopper trailed as his friends got up.

Flyknightis pointed at Chopper, giving Ninjo an order to attack. He then walked back into the airship, with the Axem Rangers following. Axem Black took care of the red rug before it took off.

"Dang it! We're losing the ship again!" C-2 Choppor shouted.

"Yes… But this battle's about to begin! Hi-YA!" Ninjo shouted as he pulled his katana out.

**Tattle: **_That's Ninjo. He's considered to be the quick and nimble one of Maquano's minions in Clara. Max HP: 210, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 0. He's got some good speed, but he's got no defense. That's what's with him. So use any moves you want on this guy. You can even use Ghoster's Psychic to attack him if he leaves a decoy out. You'll find him EASILY!_

Chopper became Ninja Chopper and disappeared when Ninjo attacked. He left a log with a puppet of himself on there.

"Huh? Where'd he go?" Ninjo wondered as he was struck by Chopper's Ninja Strike move, which dealt 10 damage to him, unlike regular Ninja abilities. Ghoster punched Ninjo with his fists afterward, which made Ninjo jump up and throw ninja stars at Chopper. He threw four of them, with each of them doing three damage.

Chopper managed to keep two of them away, but he got hit by the other, which made him throw four ninja stars at Ninjo, knocking him back.

"Gah! Stupid little boy!" he slowly got up, but he got knocked down again by Koopla's Shell Toss, so Ninjo used his move to make himself disappear if he was to be attacked.

"Go for it, Ghoster," Chopper suggested. "Use your Psychic move and take him down!"

"With pleasure!" Ghoster smirked as he used his Psychic to find Ninjo and he slam him on the ground. "Ah, yes… That's the right thing to do!"

"And now I'll attack!" Chopper declared as he used his Power Bounce to stomp on Ninjo's head eight times.

"Hoo! Ha!" Ninjo made some ninja poses and immediately rushed toward Chopper in order to attack with his knife. Chopper was able to guard it, and then he made his attack, grabbing Ninjo and jumping high in the air and diving down with Ninjo's head hitting the ground, taking 12 damage.

Afterward, Bow smacked the heck out of Ninjo to make him feel dazed, but he was able to quickly shake his head and jump up and dive at Chopper, hitting him successfully.

Chopper quickly shook his head and he ran toward Ninjo with his kunai out. "You were always a quick one…but not as quick as me!" he attacked with the kunai and managed to hit Ninjo, making him kneel down.

"Quick! Someone attack him before he does anything else!" Chopper shouted. Geno responded by turning into a cannon and unleashing a ball of energy that exploded on Ninjo. Chopper was able to get out of the way of the explosion.

Ninjo began to use a jutsu move in order to blow away Chopper, which could do 15 damage, but thankfully, Chopper tried his best to resist it and take only 4 damage. It was something similar to Huff N. Puff's Hurricane attack.

Since Chopper was no longer being pushed back by the wind, he ran toward Ninjo with a light ball in his hand.

"Hmmm? Is that light energy I see there?" Ninjo gaped.

"You bet it is!" Chopper smirked as he threw it at Ninjo, which made him wince. Kayzee flew up with a smile as she attacked with her Heat Vision.

Ninjo glared at all of Chopper's friends, and since Kayzee attacked him last, he used his finger to make some kind of move and then made a waterfall come down on Kayzee, making her get knocked down to the ground and was now trapped in a bubble. Kayzee tried to punch her way out of it, but it wasn't working.

"It's no use, little girl," Ninjo grinned. "That's not going to do a thing, no matter how much you try!"

He noticed C-2 Choppor flew up with his jetpack, so he threw a shuriken at him, which was destroyed with a blast. C-2 Choppor unleashed missiles upon Ninjo and exploded upon impact.

"There we go!" Chopper used his speed to quickly make a diving attack on Ninjo, knocking him down, with him on his chest, poking his nose.

"Looks like we got you!" Chopper smiled before Ninjo made himself disappear and appear behind Chopper.

"Chopper! Behind you!" Bow cried. Chopper's eyes noticed Ninjo, and he began to think of something. Once Ninjo struck him, Chopper disappeared with smoke as well.

"What? Where is he now?" Ninjo wondered as he felt himself being grabbed by Chopper, who used his Air Drop to throw him to the ground.

"Good, now we can make another attack!" Chopper brought his kunai knife out and he struck Ninjo with a slash. Parakarry got in his shell and used his Shell Shot attack on Ninjo to deal 10 damage. The ninja was able to get back up and threw a ninja star at Chopper, which managed to hit him, knocking him back. Bow was able to help him from falling off the mountain.

"Thanks, Bow!" Chopper thanked as he pulled out a kunai knife and threw it at Ninjo, which ripped a part of his clothing on his arm. He noticed this and growled.

"You…" Ninjo clenched his fists as Bow appeared in front on him and smacked him about five times with her fan to deal 20 damage. He rushed toward Chopper and jumped up and unleashed flames upon Chopper. Luckily he guarded them and didn't take as much damage as he thought.

"So you wanna play it rough, then?" Chopper pulled out another kunai knife and rushed at Ninjo, swinging at him with it and ripping a small part of clothing from the legs and giving Ninjo a scar. Ghoster used his fist to punch Ninjo in the face, which made him spit a bit.

He pulled out two shurikens and threw them at Chopper. C-2 Choppor got in the way and whacked them away and fired a blast at him, making him kneel down in pain.

"Go ahead and do the job, Chopper," C-2 Choppor suggested. Chopper nodded and ran toward Ninjo and swung his kunai knife at him. This made Ninjo give up, giving Chopper 43 Star Points and leveling him up. Chopper chose to upgrade his BP to 45.

"Guh… You've won for now, Chopper," Ninjo grunted, "Fine, I'll let you go up into the sky. That's where you'll catch the airship."

With that, he took out a smoke bomb and threw it down. Once the smoke cleared, he was gone.

Chopper removed his ability and saw rainbow-colored stairs appear on the mountain. "This is it, guys. We're going up into the sky…again."

"We've seen the sky before," Geno recalled. "Let's hope it doesn't get really frustrating like when we were there before…"

"Trust me, it'll be better," Chopper assured as he headed up the stairs while hearing that choir singing like before. While everyone followed, they began to wonder where Mallow was.

Prince Mallow, that is.

* * *

**There's only two more areas until this chapter's over. Now is when we're going to be getting to the battle stuff! Especially the next continent!**


	92. Return of the Fluffy Clouds

Chopper stepped on the fluffy clouds as soon as they made their way to the top of the stairs. This made him lay down and make some kind of snow angel - except that it was on a cloud instead of the snow. Everyone else began to feel the soft clouds as well.

"Chopper, you might want to get off. This isn't the snow you know." Koopla suggested. "It's the sky, and I was hopin' we wouldn't have to be back here. I was getting a little tired of being in the skies. It just reminds me of back at Nimbus Castle, fighting Valentina…"

"Valentina's not here, Koopla. She can't really come here and attack. Even if she would do that, we would be ready this time. We're all really powerful!" Chopper assured. "…Except Yosho. No, don't feel bad, Yosho. I DO want to get you to Diamond-Rank because you're a good friend of mine like everyone else. But you're special."

"Is that why yer savin' me fer last then? Wait… So yer also sayin' that I'm special an' a lot different than the rest of ya all? That's…pretty interestin'!" Yosho smirked. "I'd say somethin' cool right now an' talk about gettin' a girl, but I don't feel like it. Say, Bow..."

"Wait... You said you didn't feel like it, yet you're trying to hit on her? Shoo!" Chopper said as he used his hand to shoo Yosho away from Bow, who smiled at him.

"At least you're actually standing up for Bow, Chopper…and also you're standing up for Yosho too," Geno commented. "We need to see more of that."

"Although I think we sometimes seem to enjoy fighting..." Chopper trailed. "But, what are you gonna do?"

"You're obviously keeping Yosho away from Bow because you like her," Ghoster said as he changed the topic back. "I can see it in your face. You don't want Yosho to have her. Don't try to fool me at all, 'cause I'll know it or not!"

"Hey! I never said that!" Chopper objected as Bow blushed. "I'm just keeping Yosho away from her because we all know what's going to happen! I don't want Yosho to keep getting hurt anyways. I'd rather have…nah. I don't want any of you getting hurt."

"Hmmm… I have a feeling there's something up ahead." C-2 Choppor stated as he walked on ahead and raised his arm gun. "But it doesn't seem like it's actually an enemy. But my scanners could be wrong on this."

"If it's not an enemy, hen it must be one of the people we've seen. We need to take a look right now!" Bruce suggested. He began to walk on ahead, and so did C-2 Choppor. Everyone else shrugged and followed them. They found some people over by a bigger area and saw someone familiar sitting on a cloud with a crown on his head.

It was indeed Prince Mallow.

"Hey! Mallow! You're OK!" Parakarry gasped.

"Guys! You're safe!" Mallow cheered. "I was having a BLAST up on these clouds! I never expected myself to actually come back home! …But it looks a lot different than at home. Are we in a different area up on the clouds?"

"No, we're not in Nimbus Land or the skies back in the Mushroom Kingdom," Kayzee explained. "We're someplace else right now."

"Is this where you ended up when you fell down some clouds? I'm sure it would be a place like this…" Bow trailed.

"Well what really happened is that I fell from the clouds and I hit my head on something, which knocked me out," Mallow explained. "Suddenly, I found myself back on the clouds, and I found these people here that said they were taken from their homes by an airship and were dropped here. They didn't know where they were either."

"Well, Mallow… I can most certainly tell you this." Chopper took a deep breath. "You…are on a different planet. That's right. This is my home planet, Clara. And apparently every single villain we've faced is here. I'm not kidding here!"

Mallow's eyes widened as he jumped off the cloud. "Then what are we doing right now? Where's the last Power Star anyway!"

"It's on this planet, and an evil leader name Sir Flyknightis has it, but it feels like it's impossible to stop him. He's too strong for us to fight! That lightning attack is IMPOSSIBLE to avoid!"

"Oh, boy… That's bad. Maybe we can all work together to stop all these villains from taking over your planet. What do you say, guys?" Mallow asked as he turned to his friends.

"That sounds like a GREAT idea, Prince Mallow!" Koopla recognized that voice and saw her friend Dave from Koopa Village.

"Dave? What are you doing here?" Koopla gaped. "Wait, don't tell me. You were taken by that airship and were put here, right?"

"I'm afraid so, Koopla," Dave nodded. "I guess things are doing great with you and all your friends, right? How's saving the world? I heard that you were one of the people to get the Star Rod back. Where is it anyway?

"I got a lot of its power back, but it needs one more Power Star before this thing is fully restored," Chopper informed as he held up the Star Rod. "It looks pretty, but it's still got some dullness in it. That mysterious masked boy has the last one we need."

"Chopper, look over there!" Geno gaped as he saw a familiar face on a broomstick. "It's that witch from before… Remember Nightclub Casino? That girl..."

"Huh? Ashley's here?" Chopper saw Ashley and jumped up a little. "Well she's not really an enemy. She didn't necessarily care if we beat up Goombado or not. But we should see why she's here."

Chopper walked over to where Ashley was floating and looked up. She also happened to notice him. "Oh, it's you from that casino place. Actually, I've been trying to find you. You're looking for that airship, right?"

"Yeah… What's it to ya? You know where to go or something?"

"I can show you which way to go. These clouds are so big that you could get lost. I've gone through this place long enough to know where to be, so I can show you the way."

"OK… I guess we could follow you. But I don't know about everyone else around here. What can they do right now?"

"We'll get ourselves ready to fight back against Bowser's minions! We HAVE to fight back somehow!" Dave declared as he raised his fists. The Bob-ombs that lived in Koopa Village jumped up in agreement as they began to chant.

"Yeah! Down with those evil villains! Ka-boom!"

"They're going to get it now! Bomb!"

"We'll surely bomb them when we have our chance!"

"Very well, if you want to get some weapons and armor to fight against them, I suppose I'll help you find some," Ashley decided. "But you need to catch up with me to make it to the shrine. That's where you'll find some weapons. It's an abandoned one, so you won't get in any trouble going there."

"Show us this shrine then," C-2 Choppor suggested as Ashley turned around and began to fly to the opposite direction with everyone following.

"Man it's been so long since we saw each other," Koopla recalled. "How're things back in Koopa Village anyways?"

"Eh… They're all right. The Bob-ombs can get into some arguments at times, and it really is bad when they explode during the night." Dave recalled. "It keeps a lot of us awake. I remember the time you kicked one of the Bob-ombs. She ended up leaving because of you."

"Excuse me, but did you say the Bob-omb was a she?" Bruce asked, having full attention of the conversation.

"Yes, I did say that the Bob-omb was a she."

"What did she look like?"

"Well… I think she had a blonde ponytail fuse, and she was a hot pink color with orange feet. That's all I can think of."

"Wait... Blonde ponytail and hot pink..." Bruce began to put all the pieces together and ended up gasping. He turned his head to Koopla and gave her a glare. "You… You KICKED Bombette?! How could you do such a thing to make her leave!? I thought she left Koopa Village because of me?!"

"Whoa! Hang on a second… Koopla kicked Bruce's girlfriend, and it caused her to leave?" Chopper gaped. "Wow… This is really interesting. I never knew that. Where did she go?"

"I have no idea. She didn't say where she was going. She just said, "Somewhere away from here!" That's all I could remember. Now I know that it's not my fault anymore. Good work, Koopla..."

"Look, I didn't know she was your girlfriend…er, ex-girlfriend," Koopla sweat dropped. "I'm sorry, Bruce. I didn't know that this would happen, but it's not my fault she wouldn't shut up. I needed to get some sleep!"

"Oh… This doesn't look good." Yosho frowned before chuckling. "Heh heh… Now ya know how it feels like to have people get mad at ya!"

There was a Hellspawn in their way, but Chopper and Geno took care of it, while Bruce continued to get mad at Koopla. Kayzee, on the other hand, flew over to Ashley.

"Hey, do you know when we'll be at that shrine?" Kayzee asked. "That airship seems to be going a little further from us."

"I don't know exactly. Just stay patient…" Ashley groaned. "If you ask me one more time though, I will turn you into a pineapple…or even a cockroach."

"But cockroaches are GROSS!"

"Hold up for a second, Ashley," Chopper stopped as he saw an Upgrade Block in the flat, cloudy area. "I need to do one quick thing…for Yosho, that is."

He hit the Upgrade Block and upgraded Yosho to Diamond-Rank. He could use the move Dragonbreath, which would let him unleash a huge amounts of flames from his mouth on all enemies.

"Aw yeah! Now I'm back, baby! I'm a pretty darn tough partner now!" Yosho fist pumped as Ashley sighed and continued on.

"We're getting near the shrine. When we get there, you must be quick." Ashley advised. "We can't stay there for too long. It's been said that there's a spirit there that'll appear if you're in there long enough, and it protects all the equipment in there, so don't take your time."

"Don't worry! We can do that!" Mallow assured. "…Well, hopefully I can."

"Man, that crown actually looks good on you, Mallow!" Ghoster complimented. "You should keep it on, since it suits you, being a prince and all that."

"You're right! I should keep it on. People will know that I am Prince Mallow with this on. Maybe I won't be bullied around"

Little did they know on another cloud, the Star God Staris rose from his puddle and glared at them as they continued on. However, he was glaring at Chopper the most and then looked at the airship at Sir Flyknightis. He felt a strange connection between the two, and it felt like he was a target as well.

* * *

**Next area-**

"Look, Bruce. I didn't know about Bombette being your girlfriend." Koopla explained. "In fact, I didn't know you were actually around, since I was practicing fighting some Fuzzies most of the time. Just stop being so mad and forgive me already! OK?"

"Nice try, Koopla. But I'm not going to be fooled. I should be kicking YOU so you can see how YOU like it! In fact, I'll do it right now!" Bruce kicked Koopla in the leg, which wasn't doing much, so she didn't bother to even fight back.

"You realize that's not doing a thing to her, you know that?" Bow noted. "However, I don't like that you made Bombette leave, Koopla. Though she could be feisty at times, she was a good partner that traveled with Mario and I. And now you forced her out of the village she lived in. You should definitely be ashamed of yourself."

"I heard that she took down the Koopa Bros. at Koopa Bros. Fortress," Parakarry recalled. "If it wasn't for her, Mario probably wouldn't have defeated the Koopa Bros. Kooper also did a great job against him. As for Goombario... Well, I don't know what to say about him."

"Can't we all just get over this whole thing?" Chopper asked. "Let's act like mature adults - though not everyone here's an adult. I mean, this all happened seven months ago, right? We don't need to argue or be enemies with each other now."

"Personally, I'd rather keep it this way," Yosho stated. "I hate it when I sometimes get treated like crap at times an' bein' called an idiot. It feels good not bein' the target fer once!"

"Chopper's right. We should stop acting like this and forgive each other." C-2 Choppor suggested. "It's going to end up tearing us apart, and we don't want any of that. Like if a giant cockroach were to come down between us, then it's like we're being torn apart."

"A giant cockroach? EEEEK!" Kayzee screamed. "Not a cockroach! Anything but a cockroach!"

"Pipe down, little girl," Ashley snapped. "Or else I WILL make a giant cockroach fall down from the sky. He never said there WOULD be one."

"Why, that's such a beautiful sky!" Geno noticed as he looked up at the sky, attempting to change the subject. "We're actually pretty high up from here, seeing these stars. No worries, we're not ACTUALLY in space. It's very safe from here."

"You're right, Geno," Mallow agreed as he looked up at the sky before turning back to the others. "I don't understand why you're all getting so mad. Koopla is probably sorry about what she did, and she didn't know that Bruce's ex-girlfriend was actually kicked by her. Bruce, you should really forgive her."

"Yes, listen to Prince Mallow, Bruce. He knows what he's doing." Ghoster agreed. "So… Go ahead and forgive her for what she did."

"No, I'm still not going to forgive her," Bruce objected. "Sorry, but a Bob-omb keeps his word that he WON'T forgive someone if they did something wrong. Sorry, Mallow, but I can't do that."

"Fine, be that way, then! If you're not going to forgive me, then that's fine." Koopla sighed as her head hung low. "Dave, I don't know WHY you told him about that. Now I'm just hated by a lot of my friends now."

"I'm sorry, Koopla. I didn't know Bombette was actually Bruce's ex-girlfriend." Dave apologized. "Of course, I remember when he used to go to her and beg her to go back with her, but it didn't work out well, and she kept rejecting him."

"Oh yeah… I remember that." a Bob-omb remembered. "It was freaking hilarious when he kept doing that! Bomb! I remember he and another Bob-omb argued in Kooper's house and you could hear all the bombing. Ah… Good times. Bomb…"

Chopper couldn't see much around, but Ashley was seeing a white shrine up ahead. and it was actually pretty big. The thing is... Chopper had never seen that shrine in his entire life before.

"Wait… I didn't see that shrine when I came up here before! Can someone explain to me where that came from?" Chopper asked as he got no response. However, they saw a Koopatrol up ahead, who happened to notice everyone coming toward it.

"Heh heh! Awesome! I found that Chopper guy! Man, King Bowser's going to be pleased when he sees that I'm going to capture Chopper!" the Koopatrol grinned as it took out a rocket launcher.

"Oh no ya don't!" Yosho rushed toward the Koopatrol and he unleashed his Dragonbreath, making the Koopatrol become nothing but soot. Everyone's mouths nearly dropped.

"Wow… Just… Wow." Bow gaped. "That was just…I don't know how to say it. That was just amazing right there."

"I never knew you could unleash fiery breath," Parakarry added. "That's more than Koopla's Fire Shell and Kayzee's Heat Vision…but a lot BETTER. Maybe you got that from the Diamond-Rank upgrade. I'm impressed."

"That was actually pretty amazing. I guess you're becoming really useful with that dragon breath of yours."

"Does that mean yer gonna go out with me?" Yosho asked.

"No, because I'm not interested in you," Bow replied as she followed Chopper over to the shrine.

"This is the shrine I was talking about," Ashley informed as her broomstick turned back into Red, who fell on the clouds. "That's all I can do for you. I'm going down to the lava area right now. I need to do something there."

"Oh, we're going to the lava area? That's AWESOME!" Red gasped. "Ashley, I've been DYING to go over there! How come we've been ignoring that place for a while?"

"I never said you could turn back into yourself, Red," Ashley replied as she turned him back into a broomstick and took off toward the lava area.

"Well she was certainly helpful. And to think she was actually trying to turn us into frogs back at Nightclub Casino. I guess she's not too bad." Geno commented as he walked up the stairs. He stopped for a moment when he saw a familiar tree. "Wait a minute… Is that…?"

"Hey, those look good! I am a little hungry…" Dave grabbed a light blue apple and he took a bite from it. Koopla realized it was the kind of fruit back in the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Dave! Don't!" Koopla cried until she realized she was too late to help him. Dave already shrunk to a small size.

"Awww! He's small!" Kayzee giggled. "It's so cute!"

"Oh, come on, Kayzee! You think EVERYTHING'S cute now!" Chopper sighed. "You'd probably think Bowser at a small size would be cute!"

"Calm down, Chopper!" Ghoster snapped. "Let's just walk into the shrine and get the weapons we need. That's what Ashley wants us to do."

"For some reason… I feel like someone's following us." C-2 Choppor sensed. "But that's just me. Let's go inside the shrine."

Everyone walked into the shrine, with the Koopa Bros. watching them from another cloud with a grin.

"All right, now's are chance to get 'em!" Red declared as he pulled out a bazooka. "With this here bazooka, there's nothing that's going to stop us! We'll blow up that shrine with no problem at all!"

Red fired, but nothing shot out. He noticed this and kept pulling the trigger many times. It wasn't working at all.

"Yellow… Where's the missile ammo that you were suppose to get?"

"I got the ammo, but you didn't want to talk to me so I put it on your back with a bandoleer," Yellow explained. "That way, it makes things better for all of us!"

Of course, he received a smack from Red.

"You idiot! Don't EVER do that again! Because of you, this is screwed up!" Red turned back around, but Yellow's arm ended up hitting the missile, which began to send Red rocketing up. Black was taken up because he was grabbing Red's leg, and so did Green and Yellow.

They flew right over the shrine and they even flew ahead of Ashley, going down to the lava area before there was an explosion.

"_**Yelloooooooooooow!**_"

* * *

**Shrine-**

Inside of the shrine, they saw a familiar-looking flower with a mustache and top hat and monocle trying to jump up to get some kind of spirit that looked similar to Merlon, but with a long purple mustache. He looked pretty familiar to Merlo as well. Blayzee and Tayzee were also in the room.

"I must…get the pickle!" the Mayor cried, trying to reach for the spirit.

_"Sir, I must tell you that I'm not a pickle…" _the spirit trailed.

"Mayor, that's not a pickle. It's a spirit of some kind!" Blayzee informed.

"Hush, Blayzee!" the Mayor shushed. "I'm trying to grab this pickle up here! …This is getting too much! I better call the Dayzeeflower Girls!"

"We're right here, Mayor! Can't you see us?" Tayzee wondered.

"Blayzee! Tayzee!" Kayzee cried as she flew over to her sisters and hugged them.

"We're so glad to see you, Kayzee!" Blayzee smiled. "The Frenzyweed Boys just flew away for some reason. We have no idea where they went."

Dave (who turned back to his normal size) tilted his head at the Dayzeeflower Girls. "Wait a minute. I don't get it. You three girls look pretty similar…but you're heroines?"

"Yeah, we're called the Dayzeeflower Girls, and we fight for truth and justice!"

"Oh please, Blayzee. You don't need to tell them that." Tayzee groaned as she rolled her eyes. "They obviously know we're heroines because we're flying around."

"Chopper, look over there," Geno pointed over to the That spirit looks pretty familiar to Merlon and Merlo, doesn't he?"

"Yeah… You're right. He DOES look like them. We better go take a look at him." Chopper smiled as he walked over to the spirit.

"Must...get...pickle!" the Mayor cried as the spirit groaned.

_"Please, sir… I am not a pickle. I am __**Merli**__, the father of Merlon and Merlo."_ Merli sighed._ "You must obviously know the shaman people. There are ones like my grandson Merle, Merlee, and the list goes on. Don't you even know any of them, small flower with the monocle?"_

"What? All I care about is getting you, pickle!" the Mayor used a stick to poke him, but he was pushed out of the way when Chopper and Geno walked over to the spirit.

"Hello there. You must be Merli, are you not?" Geno wondered. "My name is Geno, a fellow friend of Staris's. Sadly, he's not much of a friend now… But are you the one who guards this shrine?" People like Bow, C-2 Choppor and Ghoster walked over to the spirit as well.

_"Oh my… Chopper! I cannot believe you've finally made it here!"_ Merli gasped._ "I heard so many things about you when I was listening to Merlon, Merle, and Merlo. They know that you can save the Mushroom Kingdom and stop Bowser and Maquano from conquering the place. And I know you can stop Staris too! Those three won't stand a chance against you! …But Staris DOES get stronger every time he absorbs the energy from a Star Spirit. He only needs two more before he can be a true God of Destruction…"_

"But what about that masked child Flyknightis?" Bow mentioned. "He has the last Power Star, and there's nothing we can do to beat him. That lightning attack he's got can't be stopped. We're going to die if we keep trying to attack him..."

_"Hmm… Well, you've happen to come to the right place. Chopper, there IS a way that you can stand up to that masked boy. Only someone with light power in himself can have this power to withstand evil itself. Including Maquano's attacks."_

"Wait, I think I know the solution!" Blayzee spoke up. "You said that this masked boy is just a little boy, right? You know, what do little boys fear more than anything? Us Dayzeeflower Girls can take care of him no problem!"

"No, that's probably NOT going to work..." Chopper sighed. "Aren't the Frenzyweed Boys a little different?"

"Well, maybe it can work," Kayzee shrugged.

"Ew! Gross! We're not going to do that!" Tayzee gagged. "That only works on those Frenzyweed Boys! And there's no way I'm ever doing THAT ever again! How about we just go beat the snot out of him!"

"Hey, don't think you're going to be fighting him," Chopper replied. "My friends and I will take care of him."

_"I do believe I have something that can help you, Chopper," _Merlon mentioned._ "Since you are the only one who bears the power to use light energy, I'll be able to give this to you. You will gain a power that lets you reflect lightning attacks back if they strike you. Sometimes it doesn't always work, but if it gets deflected back at him, he'll have to fight fair against you. Right now, he's on the airship with the Axem Rangers. You must get on there and defeat him. Everyone else, you can take some of these weapons to prepare you for battle. But am I the guardian of this shrine? No… I'm not, I'm afraid. Take this, Chopper."_

Merli fired blue energy into Chopper, who felt like some electric shield was around him. It slowly faded away as if he received something invisible.

_"This is something that should be temporary for this adventure. Now, do any of you have electric moves? I need you to test it out on Chopper." _

Tayzee grinned and fired some lightning at Chopper, but it reflected back and it knocked her back.

"Ow… Well it does work."

"Well that's a good thing," C-2 Choppor nodded." Now we can grab any weapons we need and try to find that airship."

"Good! Let's see what's here…" Dave trailed as he found a spear, a sword and shield, and even some guns that could be useful. Tayzee saw the gun and was about to take it, but Blayzee slapped her hand to keep it away from the gun.

Chopper found a paintbrush and ate it, which gave him a gray cap worn backwards and a paintbrush with some paint on it. He looked at the paintbrush, and when he painted on the wall, it was a black color, which made a pathway to the airship.

"Hey! I think we can get onto the airship!" Chopper gasped. "This Paint ability just allows us to go on there and take it over! We still have luck in catching Flyknightis and the Power Star!"

"Really? Great! Now we can just get a move on now!" Bruce gasped. He looked at the entrance, but he accidentally fell right through, landing on the airship.

"You guys grab some weapons. We're going to take this airship over and stop Flyknightis! Let's go, guys!" Chopper jumped through the hole, and so did his friends.

* * *

**Airship-**

Once they landed on the airship, Axem Yellow came outside to go clean the ship up. But then he noticed Chopper and hid friends were on the airship. making him gasp.

"Whuh? Uh oh… RED! CHOPPER'S HERE!" Axem Yellow shouted, which made all the Axem Rangers come out outside with their axes out.

"How did you get on this airship?" Axem Red gawked. "I thought you were busy fighting that ninja! Gah! It doesn't really matter now! Axem Rangers, ATTACK!"

"Oh boy… We better be ready now." Koopla suggested, raising her fists.

"We'll take care of them no problem, I think…" Parakarry trailed.

**Tattle: **_Those are the Axem Rangers. There are five of them overall. Axem Red has 100 HP and his Attack is 11, Axem Black has 85 HP and an Attack of 10, Axem Green has 70 HP and an Attack of 8, Axem Pink has 75 HP and an Attack of 9, and Axem Yellow has 90 HP and an Attack of 13. They all have no defense. Axem Red can raise attack and defense, and also use fire attacks with his axe. Axem Black can attack twice, Axem Green uses magic that can deal some big damage, Axem Pink can heal, and Axem Yellow has a pretty strong attack. Try to use some moves that can take them all out. I would suggest taking out Yellow first, though._

Chopper decided to focus on Axem Yellow, but he wanted to attack all of them at once, so he used his Multi-Hand move to attack all five of them.

"Maybe I can do something! I haven't used my Snowy move on them, so maybe it'll work." Mallow decided as he made a giant snowman come down and deal 10 damage to them all. All five of them attacked with their normal moves, and Chopper was able to avoid some of them, while he got hit by Red and Green's move.

"Man… That was a little close right there." Chopper sighed as he walked over to Yellow and began to use his Power Bounce. After about twelve stomps, he stopped and jumped off of Yellow, who looked dazed.

"Pay attention, Yellow!" Axem Red snapped. "Just because you didn't eat much doesn't mean you can't just buzz off like that!"

"Sorry…" Yellow trailed as Geno turned into a cannon and he fired a blast using his Geno Flash, making an explosion that hit all five Axem Rangers.

Axem Pink used her magic to heal herself with 20 HP, and Axem Red ordered Axem Black to attack Chopper twice, which he managed to guard.

"I think it's time to put this paint to the test!" Chopper declared as he walked over to Axem Yellow and painted him a red color, which scorched him.

"Awesome move, Chopper! THAT has to be pretty useful." Ghoster complimented as he used his Psychic to make all five Axem Rangers attack each other.

"Green! Yellow! Go get him!" Axem Red ordered as Axem Yellow attacked first with his axe, hitting Chopper, while Axem Green fired some lightning at Chopper that he was able to guard. Sadly, it wasn't deflected back.

Chopper jumped over to Axem Yellow and he painted a red X on him, which made him take 10 damage, followed by Kayzee's big scream that made all the Axem Rangers cover their ears.

"Gah! That's too loud!" Axem Red cried as he was able to strike Chopper with flames from his axe. Luckily for Chopper, he was able to take down Axem Yellow with some light blue paint that made him shiver.

"Yo, RED!" Axem Yellow grunted.

"What?"

"I'm…hungry!"

"Chew on your tongue!"

With that, Axem Yellow stood back from the battle, exhausted.

"That's one down. Let's take care of pink now." Bow decided as she floated over to Axem Pink and used her Fan Smack on her to take out a chunk of her HP.

"I need some healing, Pink!" Axem Red ordered as Axem Pink used her healing powers to have Axem Red recover 20 HP. Chopper used his Power Bounce on Axem Pink and stomped on her twelve times. Mallow followed up with a Thunderbolt on all four Axem Rangers.

Axem Black attacked this time and he struck Chopper two times. Each attack dealt 5 damage, making him take 10 damage. However, Chopper finished off Axem Pink with a green paint attack that messed up some of her make-up, unfortunately.

"Yo, RED!" Axem Pink cried.

"What?"

"My make-up's running!"

"Then change brands!"

Axem Pink stepped away from the battle with Axem Yellow, who was exhausted.

Geno turned into a cannon and he used his Geno Flash, which finished off Axem Green too.

"Yo, RED!"

"What?"

"I've got a headache."

"You're totally out of shape!"

Axem Green stepped away from the battle. All that was left was Axem Red and Black.

Axem Black attacked Chopper with some bombs, and then Axem Red boosted Axem Black's attack up by 2. Chopper used his paint attack to paint Axem Black red afterward, which scorched him.

"Gah! I hate the color red!" Axem Black cried. "…No offense to you, Red."

"Well yer goin' down right now!" Yosho declared as he used his Dragonbreath on Axem Red and Black. Thankfully, it was enough to defeat Axem Black and ruin his sunglasses.

"Yo, RED!"

"What?"

"I broke my shades!"

"Serves ya right!"

Axem Black stepped away from the battle, which only left Axem Red.

"You're pretty tough, Chopper. I have to admit that. But this fight has just begun." Axem Red began to shoot fire from his axe, which knocked Chopper back.

"Ouch… I better heal." Chopper screeched as he took out an Ultra Shroom and ate it to recover 50 HP. C-2 Choppor attacked next with a blast from his gun.

Axem Red used his Vulgar Up to boost his Attack and Defense up by 2. Chopper simply attacked him with his D-Down Hand, while Yosho fluttered over to Axem Red and performed a Ground Pound on him to leave him with only 10 HP.

"Grrr! Take this!" Axem Red growled as he brought his axe down, making fire scorch Chopper and remove his ability. This didn't make him pleased, as he whipped out his hammer.

"That's it. It's time for a Mega Smash!" he ran over to Axem Red and whacked him with his Mega Smash, making the Axem Ranger leader kneel over in pain.

"This isn't possible! We are…invincible!" Axem Red cried.

"Can this be happening to the Axem Ragers?" Axem Pink asked. Before anyone could answer, lightning struck down on them, destroying them.

"What the…" Chopper gaped as he saw Flyknightis with his sword down, looking down at the remains of the Axem Rangers. He put away his sword and had his palms toward Chopper in an attempt to blow them away. However, he stopped and slowly shook his head.

"Are you even going to fight us? We're ready to take you on any day!" Koopla shouted.

Flyknightis took out a communicator and pressed a button. They all saw all of the villains on the airship were leaving. They were heading down to the lava area to a huge castle. He then broke the device with his gauntlets, with the pieces were lying on the floor. He pulled his sword out and he quickly marked something down before flying off.

"What did he just put down?" Bruce asked as Chopper began to read.

_If you want to face me and get the Power Star, bring you and your worthless army over to the castle. I'll be waiting for you, Chopper. I will not be running from you any longer. I will show you TRUE power._

"It looks like he accepted my challenge," Chopper nodded.

"You didn't challenge him…" Geno trailed. "Anyway, we need to get everyone on this airship and prepare ourselves for a huge battle."

Ghoster grabbed the wheel of the airship and began to head back to the shrine. One thing for sure was that there was going to be a massive war in the lava area.

* * *

**So things are going to get heated up next chapter! Not only that, but it doesn't look like Koopla and Bruce will be getting along anytime soon!**

**So with that... I'll see you guys next chapter, where the group tackles on the lava area and has to witness a big war!**


	93. Battle Over the Fiery Lands

After picking up some of the people on the different continents, such as Kolorado, Bootler, the Yoshi Elder and the Bumpties, they returned to the shrine and got suited up. Afterward, they went back on the airship and made their way to the lava area. Chopper saw everyone was in some cool-looking battle armor, especially the Mayor of Flowersville. To his surprise, the Mayor actually had a pickle suit on.

"Uh… What's with the pickle suit?" Chopper gawked, unsure whether to laugh or face palm. "That's not really any protection at all! …Where did you get it anyway? It's not like it came out of nowhere…"

"It's a suit of armor I found made entirely of some powerful material and pickles!" the Mayor explained as he drooled over his "delicious" suit. "Mmmm! I can't wait to take a bite of this thing! It's going to be soooo good!"

"You shouldn't ignore the leader!" Kolorado snapped before the Mayor could take a bite of his own suit. "My boy's leading this army and you must listen to what he tells you. It's a weird costume, I must admit, but you'll need it for protection against the Koopa Clan and those evil Hellspawns. Trust me, it's something you're going to need."

Everyone began to have some discussions with each other as they got themselves ready. Geno, who was second-in-command of the army, stepped up and silenced everyone.

"OK, people! The time has come!" Geno declared. "We're going to be going to battle at long last to save this planet from the evil Bowser and Maquano, who've sent their strongest minion, Flyknightis, to lead the battle into taking over Clara. You may not be used to fighting, but we're not going down there without a plan."

"Who put you in charge?" Tayzee asked before Blayzee hit her arm. "Ow! Blayzee!"

"Let him speak!" Blayzee whispered.

"We will need to trick them into thinking we'll be going into another way besides the front," Geno explained. "We WILL be going into the front of the castle, but we need someone to fool them into thinking we're taking another way. Of course, Ghoster's psychic abilities can help with this, and also the Dayzeeflower Girls can be pretty helpful too. Ghoster can use his psychic to make the Mayor of Flowersville distract them. They probably like pickles, and they might try to get him by doing that."

"Using my psychic to control a pickle? Count me in! I'm really gonna be awesome here!" Ghoster cheered as the flower he had ended up shooting water that got on Dave.

"Dang it! I'm all wet now! Why did you have to do that, you odd-looking ghost?" Dave guffawed. "If I was a ghost I would kick your ass for that! I swear that I would!"

"Both of you stop right now," demanded C-2 Choppor. "You're not helping if you're doing that."

"I will try to make a little distraction, but I will probably most likely clear some of the way toward the front when the Mayor gets to distracting," Chopper decided. "We'll make sure this becomes a victory…for my planet and all of you. I do NOT want these villains to take it over, or else I might just kill them all."

"Maybe violence isn't really what's best against them," Kayzee spoke up. "Maybe we should just ask them to leave and maybe they'll leave us alone."

"Kayzee! That's not going to work against them! Did you SEE those minions and villains? !" Tayzee exclaimed. "They don't care if you ask them nicely to tell them to leave. They're just going to beat you up. That's why we can only fight!"

After a while, things began to feel hot, and they could see the sky turning to a red color. They could also see red hot boiling lava and the ground, which was made of rock. There was a bridge leading to the castle, and Ghoster began to float off the airship with the Mayor.

"All right, we're going to go distract those minions," Ghoster declared while holding onto the mayor with his psychic ability. They went to the back of the castle to knock on the windows. They saw Maquano open it up.

"What the… Why is there a flower dressed like a pickle floating right in front of my castle?" Maquano asked as he took notice of the Mayor.

"What? A pickle? I better take a look at this!" Bowser came stomping his way over to the window and saw the Mayor. "I'll take care of this one."

He used his fire breath, but the Mayor dodged it. That's when Bowser noticed an airship.

"Wait… Is Chopper on that airship? Maquano, I think they're trying to find another way through the castle instead of taking the front gate!"

"Then we better be ready. We must bring our minions over here." Maquano declared. "There's no way Chopper will get to the top of the castle! There's nothing even there for him! The only thing interesting is what he'll see BELOW the castle!"

Some Koopatrols began to block the sides and not the front, and so did some Hellspawns. With that, the Dayzeeflower Girls (with Kayzee with them) flew toward them and began to attack. Chopper smirked as he saw this was working perfectly.

"All right, now's my time to shine! Let's go, Geno!" Chopper shouted. Both of them jumped off the airship and began to run on the bridge toward the gate. Chopper was going full speed ahead, but then he saw Metal Chopper flying over him. "Metal Chopper! What are YOU doing here?"

"That is none of your business, Chopper. I'm here for my own reasons!" Metal Chopper retorted as his right hand had sharp fingers that tried to swing at Chopper, but he kept dodging and kicked him away. Metal Chopper began to fire his machine gun at Chopper, and this forced him to run. Some Hellspawns stopped to see Chopper coming ahead, so they fired at him instead of the Dayzeeflower Girls, Ghoster, and the Mayor.

"Hi-YA!" Chopper's foot was surrounded by light and was able to kick a blast from their gun back at them. "Whoa… Since when did I learn to do that? I never expected to do that!"

He noticed that Metal Chopper stopped firing. "This isn't worth it. I'll battle with you some other time away from these people. I can't let Maquano know that I came here. It would be the worst thing to happen to me."

He listened to the robot grumble as he flew away. "Huh... Well that wasn't so bad."

Chopper was able to speed through the Hellspawns easily and whacked them into the lava with his hammer. Unfortunately, they could survive in the lava, but thankfully, Chopper was also able to get the front door open. Geno caught up, and they both headed in with everyone else charging.

"What? They're going into the front! We've been fooled!" Maquano roared until he calmed down. "…No matter. We'll still get a good look at the top of the castle. I have something in store for Chopper. Oh yes… We're going to need Staris for this. Yes… I think the time for him to fight again has come!"

"Gwa ha ha ha ha! That sounds good! Let's go to the top of the castle!" Bowser cackled. The interior of the castle was a dark red, and when Chopper was running inside of the castle, he had to jump over lava pits and even jump on platforms that were above the lava.

"Whoa, it's really hot here. I wish I had something to cool myself off with." Geno sweated as Mallow came running into the castle, being chased by a Hellspawn.

"Aaaaaaaah! Help me!" Mallow shrieked. But he stopped for a moment. "Wait a minute! I can take these guys down!"

He summoned a snowman to fall on the Hellspawns, defeating them. Bow found a Hammer Bro. coming after her when she got in, but she smacked the Hammer Bro. and C-2 Choppor finished it off with a blast.

"This place is really dangerous," Bow gasped. "I would recommend going to the top if I was leading this whole battle."

"That's what I was thinking exactly!" Chopper agreed as he kicked through the door up ahead and found some stairs by a platform. They could see below them, but Chopper jumped up onto the platform, where they found a lot of minions.

"I say, they're going to get one heck of a beating! Don't you think so, my boy?" Kolorado asked. Chopper nodded and Kolorado jumped onto a platform, but he slipped and fell into the lava, shooting up like a rocket and coming back onto the platform. "Ow! Ow! HOOOOOT! I'll stay somewhere safe from the lava, if you ask me. Please don't get your butts burnt!"

With everyone in the room, they saw some Hellspawns up ahead. The Mayor came rushing at the Hellspawns in his pickle costume, knocking them into the lava.

"Wow… He actually took them all out in a pickle costume. Well they better save some for me!" Koopla suggested as she cracked her knuckles.

"I'm getting some of them too. You BETTER not get them all yourself." Parakarry warned while Bow floated over to Chopper.

"Listen, I'll catch up with you later. I'm going to be smacking some of these enemies around here. Be careful, OK?" Bow suggested as she kissed Chopper's forehead and took off.

"Ick... That was still gross, but at least it wasn't the cheek." Chopper gagged as he walked up the staircase with Geno and C-2 Choppor, who decided to go with them because he might have a chance on finding his brother. Unfortunately, they only found some hallways which didn't have much around, but there were Hellspawns for Chopper and his two friends to fight, which they beat down. They had to go up some more stairs before finding a staircase that led to the top of the castle.

"Wow, how many floors did we go up? Eight? That was a lot to go up…" Geno trailed.

"Yeah, but at least we made it up to the top," Chopper smiled as he kicked the door open, but what he found at the top was Bowser, Maquano, and Staris.

"Oh man have we been waiting for YOU, Chopper! It's been quite a while hasn't it? Gwa ha ha ha ha!" Bowser cackled as he rode on his Koopla Clown Car while Maquano was on his dragon. "Too bad you won't be leaving here alive! This little…or should I say BIG Star God is certainly going to take care of you and dispose of you for good! How exactly is that going to work? Well how about he crushes you or stomps on you! Yes, that sounds good to me!"

"It's time you witnessed Staris's REAL power," Maquano grinned. "There's no way I'm going to forget to give Staris a new Star Spirit. Yes… This will be going perfectly! Your stupid friends are fighting inside the castle, and you have no idea where the Power Star is! You'll NEVER find it!"

"That's where you're wrong. We've managed to find SIX Power Stars, and if you're saying that we won't get this one, you're probably wrong." Geno objected. "And let's see how Staris is also. He won't stand a chance against us!"

"Geno, don't try to encourage them to battle against us!" Chopper whispered. "We just want to get the Power Star and get out of here. Wait! We need to SAVE this planet from people like you!"

"Very well then!" Maquano brought his arm up, and Klevar appeared on Clara. He didn't have much time to look around when he got grabbed by Maquano.

"What's all this! Maquano! Release me this instant!" Klevar cried.

"Here you go, Staris! One more Star Spirit for you to take!" the Star God responded to Maquano by grabbing Klevar and absorbing his power. The three heroes gasped as a big white flash blinded them for a minute.

When Staris rose from his puddle, they gasped when they saw four arms rather than two. He was much bigger compared to his previous form, and he was certainly more menacing. A stronger yellow glow appeared around him compared to the glow from his fifth transformation. Because of his size, he had to kneel down and look at them.

"Gulp! L-Look at THAT! Don't tell me that Staris is pretty much…in his sixth transformation right now!" Chopper gulped as Staris looked down at him, clenching his fists in anger at him.

"I made it just in time for-WHOA!" Bow gasped as she noticed the giant Star God looking down at the heroes. "What happened to Staris?!"

"He has gotten six of the Star Spirits' powers," C-2 Choppor informed. "We can't let him get one more or else it's all over for us!"

"Ah, yes! Six Star Spirits already! This thing's going to be our biggest weapon in taking over the world!" Bowser grinned. "Go ahead, Star God. You can dispose of these four right now. We'll be off now."

"You defeat them…or you DON'T come back at all," Maquano roared as he and Bowser took off. "You hear me, Staris? Do NOT fail me. You're meant to be much stronger than Flyknightis you know."

**Tattle: **_Oh my… That's…Staris 6! He's gotten six Star Spirits so far. This is REAL trouble right now. We can't let him get the last one! Max HP: 220, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 2. He's got so many moves he can do. He'll transform into anything, he'll fire a blast at you, or he might even jump up really high and come down on the ground to attack. You have to KEEP attacking this thing. It's really dangerous now._

Chopper made an ice ball and he threw it at Staris, which made him stop moving and become frozen. Everyone looked surprised to see this, because it really didn't work before.

"Interesting…" C-2 Choppor aimed at Staris and he fired a blast at him, shattering the ice and making Staris shake a little. However, a green mouth revealed itself on Staris as he began to suck Chopper in.

"What the heck?!" Chopper gaped as he tried to get away. Thankfully, he was able to avoid getting into Staris and shot a light ball at him to make him stop. Bow then used her Power Smack on him to deal some good damage on his head.

Staris stood back up and used his big tail to whack Chopper, knocking him toward the door that led inside of the castle. However, he was able to jump off and become Ice Chopper to use his Ice Storm attack on the Star God, making him freeze. Geno used his Geno Blast on Staris to shatter the ice on him and make him shake himself. Staris jumped up and came down, making a huge yellow shockwave. They were able to avoid this with the help of C-2 Choppor and Bow, who grabbed Chopper and Geno.

"All right, I'm going to just boost my Jump attack for a little bit," Chopper boosted his Jump up by 4 while Bow struck Staris with her Power Smack.

The Star God quickly transformed into a cockroach-like being and it rammed right into Chopper. He was able to guard the attack to take less damage while Staris turned back into himself and clenched his four fists.

"I could imagine Kayzee being here. She would be scared when Staris transformed into that cockroach." Bow mentioned.

Chopper used his Power Bounce on Staris again, and he was able to stomp on him about twelve times to deal some massive damage against him. Geno used his Geno Boost to boost Chopper's attack by 4.

"We can take him out fast if we do this. That'll make it easier for us!" Chopper assured. Unfortunately, he didn't see a fist coming at him and got knocked back with his ability coming off of him. He quickly shook his head and raised his Jump by 4 again. C-2 Choppor fired some missiles at Staris after that.

Staris fired a beam from his mouth straight at Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack. With his Jump attack boosted, chances were that he would be able to take him down without any problems.

"OK… Here it goes!" Chopper used his Power Bounce on Staris and was able to stomp on him ten times. They already took 150 HP away from Staris, so things were going smoothly.

"Wow, nice job, Chopper!" Geno complimented as he fired a Geno Beam at Staris. Afterward, the Star God began to bring his four fists back and punched Chopper with each one. They could each do 5 damage, but Chopper thankfully guarded them.

Chopper just used his D-Down Jump on Staris, while C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him after that. Staris began to pant, but he brought his arms together.

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped, but Bow managed to make him invisible, and when Staris fired a huge beam from his hands, he ended up missing. This allowed Chopper to jump toward him and use his Mega Smash. Bow followed up with a Power Smack, leaving Staris with really 28 HP left.

But… It wasn't all over yet. Staris ended up recovering 40 HP, making them all guffaw.

"What the… Did he just heal himself? That's not right at all!" Chopper gaped as he boosted his Jump by 4 while Geno used his Geno Boost. From what they could see from Staris, he was trying everything he could to stop Chopper - which turned out to be a failure when Chopper guarded his punch.

Chopper began to use his Power Bounce on Staris again, and he was able to stomp on him about seven times. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at the Star God after that, which made Staris begin to charge up another devastating move. He made all four of his arms glow a yellow color as if he was undergoing a Super Saiyan transformation.

"This doesn't look good," Geno gulped as he fired a Geno Beam at Staris, leaving him with only 5 HP left.

"All right, I'll take care of this," Chopper declared as he surrounded himself in a light glow. "OK, Staris! Let's see how you like THIS!"

Chopper ran towards Stari, and once he attacked with all that light energy around him, Staris was obliterated and ended up exploding, getting 50 Star Points and also leveling up, which he chose to upgrade his HP to 80.

Chopper noticed that all of the Stars that were absorbed by Staris were free. They flew up into the sky and the energy from the Star Spirits' energy went up into the sky to Star Haven.

"Wait… Did that attack actually destroy Staris? I…destroyed the Star God?" Chopper stammered.

"We had no other choice, I'm afraid. But with him gone, it feels like things will be better for now." Geno sighed as he looked up and saw some stars were disappearing. "But it's still not over yet. The Star Rod hasn't been restored. That's the last thing we must do before returning it to Star Haven."

"Then we better leave. It looks like this isn't the right place to be in." Bow suggested. They all agreed and headed back down into the room with the lava. They saw the door all the way to the right close, so they jumped over the lava pits to head on through the door. He saw that in the next room, everyone was trapped in a cage.

"Huh? What on earth happened here?" Chopper asked.

"They had a trap set up for us," Yosho answered. "There wasn't anythin' we could do about it. We can't even get out of here either."

"Seriously, we tried everything, but we couldn't figure it out!" Bruce added. "And I was hoping I wouldn't have to be in here with HER!"

"I said I was sorry, OK? Just stop with this already and forgive me!" Koopla groaned. "PLEASE! I didn't know about this at all!"

"Just calm down," Blayzee suggested. "We don't have time to be staying in here. We need to think of a plan before we…"

Of course, this led to people snoring, which infuriated her.

"Why do you all ignore my words? ! I'm just trying to be helpful! Just try to punch your way out of here!"

"Stop being so bossy, Blayzee!" Kayzee moaned. "You're just going to make things worse, you know!"

"Chopper, do you have anything that can help us get out of here?" Mallow asked. "You know, some kind of power to destroy many things?"

"Hold on a second…" Ghoster pondered as he phased through the cage. "Why didn't I think of this before! ?"

"Let me think, Mallow… Wait, this has darkness on it!" Chopper threw a light ball at the cage and it disappeared, freeing everyone. They then pushed their way through the door to the next room. They could see a grinding rail circling around and also some switches to where the grind rail would go. There was a loop leading to a door with lava down below.

"Oh dear… More lava. I'm not going to like this one bit." Kolorado gulped.

"Hold on a minute," Chopper began to grind on the rail and hit the switches to where he'd be going on the platform. After some time, he finally got the grind rail to lead to the loop.

"There we go!" he ran through the loop and got to the door. He saw a brick block with a blue ! switch on top of it, so he used his Rocket Jump to reach that so it could come down, and then he whacked it with his hammer, making a bridge appear for everyone to cross.

"Thanks, Chopper! I have a feeling that we're very close to the end of this castle!" Dave smiled.

"So what took you so long up on the top of the castle anyway?" Ghoster asked.

"We found Staris...in his sixth transformation," Chopper explained, making everyone gulp. "But, we actually destroyed him. I'm not kidding. All the Stars were free…but they didn't look so good."

"Really? I can't believe you were actually able to do that. Interesting…" Mallow trailed as they found the door blocked by wood.

"Mayor, try to bust through the door," Tayzee suggested.

"Are there pickles through that door?" the Mayor asked.

"…Yes?"

"Ooh, goody!" the Mayor broke through the door by ramming into it, but all they found was a small room with a Save Block and Heart Block, as well as a big door with two red eyes. Chopper hit the Heart Block and Save Block, and then he walked over to the door.

"This is it, guys. I think they're all through this door."

With that, he pushed the door open to see what would be awaiting them.

* * *

**Staris was destroyed? Wow... I bet you weren't expecting that. Too bad we don't get to see him fully transformed... But we'll see what happens. Next up is probably my favorite boss of the whole story, and for many reasons.**


	94. Sir Flyknightis: The Unknown Masked Boy

Before Chopper and the whole army even came into the huge room, which has a bridge leading to a huge round gray area, and below is hot boiling lava, the villains were just waiting. There are many statues of Maquano on the walls, and all of the villains were on the outer part of the room. Everyone was there, including the Koopa Bros., King Tutankoopa, Bubba Blubba, C-1 TM, Bloopink, King Lakilar, Poison Piranha, Hauntost, Goombado (who's in a wheelchair), Valentina, Dodo, the Frenzyweed Boys and also Kojo Pete. On the throne, Sir Flyknightis was sitting patiently, waiting for Chopper to arrive. He was tapping the arm of the throne, but then Poison Ivy floated up to him.

"Hey, when are those stinkin' Dayzeeflower Girls and those other weirdos with them coming?" Poison Ivy whined. "This is starting to get boring!"

Flyknightis reacted by punching him, sending him into the wall without him looking at him. Apparently everyone couldn't help but laugh at this.

"While we're waiting, let's think of a good joke…or prank, that is!" Hauntost suggested as he looked at the Koopa Bros., who looked like they were covered in soot from the explosion. Red was giving Yellow the "I'm going to kill you" look, so he decided to go to Goombado and give him a wedgie.

"HEY! Quit it, Hauntost! Ever since I jumped out of my casino, I have to stay in this stupid wheelchair! Doing that is going to hurt me big time!" Goombado cried as Hauntost cackled. However, Flyknightis slowly shook his head, making Hauntost release him.

"Enough! We can't just sit here like the couch potatoes we're being!" Kojo Pete roared. "We must go out there and find those rotten people and destroy them! For destroying them there and out there will make things faster! I, Kojo Pete, will make sure every single one of them will be destroyed! Especially those Dayzeeflower Girls!"

"Hey, Sir Flywhatever dude! Maybe you should show us who you really are!" Bindweed suggested. "People have no idea what your face looks like! No, really… Show us what you really look like behind that mask. We need to know immediately before the battle."

Flyknightis glared at him as the door opened, where the masked boy saw Chopper coming through the door. Behind him were Chopper's partners, and then next was all of the rest of the people who helped fight. The Mayor came running in his pickle costume, going after the pickles.

"I must get some of those pickles!" the Mayor said as Flyknightis looked at him and smacked his forehead. The villains and the good guys got in their fighting stances, and Chopper crossed the bridge over the lava to the center, which had a symbol of Maquano's helmet on it. Flyknightis jumped off the throne and walked onto the platform to where Chopper was. Geno got on the platform to join Chopper.

"So, I'm finally here now," Chopper stated as he clenched his fists at Flyknightis, who took a look at Chopper for a second. He felt some kind of strange connection between them that bother him.

"Hey, it's those Dayzeeflower Girls! Let's get 'em!" Thornbush cried as they were about to rush toward them, but Flyknightis brought his arm up, gesturing them to stop, and they did indeed stop.

"Yo, Flyknightis! Surrender the Power Star now, and we'll let you off a little easier than before." Geno suggested. "This is your last chance to do this. If you refuse, then we won't be afraid to take it by force!"

Chopper didn't say a word, and neither did Flyknightis. He just walked closer toward Chopper and then stopped to face him. Everyone felt confused, especially the Mayor, who still couldn't find his pickles.

"Where are my pickles that I've wanted to get?" the Mayor asked. "Dayzeeflower Girls, do you happen to know where they are?"

"Well you're wearing a pickle costume…" Blayzee trailed.

"I don't know what's going on right now. Aren't we going to fight or something? This is just getting…boring!"

Flyknightis drew his sword, which got Bow's attention. "Chopper! Look out! He's going to do that lightning attack on you!"

He swung his sword three times and then he struck down, making lightning come down on Chopper. But, the lightning was reflected off of him and struck Flyknightis, making him cringe in pain.

"What the…! Sir Flyknightis…got hit by his own attack?" C-1 TM gaped. "How is that even possible?"

"That's because Merli gave Chopper some power to protect him against that kind of lightning attacks," C-2 Choppor explained. "Looks like both of them area equal now!"

"Well, we'll see about that!" C-1 TM flew toward C-2 Choppor, who raised his arm gun and charged toward him, hoping to accomplish his mission.

"Let's get 'em, boys!" Bindweed declared as they flew up to attack the Dayzeeflower Girls, and both were starting to beat each other down. It was basically a big war, and it was becoming intense.

Flyknightis got back up after getting hit by the lightning strike and took out a remote. He pushed a button and the platform descended onto the lava. He readied his sword and jumped toward him, hoping to bring his sword down upon him.

"Heads up, Chopper!" Geno cried as he pulled Chopper out of the way.

"Whoa... That was close!" Chopper sighed as he turned to Flyknightis. "All right, Flyknightis! Let's settle this once and for all! I'm going to get that Power Star back no matter what happens!"

**Tattle: **_This…is Sir Flyknightis. He is the strongest minion of Maquano's and is even more powerful than any other minion you've faced thus far. Max HP: 250, Attack Power: 14, Defense Power: 3. This guy is no pushover whatsoever. Being high ranked up means that you're probably going to expect him to be strong. He can do so many things…but I really don't know what he has up his sleeves. I have no idea what he can do at all. You're just going to have to do something and fight this masked boy for the last Power Star!_

Chopper threw a light ball that would ignore his defense on Flyknightis. Since his lightning couldn't do much now, he was forced to fight Chopper himself. He ended up getting knocked back by the attack, but he quickly got himself up.

C-2 Choppor was able to attack Flyknightis after shooting C-1 TM, and he fired some missiles at Flyknightis, which dealt 12 damage to him. He was able to shake himself and strike Chopper with his sword, taking 14 out of him.

"Whoa, that attack's pretty strong…" Chopper gaped as he became Sword Chopper and jumped toward Flyknightis to swing his sword at him. However, Flyknightis kept parrying his attacks, but thankfully, Chopper was able to hit him. Geno fired his Geno Beam upon Flyknightis and noticed that their regular attacks only did about 5 damage.

"He sure has some high defenses..." Geno trailed. "Definitely stronger than others, that's for sure."

Flyknightis aimed at Chopper with his gun on his left hand and he fired a blast. Chopper was able to block it with his sword and struck the blast back at the masked boy. Flyknightis quickly ducked, and it hit the Mayor, who got knocked onto the throne.

"Hey, look at me! I'm the King of Pickles!" the Mayor cried as Flyknightis sighed and got hit by Chopper's D-Down Slash that took 8 out of him. He growled as he realized he got distracted.

Ghoster appeared on the platform and threw a Ghost Ball at Flyknightis to lower his defense. This made him quickly shake his head and made him unleash a wind attack that dealt damage against Chopper because of the pressure.

"Man, that's a REALLY strong move!" Chopper gaped. "How does he have all these wind moves anyway?"

"Just attack right now," Geno suggested. Chopper nodded and fired a Sword Beam at Flyknightis, followed by a Geno Beam, which knocked him off the platform.

"Oh no! If he falls into the lava, then that means the Power Star would be destroyed!"

But, Flyknightis was flying with the wings on his head and fired a Sword Beam straight at Chopper. He was able to put his sword up to guard it, but that didn't do much either. Because it shattered his sword, he had to throw it away and think of something else.

"OK then…" Chopper became Paint Chopper and used his paint to paint Flyknightis a light blue color, which made him get hurt by ice. Kayzee flew down to punch Flyknightis, something her sisters never managed to do.

Flyknightis used his wind powers to make some lava come at Chopper and Geno. Kayzee immediately grabbed them so they wouldn't get hit by the lava, and once it was gone, she dropped them, and Chopper threw a light ball at Flyknightis.

"Heads up!" Koopla came down onto the platform and attacked Flyknightis with a Dizzy Shell attack. It made him dizzy a little but he quickly shook his head and made a tornado to send her flying up.

"Well looks like you wasted a turn! Good!" Chopper smiled, knowing that Koopla wasn't harmed as much as he walked over to Flyknightis and used a Light Smash on him. Bruce jumped down and exploded right on Flyknightis. Thankfully, Parakarry grabbed him so he could get back up, but Flyknightis was able to slash Chopper with his sword.

Chopper saw that Flyknightis only had one more turn with that defense down, so they needed to do some more damage to him. Chopper used his Power Bounce on him and stomped on him thirteen times, while Geno used his Geno Flash move on Flyknightis to deal 12 damage.

Flyknightis used the remote to bring the platform back up into the castle room, where they could see Heat Vision being fired and also punching and pickle fighting going on. Bow was smacking Bubba Blubba right now, and Yosho was attacking Bloopink. Mallow was using his thunder on Valentina.

Flyknightis's sword was glowing, and it seemed to have some strong energy within it. It looked like he was preparing for a strong attack, and they need some way to avoid the attack.

"Umm…" Chopper sweat dropped as he used his Paint attack to make a red X appear on him and also damage him. Parakarry was able to come down at him with his Fly ability, so he dealt 10 damage to him with that. However, Flyknightis swung his sword, making a huge tornado strike Chopper. He tried to find a way to avoid it, so he became Sorcerer Chopper to suddenly disappear along with Geno to avoid the attack. The knight looked confused when he saw Chopper disappear, and suddenly lightning came down on him from Chopper.

Yosho was in the middle of some fighting, but he unleashed his Dragonbreath upon his enemies and even Flyknightis got hit by the attack. He found some of the people were losing, so he unleashed lightning upon the people they were fighting. People like Koopla, Bruce, and Yosho were hit by the lightning. After that, he turned back to Chopper and swung his sword at him. Chopper had to recover his HP, so he ate a Jelly Ultra. Since Flyknightis had his defense back, Geno used his Geno Boost on Chopper to boost his attack.

Flyknightis fired lightning down on Chopper, but it reflected back at him. His eyes widened as he moved out of the way from the attack. It knocked the Mayor off the throne.

"Ouch!" the Mayor winced, making him run away from the throne. Chopper boosted his Jump attack up by 4, and then following that, Mallow used his Star Rain attack to hit some of the enemies around, well mostly Flyknightis, which dealt 10 damage.

"Fools…" Flyknightis trailed coldly. "I still have another trick up my sleeves..."

"Wait… You can actually SPEAK?" Chopper gaped as Flyknightis used his wind powers to be surrounded by wind energy, making him recover 50 HP, leaving Chopper to guffaw.

"I don't believe it! He…can actually recover 50 HP? Wow… That's really impressive." Geno gasped.

"Well we can still make an attack! I'll use my Power Bounce on him again to weaken him!" Chopper declared as he got started with his Power Bounce and stomped on him twelve times. After he recovered 50 HP, this wasn't a bad idea.

C-2 Choppor fired missiles at Flyknightis, and then he fired a blast at C-1 TM, who quickly struck him with his fists. Flyknightis lightly chuckled and fired a blast from his gun at Chopper, who managed to guard the attack. Chopper used a D-Down Hand attack with a light ball, throwing it at Flyknightis as he lowered his fists. However, it didn't seem to weaken him, to his surprise.

"Wait... How come he wasn't weakened?" Chopper gawked as C-2 Choppor shot a blast at Flyknightis. "Most of Maquano's minions don't like light energy..."

"Stop this for a moment!" Everyone stopped as they turned to Blayzee, who interrupted the whole fight. Because Flyknightis was distracted, Chopper popped a Jelly Ultra in his mouth to recover 50 HP and DP.

"This REALLY isn't getting anywhere, guys!" Blayzee explained. "Just fighting like this is not going to solve any of our problems. We've been fighting for so long, and it just doesn't seem worth it now. We gotta do something else…and then…...I'm telling you…...listen up! ...…need another plan…...but…...it doesn't work out…..."

Flyknightis sweat dropped as he shot a blast at her, making everyone (including the good guys) cheer. After that, he flew toward Chopper with his sword, but Chopper was able to grab the hilt of his sword to keep him from attacking him. However, Flyknightis was able to punch Chopper in the face, which knocked Chopper back.

The pale green boy ran toward Flyknightis and he used his D-Down Jump to stomp on his head, while Bow appeared by Flyknightis and used her Power Smack on him. The masked knight growled as he fired some blasts at Chopper, but he ended up hitting Geno instead, making him fall over on the ground.

"Gah… Chopper, you'll need to do this fight without me…" Geno groaned as Chopper gasped.

"Geno..." Chopper trailed as he turned his head to Flyknightis and clenched his fists. "That's it! We settle this once and for all!"

He punched Flyknightis in the face with light energy in his fists and then kicked his face afterward in anger. Flyknightis was about to heal himself, but Chopper stomped on his head to interrupt him, only doing 2 damage.

"You're going to pay for what you've done!" Chopper shouted as he took out his hammer and smashed it on Flyknightis's head, and then threw a light ball at him. Everyone seemed a little surprised by his violent actions.

They were both panting, with each low on HP. Flyknightis was about to heal himself, but then he stopped and he dropped his sword. Even with his HP low, he decided to be fair and go hand-to-hand with Chopper. He flew towards him and knocked him down with a punch, but Chopper was able to get up and slowly walk up to him to punch him with a light punch. He tried to punch him again, but Flyknightis blocked his fist and he punched him in the face with his armored gauntlet.

"Oh my… Look at them fight..." Kayzee trailed, noticing the bruises on Chopper's face and the anger in him as he left some bruises on Flyknightis. "Is this how it had to turn out to be?"

"Sir Flyknightis… Don't give up!" C-1 TM shouted as he scanned him. He noticed something interesting. "What's…this? It tells me who he really is! It says he's…"

He was interrupted by C-2 Choppor whacking him with his own gun. Because they were exhausted, they stopped fighting for a moment. Everyone else felt tired, even the Dayzeeflower Girls and the Frenzyweed Boys. All that was standing now was Chopper and Sir Flyknightis. Whoever made the finishing blow would become victorious.

Chopper and Flyknightis kept trying to punch each other, but they kept defending themselves from each other's attacks. When Flyknightis had Chopper where he wanted him, he attempted to deliver a punch.

But, Chopper was able to make a light ball and was able to block Flyknightis's attack, making him gasp as he got hit by Chopper's light fist, which knocked him back. He knelt on the ground in defeat as Chopper upgraded his FP to 80. Everyone was surprised, including the villains.

Geno slowly got up and noticed Flyknightis slowly panting.

"Chopper… Did you just do that?" Geno gasped.

"Y-Yes..." Chopper trailed as he looked down at Flyknightis. "Why do I feel somewhat sorry for leaving him injured.

Flyknightis slowly got up and rubbed his head in pain. He pressed another button on the remote to make the ceiling open up. Now that it was clear he flew upward without saying a word.

"Hey! What're you doing? Wait up!" they villains cried as they left the castle to follow Flyknightis, who looked ashamed to lose against Chopper. The heroes noticed a Power Star dropped down onto the platform.

"Could that be…? The last Power Star!" Chopper gasped.

"Go ahead," Geno nodded. "We need that!"

Chopper walked over to the Power Star and pulled out the Star Rod. When the Power Star went into the Star Rod, its dullness was finally gone, making the Star Rod return to its full power.

**END OF CHAPTER!**

_The Star Rod had been fully restored, and Chopper was able to get it and stop Sir Flyknightis and his army on his home planet. Now that Clara is saved by this evil, everything can finally return to harmony with the Star Rod returning. Now all Chopper must do is head back to Star Haven and give it back to the Star Spirits. But what about Bowser and Maquano? They have not been beaten yet, and Flyknightis is still around. Does this mean their adventure is over? And what about Staris? Is he actually truly gone? In fact, will everything truly be returned to normal? Or will all Stars die and wishes will never be granted?_

* * *

**Well, there was your last boss chapter before the final arc of the story. And I'll say that writing this chapter was worth it. Big time.  
**

**But with that, we have the interlude, and then we have the final chapter of Paper Chopper. Get ready folks, 'cause it's going to be big.**


	95. Chapter 15 Interlude

Kammy and Camikon were in Maquano's Castle and walked up the stairs to a room where Bowser and Maquano were speaking. They just heard the news about the last Power Star and the destruction of Staris. They knew that this was nothing to laugh about, and they were not pleased.

"Oh… I guess you already know that Chopper has restored the Star Rod and is going to Star Haven to restore the Mushroom Kingdom back to the way it was, your Vileness." Kammy noticed.

"I already know that, Kammy! But that's not what I'm REALLY angry about!" Bowser growled. "I just found out Mario's come back to the Mushroom Kingdom! He's already landing down on the airplane that he took. First I have to deal with Chopper while Mario's on vacation, and now he's coming back! If I wasn't working with this so-called "Lord of Evil" here, then I would've had Peach!"

"Your minions were completely pathetic. They didn't even stand a chance against Chopper." Maquano scoffed. "Not even Staris stood a chance against Chopper! However, I don't think I need him anymore! I've gotten all the power I need, and I don't need you either, you so-called "Koopa King". Next time, you need minions that can actually DO the job."

"Lord Maquano… Don't start this argument now. This won't turn out very well…" Camikon warned as Maquano fired dark energy at him, which made him back away, frightened. He and Kammy left the room, but then Sir Flyknightis came in with all the bruises left from Chopper.

"Oh, you're saying that YOUR minions stand a chance against Chopper? Look at him! Your so-called "strongest minion" lost against him!" Bowser scoffed as he noticed Flyknightis come in.

"Flyknightis! Don't tell me you lost!" Maquano groaned. "I was thinking this wouldn't really work out. I should just rid of you for losing. Flyknightis, I think your time is up!"

But before Maquano could fire the attack, Flyknightis walked over to Maquano and flew up to him and punched him in the face, knocking him back. This angered the demon knight, but he noticed him turning away

"Where do you think you're going?" Maquano asked.

"To where Chopper's going…" Flyknightis trailed as he left the room.

"I don't think it's over for Chopper yet," Bowser pondered. "And because of that, we're through, Maquano! None of your ideas even work! I'll do what I should've done after being beaten by Chopper! I'm going to kidnap the princess!"

"Go ahead, you fool! You do that! I'm already done with you anyway. I'll send your castle out of here too!" Maquano decided as Bowser left his castle and went into his own castle. Maquano teleported it out and back to where it originally was before.

"Perhaps it's time I paid Chopper a little visit up where the stars live. I know where he's going to be going, and if he takes that Star Rod over there, then it's all over. Yes, to where Staris lives... But that place is too dark now because of the Star Rod being taken away. It's a long way over there, but that army Flyknightis led will most likely ambush them… But as for Flyknightis, I think I will tell Chopper the truth about him. Luckily, no one knows about him."

Maquano left his castle and was standing at the front entrance. He took his communicator out and contacted the general.

"General… This is Lord Maquano. Send some of the squadron out into Star Haven. Find Chopper there and destroy him!" Maquano ordered as he put his communicator away. However, his eyes widened when he saw a yellow puddle up ahead. "No… That can't be what I think it is, isn't it? Get back here!"

Before he could catch it, the puddle vanished out of his sight, never to be seen again.

Or would it?

* * *

**Lava area, Clara-**

Outside of the castle, everyone was getting onto the airship. They had a long battle, but they were able to become victorious. Unfortunately, the villains got away, but that didn't mean it was over yet. Parakarry was helping the injured Chopper onto the airship and also Geno, who was still a little injured from the attack he took from Flyknightis.

"OK now… We just barely made it out of there." Chopper sighed as he held the bright Star Rod in his hands. "Now we need to go back to Toad Town. Any ideas on how we can do that?"

"What about this?" Parakarry pressed a button, and a portal appeared, sucking the airship in. It then took them over Goomba Village, where Goombario noticed a shadow over the whole village.

"Uh oh… Don't tell me that Bowser's here to kidnap Peach again!" Goombario cried as he picked up a rock and threw it at the airship. Chopper responded by taking a coconut and throwing it down at him.

"Did you do that on purpose, Chopper?" Bow asked.

"You bet I did! He hit our airship!" Chopper replied as Bruce and Koopla looked down below. When they saw each other, Bruce instantly turned away from her.

"Yeesh! He still hasn't forgiven me! Can't he just drop it already and get over this stupid thing already?" Koopla sighed.

"I don't think he will forgive you," Geno shrugged. "I will admit trying to kick his ex-girlfriend was not the best idea in the world to solve your problem. Maybe next time you should try something else to make someone shut up instead of resorting to violence."

The airship went over the entrance to Toad Town, and a ladder came down. Chopper and his friends climbed down and landed on the ground.

"Are you guys going to be disbanding or something?" Ghoster asked.

"Well, we'll probably be staying together to find those villains," Kolorado replied. "We'll keep an eye out on the Mushroom Kingdom. You've got your job to do right now, and you need to accomplish it."

"Thanks, guys," Chopper smiled as they all waved goodbye as the airship took off. The eleven walked into Toad Town, but they saw so many Toads around, shouting, "Mario!"

"Huh? What's with all of the Toads here? Is there a party going on?" Mallow asked.

"A party! I love parties!" Kayzee squealed.

"Bro! You've finally made it back from your vacation!" That sounded just like Luigi. Out of curiosity, he began to make his way through the crowd of Toads and find the voice. There, he saw a man in a red cap, red shirt, blue overalls, white gloves and brown boots. His cap even had the letter M on it too.

"It's Mario! I can't believe my own EYES!" Chopper gaped. "I never thought that I would see HIM!"

He sped right past the crowd with his partners following him, though they were moving at a slower pace. Luigi was following Mario to Peach's Castle, but he told Mario to stop.

Mario: Why did we stop?

"Bro, there's someone I'd like you to meet," Luigi began. "He's actually a fan of you, and he's been taking care of things around here. He's…"

Right before he could say his name, Chopper came in. "Oh! He's right here! His name's Chopper."

"Hey, Mario! I never thought I would see you here!" Chopper gasped. "Was your vacation a good one?"

Mario: Yeah, it was fine, but then an evil witch named Cackletta had to come in.

"Really? Cackletta? What happened to her?

Mario: I managed to defeat her, but I think there was something of her left that got away. Nevertheless, I had a nice vacation!

"Oh, so her spirit or something to away... That's too bad..." Chopper trailed. "Well, we had some problems here, but I was able to take care of those problems! Princess Peach is safe, and she won't be…"

"Mario! Chopper! HEEELP!"

Chopper and Mario both looked up and saw Bowser on his Koopa Clown Car holding onto Peach, who was tied up.

Mario: Peach!

"Well, well, well! If it isn't my old pal Mario, and also my annoying little pale green friend Chopper!" Bowser chortled. "I'm taking your precious princess with me, up to the stars will you'll NEVER find me! I don't need Maquano or that Star God anymore! I already got what I need right here!"

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper jumped up toward Bowser with his fists clenched, but Mario grabbed his foot to pull him down. "What are you doing, Mario? I was about to give him a taste of his own medicine!"

Mario: If you attack him, the princess might get hurt!"

"You're right…" Chopper trailed as his friends showed up.

"Hey! What's Bowser doing with Peach?" C-2 Choppor asked as he raised his arm gun at Bowser.

"Don't, Choppor. You might hurt Peach."

"I dare you to find your princess if you can, Mario!" Bowser challenged. "Let's see if you can even get me up in space! I've got a whole army waiting for you there!"

"_**MARIO!**_" Peach cried as Bowser flew off. Chopper took out the Star Rod and frowned as he looked at it.

"I should've used this to save Peach…"

"We gotta do something, and fast! The princess has been kidnapped!" Luigi cried. "…Again!"

Mario: I have an idea, but we might have to discuss this at my house.

"All right sounds like a plan!" Yosho grinned.

"Chopper, don't move!"

"Huh?" Chopper turned around and saw Chan and Lee making their way to him. "Chan? Lee? What do you want?"

"The Master… He wishes to see you." Chan informed. "He knows where you're going."

"He said to come immediately," Lee added.

Chopper looked back at Mario and Luigi, who nodded to him, and then he turned to Chan and Lee and nodded. He and his friends followed them into The Master's Dojo to go see The Master. Just to be on the safe side, Chopper put his Zap Tap Badge on.

"_Cough…hack… _Ah, Chopper, you've managed to make it here." The Master noticed. "I heard you've gotten all the Power Stars and restored the Star Rod. You are going to Star Haven now, are you not?"

"Yes, I'm going there," Chopper confirmed with a nod.

"The reason why I called you in here is because… I wish to battle you one last time. I want to see if you actually have what it takes to take on whatever challenge lies ahead in Star Haven. I want to see if you're worthy."

"All right, I'll show you then!" Chopper agreed as he put his Fighter ability on.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? I mean, look at yourself!" Bow noted, showing concern over him. "You've been beaten up by Flyknightis!"

"I may LOOK like that right now, but I still have enough energy to fight. Besides, I did eat a Jelly Ultra when we were getting here anyway."

"Oh... Well, all right. I just don't want you to get hurt.

"Then it is decided. We shall battle one last time." The Master declared. "This time, I will hold nothing back at all. Do you believe you're ready to face me?"

"Yes, Master!" Chopper bowed.

"Then, to battle!" The Master clenched his fists and transformed his red robe to a yellow one like last time. However, this time there was a yellow glow surrounding him. "Kwaaaaa! Behold my fury, Chopper!"

"If he wins, then what The Master said will be true," Chan whispered.

"He may be the one that can save this world..." Lee trailed.

**Tattle: **_So it all comes down to this. The Master is really using all of his strength to fight you now. Max HP: 250, Attack Power: 14, Defense Power: 1. He's definitely not an easy guy. He could be possibly the hardest boss…or is that a lie? Just watch out for his attacks!_

Chopper boosted his Jump attack up by 4, and Geno followed with his Geno Boost to boost Chopper's attack as well.

"Hyaaahhhh! Chopper! Survive this if you can!" The Master came dashing at Chopper with his fists, but he was able to guard the attack and only took 7 damage with The Master failing to perform a combo. Since he had the Zap Tap Badge on, The Master took 1 damage.

"Ha! Now it's time for my Power Bounce attack!" Chopper smirked as he began to use his Power Bounce on The Master and stomped on him twelve times.

"Hm! You have great hidden strength for one round as a gumball." The Master commented.

"Was that supposed to be a compliment or an insult? ...Meh, it doesn't matter."

C-2 Choppor fired a blast at The Master. Because of that Power Bounce, Chopper was able to dish out a lot of damage on him. Anyway, The Master walked over to Chopper performed a punching attack that dealt 14 damage to Chopper, who went off to use his Power Bounce on The Master again, stomping on him ten times.

Bow appeared in front of The Master and used her Power Smack on him to leave him with only 150 HP left. That's a good thing, right?

"Now…it is time I stopped being so merciful," The Master rushed toward Chopper to punch him, but he guarded the attack and got The Master hurt in the process.

Chopper used his Ultra Jump Charge to boost his Jump while Geno used his Geno Boost to raise Chopper's attack. Meanwhile, The Master walked over to Chopper and tried to punch him. But, because of the Pretty Lucky Badge he had on him, he ended up missing, to his disappointment.

"Ha! Now it's my turn!" Chopper was about to jump on him, but Geno used his Geno Boost again, just to make this fight be a breeze, so Chopper used his Power Bounce on The Master and stomped on him nine times, leaving him with 50 HP left.

"Hm! Impressive! Let's see how you handle this!" The Master hurled an energy ball upon Chopper, which hit him and did 14 damage.

"Whoa… That was new." Chopper gaped as he quickly shook himself and used a Vulcan Jab attack on the Master, following by a Sky Dive from Parakarry. The Master made a dash toward Chopper and punched him, only to get shocked as well.

"Take this!" Chopper hurled a light blue energy ball at The Master that took 9 out of him. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at The Master, leaving him with only 18 HP left, so The Master performed a punching attack that knocked Chopper down, but thankfully, he was able to get back up.

"Whoa, not too hard, Master!" Chopper advised. "I was just fighting a really tough knight!"

"I'm not going easy on you though, but if you really got hurt, then I apologize," The Master apologized.

Chopper used a kicking attack on The Master, and then Yosho fluttered over to him to use his Ground Pound. After The Master hurled an energy ball at Chopper that he managed to guard, he finished off The Master by dashing toward him and delivering a light punch that sent him flying to the wall

"Whoa... That was new." Chopper gawked. "I hope that didn't hurt you..."

The Master got back up, his yellow robe turning back to red, while Chan and Lee were shocked. They were rather unsure whether Chopper would win or not. But then again, he _did_ have help...

"Hmmm! Noble Chopper! You have bested me, The Master, the strongest of fighters!" The Master congratulated. "Since you have beaten me at my full strength, I give you this with respect."

The Master gave Chopper a Diploma, which he accepted. "Not many people were able to defeat me at my strongest. Only you and Mario managed to best me. Chopper, I think you've proven that you can take on whatever challenge lies ahead. I wish you luck on your adventure."

"Thanks, Master!" Chopper smiled.

"We hope you help save this world, Chopper," Chan hoped. "It's what The Master wanted."

"So don't fail him!" Lee added.

"Don't worry, we'll take care of it," Ghoster assured.

"Well, see you guys..." Chopper trailed as he turned away and waved goodbye to Chan, Lee, and The Master.

"Do what it takes to win. Remember what you've learned against me." The Master informed.

* * *

**Mario's house-**

Meanwhile, at Mario's house, Mario just finished up with the plan and was going to go out to stop Bowser. Once he walked down the steps from the front door of his house, he saw a yellow puddle in front of him.

Mario: Hmmmmm? What's this?

The red plumber took a look at the yellow puddle, and an arm suddenly grabbed him and pulled him into the puddle. Mario struggled to break free, but the arm was too strong for him and ended up getting caught in. With that, the puddle slowly disappeared.

"Hey, Bro!" Luigi called out as he walked out of the house. However, he noticed Mario wasn't around.

"Bro? Aren't you here? Bro! Uh oh… I think something went terribly wrong…" Luigi gulped as he jumped into the pipe to go to Toad Town, and when he came out of it, he saw Chopper and his friends walking over to it.

"Chopper! Did Mario jump out of the pipe?" Luigi asked.

"No, why do you ask?" Chopper wondered.

"For some reason, I think he went missing! I don't know what got him, but it could've been Bowser! First Peach and now Mario? Wait… Bowser said he's going up into the stars. You're going to Star Haven, right?"

"Well, yeah…"

"You can go stop Bowser! If you save both Peach AND my bro, then you and your friends will be heroes to the Mushroom Kingdom! TRUE heroes!"

"A true hero? That sounds cool!" Mallow smiled. "We NEED to go help them!"

"OK, Luigi. I'll go to Star Haven and try to see what happened." Chopper nodded. "I'll try to find Bowser as well. ...But did he say he left Maquano to do things on his own? Hmmm… something feels odd about this."

"We need to go to Shooting Star Summit," Geno informed. "You can open up the way to Star Way with the Star Rod now that it has been restored."

Chopper nodded as he and his friends began to head to the blue gate that led to Shooting Star Summit.

"Good luck, Chopper…" Luigi trailed as he watched them walk away.

* * *

**Shooting Star Summit-**

"Man, I can't believe we're back here!" Chopper smiled as they watched the shootings stars fall down from the sky. "I always loved being around here for some reason. It's great to see that we get to return here. But, how come we couldn't go through here before?"

"Well, because of the Star Rod's power being drained, Star Way was destroyed," Geno explained. "However, with the Star Rod back, the way to Star Way has finally been restored. Even see for yourself."

When Chopper held the Star Rod up when they reached the summit, they noticed the blue beam of light coming down from the sky. He, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, Bow, C-2 Choppor, Yosho and Kayzee remembered this light when they went up to stop Bowser in his castle. However, this was a completely different story.

"There's our way up!" Chopper noted.

"We better get going then!" Bruce suggested.

"We can't just sit around here pickin' our noses," Yosho said as he picked his nose.

"Yeah..." Bow trailed as she looked disgusted with Yosho.

They all took the beam of light up to Star Way, and once they were up, they began to hike their way around. Instead of the Embers, there were now Star Bubbles, which were bubbly yellow creatures that could attack by shooting stars at. They're spherical shape like the Love Bubble and actually resemble them a bit.

At the end of Star Way, the moonlight lanterns looked a little darker than the previous time, and the stars around them were darker as well.

"Geno, what's with all of the dark stars?" Chopper asked.

"It must be because of the Star Rod," Geno frowned. "It may be restored, but I think it needs to be in a specific place to help restore the stars."

"We should see what's wrong," Chopper ran into Star Haven and saw that the Stars around them were a dull blackish color with dull blue eyes. When they took a glimpse of them, they looked so sad and weak.

"Oh no… The Stars are beginning to lose their power!" Geno gasped. "…Why did it all have to be like this?"

"Oh, this is horrible..." Kayzee sniffled as Chopper walked over to a weak Star.

"H-Hello there…_cough_…" the Star greeted weakly. "I'm sorry… I'm just too…weak. The Star Rod's power has been drained…and we've began to…die out. What? Even if Staris is destroyed…our power…still drains. The Star Rod…_cough_…"

The Star coughed one last time as it slowly died out and became star dust.

"I don't believe this… Why did Bowser have to take the Star Rod before?" Geno asked as he shed a tear. "This is becoming tragic. Every single Star is going to die if the Star Rod isn't taken back to where it needs to be! Chopper, we need to go to the Star Sanctuary, and fast!"

"Yes, good idea. Let's go!" Chopper noticed that even the trees and the water were dull. When they got to Star Sanctuary, they saw how dull it had become compared to their previous visit. Once they stepped foot into the sanctuary, they walked up the steps to the center of the room and saw the Star Spirits were a little dull themselves as well.

"Chopper, we're so glad that you made it back here," Eldstar sighed. "Things were beginning to worsen up here. Stars were beginning to die every minute... However, you have the Star Rod fully restored, do you not?"

"It's right here," Chopper answered as he pulled out the Star Rod.

"We will now grant you a power to fight with the Star Rod and stop all evil. You will need this for one last quest." Eldstar informed as he and the rest of the Star Spirits began to give Chopper one last power. Chopper felt the Star Rod glowing even brighter and something within him.

**Chopper can now use the Star Rod ability! With it, Chopper can shoot stars at enemies and objects!**

"With this Power, you can now gain access to Star Road. You've restored that road that's behind this place."

A glowing yellow path made of star dust appeared, with a doorway appearing that led outside. Everyone but Geno gasped.

"Holy moley! What's that?!" Bruce gaped.

"It must be a new way to go..." Parakarry trailed.

"You must take this road and face many dangerous trials past it," Eldstar explained. "This might possibly be your most dangerous quest yet. After going through Star Road, you will face many other obstacles in your way. If you manage to make it up to the highest point of Star Haven, you will be in Staris's Shrine, the home to the Star God. The Star Rod must be placed in the shrine to restore power to all the Stars in the Mushroom Kingdom and save them. Beware of Bowser's minions though. Staris's Shrine is perhaps the darkest place as of now."

"All right, I will do this," Chopper nodded with a determined look. "This is the last thing we need to do anyway. It may be long, but we can handle it!"

He got on the path to head toward Star Rod and began to run out of the sanctuary and up above into Mushroom Kingdom space.. All of his friends followed him out. While they did that, the Toads down below were wishing for the Stars to be saved and help them.

"Good luck, Chopper. Everyone wishes you luck, and everyone hopes you save the Mushroom Kingdom…"

* * *

**I'm kind of sorry if you were expecting the final Master battle to be epic, but this is what ended up happening.**

**I'm sure when we went to Star Haven before, there was something about a path behind the Star Sanctuary that was explained. Well, this is where they're going now. I also made things interesting (and rather sad) by making the Stars around Star Haven weak because the Star Rod's power was not at its fullest. Of course, now they have to go out and save these Stars from certain death. And we also got to see Mario in this story as well!  
**

**Anyway, next chapter starts Chapter 16, the final chapter of Paper Chopper!  
**


	96. The Road of the Stars

**CHAPTER 16**

**-Legends of the Stars**

When Chopper and his friends left Star Sanctuary, they found themselves on a yellow glowing road. They could see many stars around them and also moonlight lanterns in the beginning of the area. One thing for sure was that this place, known as Star Road, looked much nicer than Star Way and Star Haven as of now.

"Wow… This is just amazing. I never knew that Star Haven was this beautiful." Chopper gasped. "How come the rest of this place wasn't shown to us earlier? We couldn't just gone here instead and go to Staris's home to hopefully save everyone. Doesn't that sound like a better idea to you, guys?"

"I don't know about that. But looking at this place just reminds me of my beauty…" Bow trailed as her eyes as she looked at the sky. "I can't believe there's a place that has even more beauty than me! This really isn't right at all… Chopper, I'm prettier than this place, right?"

"Umm… Yes?" Chopper shrugged before Bow blushed at him. Meanwhile, Geno was taking a look at Star Rod, which was immensely long.

"This is a long road, and we've got a lot ahead of us," Geno noticed. "This road itself is pretty big, but getting off of it will take possibly forty minutes, or even hours! Chopper, I'm not kidding! Even with your speed it won't be easy. This road extends far into space, which would make us be far away from the Mushroom Kingdom."

"Wait, if we're all the way up here in space, how come we're no suffocatin' like what people usually do in space?" Yosho asked. "Ain't there no air around here? Fer some reason this just doesn't make a lot of sense to me."

Bruce took a look down from Star Road. Luckily there were rails for them to keep them from falling. Without them, chances were that they could die.

"Whoa, I didn't expect to be THIS high up! It's higher up than the sky!" Bruce gaped, "Oh boy, I'm so glad that these railings will keep us from falling. If I were to fall from here, I'd be scared for my LIFE!"

"That's because you don't have any arms to help you," Koopla responded. "You might end up rolling down on Star Road. Look at the road, it looks pretty curvy, and it's got a lot of slopes. You'll most likely tumble down through this place, you know."

"What? You're going to kick me so I can start rolling down Star Road?" the blue Bob-omb snapped, turning away from her. "Maybe YOU should be in your shell and get kicked down the road! That sounds a lot better than having myself do it! And stop trying to say sorry to me! It's not going to work! I'm NEVER going to forgive you for that!"

"I wonder what happened to Mario," Parakarry pondered. "Luigi said he couldn't find him at all. Don't suppose he's in danger right now, right?"

"Let's hope he isn't..." Chopper trailed as he began to look around Star Road. It was straight, and there were a lot of speed boosts made of stars. The Star Rod he was holding seemed pretty helpful in places like this, since he's using it. There weren't any enemies around, but there was a slope going down to the next area. He told everyone to follow him, and they listened and followed.

In the next area,there was electricity on the ground. They could tell by some of the the sparks. Even if Chopper were to become Plasma Chopper, he wouldn't be able to cross this one.

"I think I can help you through here! I'm pretty good with these kinds of things!" Kayzee assured as she grabbed Chopper and flew him over the electric ground. They seemed to notice platforms on Star Road that didn't have electricity on them.

"Huh, would you look at that. There's not really anything around here…yet." Mallow trailed as he followed Chopper and Kayzee on a cloud to a platform leading to the next area. They found in this area that there was a star door blocking their way to the next area of Star Road.

"What's this thing here? I've never seen a Star Door like this." Chopper gawked. "Wait, didn't we see these when we were in Star Hill, Geno? But… This one has no star in it unlike the other. Hold on a minute…"

"I would suggest maybe you use the Star Rod on it. That might be a good idea, since that's why you have it with you." C-2 Choppor informed. Chopper gasped and nodded to him as he fired a star at the door, which began to glow, allowing them to go through to the next area. They could see Koopatrols in gold armor called Elite Koopatrols. And by judging their armor and rank, they're not something to laugh at.

They could also see Magikoopas in a dark blue robe, which were on broomsticks. They jumped up, surprised to see that Chopper showed up with the Star Rod in his hands.

"Eeep! It's Chopper! And he's also got the Star Rod in his hands! We're doomed!" one of the Elite Koopatrols cried as the second one bonked it in the head with an assault rifle.

"Quiet, you!" the second Elite Koopatrol snapped. "Why should we be afraid of him? He's just like every single kid you see: stupid! Besides, we got a huge tank that King Bowser gave us. We're lucky that his castle is back up in the sky!"

"You idiot! You weren't supposed to tell about Bowser's Castle!" the Elite Magikoopa hissed. "Now Chopper already knows about the whole castle thing! Good going!"

The two Koopatrols jumped into a tank, which has 60 HP and a Defense of 5. So with that, Chopper unleashed a star upon the tank and the Elite Magikoopa, and then C-2 Choppor used his Laser Cannon on both the Magikoopa and the tank. Smoke came out of his gun as the Elite Magikoopa's mouth dropped.

"Yeah, that's something you don't see all day!" Ghoster chuckled as the tank overheated, making the tank shake. However, none of them knew whether the two Elite Koopatrols were trying to get out or were arguing.

"Oh shut up, you two!" the Elite Magikoopa summoned a Rainbow Block to fall on the tank, but unfortunately, it squished the tank, making it explode. This left everyone surprised, especially the Elite Magikoopa, who bit its lip.

"Ummmmmmmm… You didn't see anything!" the Elite Magikoopa chirped as it ran away, but Chopper shot a star at it, trapping it. With that, Chopper walked over to the Elite Magikoopa.

"So Bowser's Castle IS up in the sky?" Chopper realized as he brought the Star Rod up. "Who brought it back up into the sky? Did Bowser do it, or was it Kammy?"

"THIS is how you do it!" Koopla walked to the Magikoopa and punched it in the face. "Now, tell us everything you know about Bowser's Castle! NOW!"

"Koopla, we're not trying to interrogate this minion," C-2 Choppor noted. "We're just trying to get some answers from him, not attack him. No wonder you have a violent nature…"

"Well this usually works for me."

"Yeah, _obviously_..."

"Bruce, stop with that."

"I won't tell you anything!" the Elite Magikoopa hissed as it used its magic to disappear and get back on its broomstick. It then flew off to Bowser's Castle before anyone could get their hands on the Elite Magikoopa.

"I don't know where his castle is, but if we find it, we better make sure that we stop Bowser and save Peach too!" Chopper declared. "That means that there's more to this than I thought there would be."

They found a slope going down, but the door there seemed to be blocked. Geno used his Geno Beam to blast away the rubble, but the door still needed a key to go in. If they didn't go down the slope, they could've gotten on a platform that had a key.

"Look like yer gonna need me to get that key up there!" Yosho smirked as Chopper nodded and got on Yosho. He ran up the slope and then jumped onto the platform where there was a Star Key. Yosho grabbed it with his tongue and jumped down to the door to spit the key out, unlocking the door. Chopper jumped off of Yosho and shot a star at it, making it open up and allowing Chopper and his friends to move on to the next area. The next area didn't have much around, but Chopper bumped into an invisible wall, which made everyone confused.

"What the… The walls are invisible!" Kayzee gawked. "Hey, Choppor, do you have any data on any of this? I'm sure you must have some!"

"No data found," C-2 Choppor responded. "I'm sorry, but I have no idea what's in this part of the road. Perhaps Ghoster can be of assistance."

"Someone call me? Oh, whatever. I'll check." Ghoster stated as he used his Ghost Vision and saw a hidden maze around. They began to make their way through the maze, and after getting through it, they saw some Darklings, so Chopper got rid of them by throwing a light ball at them.

"Well that takes care of them! I have a feeling we'll see a lot of familiar things…" Chopper trailed. "I know usually the start of a place gives you a weird feeling, and are usually confused, but I think later on it gets more intense, and you get used to the place."

"I agree with you. This place _does_ feel odd, but we'll get used to it." Bow assured. "We do have to save all the Stars, after all. Let's hope we're not too late."

"There's no time for talking right now. We still need to go." Geno mentioned. Chopper nodded and opened the door ahead. He saw a speed boost going down and also a loop which went up to a corkscrew. Chopper smiled and he ran through the loop and corkscrew.

"Well, there he goes, going through the loop. He's lucky he's got all of that!" Mallow smiled.

"Hey, you're actually a prince! That's a GREAT thing to be, and you get much more respect than anyone else." Ghoster mentioned. "You'd probably get more respect than Chopper! So, what should we do next, Prince Mallow?"

"Well how about we get a move on? And don't call me a prince! Mallow is just fine!" the Nimbus prince got on a cloud and began to follow Chopper. Geno got on it and so did Bruce. Parakarry helped Yosho get across and got past the loop and corkscrew. Chopper was waiting at a door with two star statues.

"Man, it's about time you showed up!" Chopper sighed, tapping his foot. "I don't really like to wait that much! But, oh well. For some reason, I get the feeling that there's something ahead through here."

"I wonder what it is," Yosho pondered. "Maybe there are some ladies in there lookin' fer someone like me! …Nah, I'm kiddin'. I sometimes feel that hittin' on chicks ain't such a good thing…unless they want me to."

"You seem to understand now, Yosho," Bow sighed. "That's a good thing. I really like that. No, don't think I'm hitting on you. That would never happen."

"Don't worry about it! I think lookin' after my friends is more important anyway. I've done some stupid things in my past, but I think I'm gonna end all of that. It's my papa's fault that I tried to become a ladies man."

"What happened between you and your father?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"Well, my papa was once a ladies man, an' he was successful at it too! When I grew older, I tried to do everythin' my papa did and tried to get some of the ladies. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like any of those ideas worked fer me."

"What did he do?" Geno wondered.

"He was bein' all tough an' stuff an' wore sunglasses and a black jacket like I am! He always acted tough as well. Fer some reason, the ladies actually got attracted to him. Then again, those women were kinda bad..."

"Then if you want to get a woman that's good, then you gotta stop hitting on them all the time and acting like a jerk," Ghoster explained. "I mean, Chopper did it!"

"No I didn't. Bow just liked me because I looked cute and also because I helped her. That's it."

"Then... Maybe I have to help someone!" Yosho declared. "Yeah!"

"Maybe that MIGHT work..." Geno trailed. "But for now, we better get going. We can't waste our time here."

"That sounds good," Chopper agreed as he shot a star at the door, and then he hit the Save Block. At that moment, everyone began to rush into the next area of Star Road.

When they reached the next area, Ghoster used his Ghost Vision to detect some stairs over to the north.

"Well looks like I found something hidden here!" Ghoster grinned. Yup, you're lucky I'm here, Chopper! Without me, there's no chance you could've made it through this place!"

"We might as well take a look up there," Geno suggested as everyone went up the stairs, and when they got to the top they took the north way to find a big blue building ahead. Another thing they saw by the big sanctuary was a Star that was dull and growing. From what they could see, it was about to die."

"Oh, dear... That Star doesn't look good..." Bow trailed, showing concern as she flew over by the Star.

"…_Cough_… Huh? Who are…you people? How did…you get…here?" the Star coughed. "Star Road's…looking very nice and…bright today, don't you think so? _Cough_… My apologies, everyone. Ever since the Star Rod had been taken, we've been getting…weaker, and some of the stars…died. I feel like my time…is coming up soon. If you restored Star Road…then please go…to Staris's home. Take a look…inside this shrine…if you need to. _Cough_… Good-bye."

It closed its eyes as it slowly died and became star dust.

"Poor little Star… It just died right in front of us like all the other Stars we've seen." Kayzee sniffled. "I wish when the Star Rod was restored, everything else would be restored. I think that would be the best for everyone."

"It's too late for that now. There's no turning back in this place, you see." C-2 Choppor stated. "Either we go to Staris's home or we give up. But if we give up, then that'll be the end of the Mushroom Kingdom. Well, at least for being peaceful."

"Let's see what's inside of this place, OK?" Chopper opened the door and everyone headed into the shrine. It was actually small when they were inside. It was just one room with the wall up ahead having a painting. It looked like the one Chopper saw before when he had that strange vision.

"What kind of painting is that? Is that thing there…Staris?" Bow gasped as she noticed the size of Staris in the painting compared to the small, yellow ball.

"Hey… I remember seeing this before! It was some kind of vision of Star Haven…" Chopper trailed.

"Wait, YOU had a wisp come to you and show you some kind of vision?" Koopla asked.

"Yeah... It was when we fell from the sky. I landed on a cloud, and unfortunately, I couldn't go much further. A wisp named Fair-" However, Chopper paused for a moment.

"Fair who?" Bow asked.

"Uhhhhh... It was just a wisp that went to a fair."

"Umm… I don't get it. The wisp you saw went to the fair? I don't even know if there's a fair around these parts, but if you said it went there, then all right." Bruce said. He noticed a rope in front of him that said to "Pull".

"Oh no… Not this again," Parakarry face palmed. "Don't tell me that ghost is doing this thing like in Ghost Tower. It's not going to work this time. He should realize that by now."

"I don't think this was here when we came in here," Mallow said as he stopped for a moment and looked back at the painting the eye on Staris. "Hey, look at the eye of Staris, Chopper! It's some kind of diamond! Maybe we need to use that for something up ahead!"

"That's probably a good idea! But… It's too high to get." Chopper frowned. "We need to stretch our arms in order to grab that thing."

Mallow knew what to do and stretched his arms to grab the diamond. They had to leave before something bad happened.

"Let's get outta here!" Yosho suggested. They all ran quickly out of the shrine, when nothing actually happened. A disappointed Hauntost appeared and was disappointed, that he pulled the rope himself.

A giant anvil ended up falling on him, which didn't go through him. It ended up leaving him dizzy.

"Next time I shouldn't do something like that… Ooooooog…

* * *

**Star Road-**

Chopper and his friends left the shrine place and returned to the other area. They saw down the steps another door with an empty diamond space on it. They looked at the diamond to see if it was like the one on the door.

"Well, it looks like the one on the door, so go right ahead an' put it on there, Mallow," Yosho suggested.

Mallow stretched his arms to the upper part of the door and put the diamond in there. The door opened up, and they saw a long way down like a slope. They could see it was even beautiful there, with a lot of things sparkling on Star Road.

"Now THIS is what the real Star Road is meant to look like," Geno smirked. Chopper, we're going to need to be careful around here. It's much more dangerous in this part of Star Road than the other part. I'm sure Bowser's minions would be around here."

"Ooh boy… This might be a tough one. But we can handle it!" Chopper assured as he began to run down the road, using a speed boost to make himself move faster. Bruce was following, but he began to tumble down.

"OW! OW! OOF! GAH!" Bruce cried. Yosho ended up running down and used his tongue to get him to keep him from falling. He had to keep him in his mouth before spitting him out at the bottom.

Chopper noticed some Elite Hammer Bros. lurking around too. They wore black helmets and their hammers weren't made of wood. They also had black shells, which could be a relation to Black from the Koopa Bros., since he had a black shell on him too.

"These are different Hammer Bros…" Chopper trailed as he stopped at the bottom part of Star Road and saw the Elite Hammer Bros. pull out an explosive hammer. Everyone else managed to make it down to where Chopper was and they saw the Elite Hammer Bros. too. From what they could tell, they definitely looked nasty.

"So this is the Chopper King Bowser's been talking about, huh?" the first Elite Hammer Bro. gawked. "Is this some kind of joke? THIS is the guy that's been bothering us? !"

"Hey! Don't judge someone by their age!"

"Well, we're sure not going to miss something here! We got a mission to do, and that's to take you down! Let's get ready, guys!"

Yosho ended up spitting Bruce out, whose fuse was going off. Bruce gulped as he exploded in front of the three Elite Hammer Bros., making them fall off Star Road.

"_**Whoooooooooooa!**_" they all screamed as they plummeted down from Star Haven. However, because they were off the road, gravity prevented them from falling down.

"What the… Hey guys! We're safe!" the Elite Hammer Bros. cheered as they began to float away. Chopper gawked as he looked at the Star Rod.

"Hold on, I think that Star Rod is keeping us from floating around," Geno realized. "That must be the reason for it to get to Staris's home!"

"You may be right, Geno! This thing really is doing something to help! But enough about that! They wanted to fight, and I will give them one!" Chopper swung the Star Rod and three yellow stars hit the three Elite Hammer Bros., knocking them away from Star Road to somewhere else.

"Well that takes care of that! Let's keep going." Chopper shot a star at the door ahead and hurried on to the next part of Star Road, which had a lift that moved up to the right.

"That's it here? Huh… I was expecting something else here." Koopla frowned as they shrugged and got on. It took them to the top of the area where Chopper opened the door with a star. In the next area, they saw some kind of pinball room, but there was three round buttons that could be pushed, but they needed to use some kind of ball to hit a blue ! switch on the ground that they couldn't reach.

"Let me look at this," Chopper pushed the one closest to them to the right with his hammer, and then he made it so if it would be hit by something, it would go northeast. "OK, now we need some kind of ball… Wait, Koopla can do this! Get over here Koopla!

"Go and do it already. If you get hurt, I won't care one bit." Bruce stated.

Koopla scowled at him and got in her shell. Chopper kicked her and was moving everywhere around. She was able to hit the blue ! switch to make the door open up, allowing them to move on. It was impossible to hit it with Chopper's hammer because it was over an electric floor, and it would go away when the switch gets hit.

They moved on to the next area and saw a star bridge that they needed to cross. There were some Elite Koopatrols in this area and some more Elite Hammer Bros. They crossed over the bridge while beating up some of the enemies and made it to the door.

"I wonder how far we've made it on Star Road," Parakarry wondered. "It seems like an excessively long road. From the looks of it, we still got a long way ahead! We're pretty much going back towards the Star Sanctuary and then away from it up ahead!"

"Yeah, you're right. This doesn't feel right at all…" Chopper trailed. "But there's nothing we can do about it. We can only just keep going."

"Boy, this just reminds me of going back to Bowser's Castle…but this seems much bigger than his castle," Bow sighed.

"That is true. I wonder where the castle is anyway." C-2 Choppor pondered. "Perhaps all of those villains we've fought are there? We got the airship, so it's most likely that they have to stay in Bowser's Castle."

"We'll find out sooner or later. For now we gotta get through Star Road." Chopper declared as he shot a star at the door and opened up. They then began to proceed through. But they didn't notice a Hellspawn Starship flying over them.

_"I've found Chopper! I repeat! I've found Chopper!"_ a Hellspawn Pilot called out._ "I'm going to go close in on him at the end of Star Road right now! You will be pleased, Lord Maquano!"_

* * *

**Next area-**

When they saw how much of Star Road was left, Yosho's mouth dropped to the ground.

"Are you OK, Yosho? You look like… Oh, now I see it." C-2 Choppor realized as he noticed how much was left. He even helped lift Yosho's mouth back up. "That's a VERY long part of the road. And we were just at the beginning over there!"

"Oh, thank ya fer doin' that," Yosho thanked. "Look at this road! Don'tcha think this a little too long? Maybe we should turn back right now when we have a chance. There's no way I'm walkin' that distance! No no! Not at all!"

Chopper walked over to Bow to ask if he could get anything from her that would convince Yosho to keep going, and she whispered him something. He nodded and quickly walked back to the cool Yoshi.

"So… If there were ladies waiting for you at a nice pool resort place, then would you keep going?" Chopper wondered. "I know you never had luck with any girls, but maybe if you kept going, you'd find some girls."

"Ladies waitin' fer me to arrive? Why didn't ya say so! I'm obviously a ladies man, an' bein' a man means I gotta go find those ladies an' show 'em how awesome I am. An' by that, I mean talkin' and makin' out with them!"

"Well that worked out. I was thinking he still wouldn't go because of all of the enemies." Bow said. "Say… I wonder if there IS a resort here. If there is, I would love that, wouldn't you, Chopper?"

"I guess so," Chopper shrugged.

"A resort? That sounds really nice!" Mallow smiled. "Maybe they have that here in Star Haven! Star Road is like some kind of highway, while there are many other places to be! It'll be just like Midas Bowl - except that it might be twice as better! Princes can get some relaxation too, you know."

"Yeah, that's true. I think we might be seeing something a little interesting when we're out of Star Road." Parakarry hoped. "Of course we can't just relax the whole time. We still have to go to Staris's Shrine or whatever it is and save the Mushroom Kingdom and the Stars."

"You are right, Parakarry," Geno agreed as he closed his eyes. "We can't just stay here the whole time. We have to find Staris's home immediately, or else nothing's going to be right around here. I suggest we…"

"I say we just fly on ahead to see what there is!" Kayzee shouted as she flew on ahead, making Geno's eyes open and forced Chopper to grab her feet and pull her away. "What are you doing, Chopper? I was going to fly ahead to see if there's anything around! You don't need to be keeping me away! It's not like these doo-doo heads that are up ahead are going to get me!"

"That's not the problem, Kayzee! We need to stick together if we're going to go through this place." Chopper explained. "That means you can't go flying off like that. We're working together, remember?"

"Yeah, that's what we need to do! Hey, Choppor! Shake my hand!" Ghoster declared as C-2 Choppor grabbed Ghoster's hand, but the robot didn't seem affected by the shock. "Wait... How come that didn't work? !"

"What was that, Ghoster? I didn't feel anything." C-2 Choppor noticed. "Maybe I am not affected by the hand buzzer. Looks like your pranks don't work on me."

"Let's just cut this crap out already," Koopla groaned. "We're not staying here all day! We should at least GO! The more we talk here, the longer it'll take us to get off of this annoying road."

"Don't listen to her, Chopper," Bruce advised. "She's not being helpful right now. What we should be doing is defeating the enemies around here so you can gain a level. Doesn't that sound like a good idea?"

"Yeah, I guess so..."

"Ha! See? Your plan is terrible, Koopla! I guess that's what you get for what you've done to my sweet Bombette! Well, she WAS my sweet Bombette…but not anymore."

However, Chopper added something else.

"We still have to keep going, and that's what Koopla suggested. So, both of you are pretty much right on what we need to do. So, let's get going now, shall we?"

When they reached the next area, the Elite Koopatrols noticed the eleven coming toward them, so they got their weapons ready to fire. Unfortunately, Chopper was able to shoot a star at a rocket one fired, making it explode, and also knocking the Elite Koopatrol down, like the others Chopper hit.

"We sure are taking care of these guys," Ghoster said as Chopper hammered his way through the enemies to the door ahead, where he shot a star at it to open up for them. Going into the next area, they could see two doors. They needed to both be opened in order to move on. There was also six red ! switches on the room.

"I'll handle this," C-2 Choppor declared as he scanned all six switches and fired blasts at them all, which made the doors open, but they were going to be closing, so everyone quickly ran through the doorway. Bruce slid under the door, but he noticed his hat was off, so Mallow grabbed it for him.

"Thanks, Mallow!" Bruce thanked as Mallow smiled and put the hat back on him.

They can't see much in the next area, but they could see a platform that was up on a ledge with a Star Key, so Mallow made some clouds for Chopper to use to make it up to get the key. He then threw it to the door to unlock it, and they proceeded on through, making a curve around on Star Road and going to the left to move up a slope. One thing for sure was that they were getting closer to the end.

Chopper found a door a little further ahead and also a Save Block for him to hit, so he did that, and everyone walked through the door he opened with the Star Rod. The next area was, but there wasn't much around, except for a Starship that appeared after using its cloaking device.

"What the… What's this ship standing in front of us?" Bow gaped.

"Oh great… There's a Hellspawn Ship here! Perfect..." Chopper sighed as he smacked his forehead.

_"That's right, Chopper! And now I'm going to finish you off!"_ the Hellspawn Pilot declared._ "I got orders from Lord Maquano to take you down, and I'm going to be doing just that!"_

"Oh boy… Maquano's probably around these parts too! Two bad guys is some serious trouble!"

_"You ready for this? I don't have all day to be sitting here!"_

"Bring it, ship!" Yosho challenged.

**Tattle: **_So that red and black ship belongs to the Hellspawns, eh? Well it does seem pretty strong. Max HP: 180, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 5. If you attack the cockpit, then that's zero defense. Like all ships and robots, the cockpit seems to be the best place to attack, so go for there. This ship pretty much shoots at you and will fire missiles. Your Star Rod should come in handy here._

Chopper shot a star from the Star Rod at the starship, making it bump a little from getting hit in the cockpit.

_"Oof! What was that?"_

Parakarry got in his shell and he landed an attack on the starship with a Shell Shot. The pilot knew he had to get serious right now, so the starship shot a small laser at Chopper, but he was able to jump up to the starship and whack the cockpit with the Star Rod, leaving a crack.

Bow attacked the ship next, smacking at the cockpit with no problem at all. The starship had to shake Chopper off since he was on there, but he was still able to hold on without losing his grip.

"I'm not giving up just yet!" Chopper cried as he used the Star Smash attack to whack at the cockpit again with his Star Rod. C-2 Choppor unleashed four missiles straight at the starship, which made Chopper jump off of it to prevent himself from getting hit, which pushed the starship back.

_"Gah! Take this!" t_he starship fired missiles at Chopper. He had to guard some of the missiles to take less damage, which were five that could do 3 damage each.

"I guess I'll have to attack from the ground," Chopper stated as he shot a star at the cockpit of the ship.

"Urgh… I can't lay an egg! Wait, I've got an idea!" Yosho smirked as he used his long tongue to grab Bruce.

"Hey! What are you doing! ?" Bruce exclaimed as Yosho swallowed him an laid an egg.

"Ah, perfect! This'll do nicely!" Yosho grabbed the egg and threw it at the starship. Bruce broke out of the egg, with his fuse lit up. He exploded in front of the ship, which was something it was weak to, and it also made the pilot angry.

The Hellspawn Pilot pressed a button and its machine guns appeared, firing at them. Chopper jumped up a little and began to run from the machine gun firing at him. He was lucky to shoot a star at the ship, thankfully. Ghoster flew up to the cockpit and punched it with his fists. It didn't leave any cracks, but at least it did some damage to it.

_"Stupid ship… How is it losing to a little kid like this? Very well, I'll show you something I got!" t_he Hellspawn Pilot snarled as it pushed a red button, making five homing missiles come out and float beside the ship. "_If you even try to touch me, then one of these missiles will attack you! Yeah, I'm dead serious!"_

"Geno, would you like to do the honors of destroying the missiles?" Chopper asked.

"Why, certainly!" Geno nodded as he turned into a cannon and shot an orange ball of energy at the ship, which exploded, destroying the missiles and hurting the ship as well.

"Good work!" Chopper smiled as he jumped up to the ship and slammed the Star Rod on the cockpit. From what they could see, they were wearing it down pretty fast. However, The starship attacked Chopper with another laser that knocked him back. He was able to get back up and make an attack on the starship with his Star Rod, followed by Heat Vision from Kayzee.

_"Uh oh... The ship's gonna blow up if I don't do anything right now!"_ the Hellspawn Pilot gulped as he saw smoke coming out of the ship._  
_

The ship shot out another laser Chopper was able to guard against. This allowed Chopper to use another Star Smash on the ship, and then Mallow made a cloud fall on the ship.

The Hellspaw Pilot was about to fire more missiles, but he saw something was wrong. _"What! Missiles aren't working? You got to be kidding me!"  
_

"Well that makes things better for us!" Chopper smiled as he fired a star at the ship. He turned to Yosho, telling him to use that explosive attack to get rid of the ship immediately.

Yosho swallowed Bruce to lay an egg with him inside and threw him at the starship, which made Bruce blow it up and destroy the ship, giving Chopper 34 Star Points and a level up. He chose BP and now had 47 BP now.

"We took down a starship. Man, we're pretty awesome." Yosho grinned.

"Yosho… Don't say that… Think about…us!" Chopper frowned.

"Let's not think about that at the moment. We're at the end of the road. See?" Geno walked over to the door ahead, and when Chopper opened it with the Star Rod, it opened to a round area with a ladder in the center made of stars.

"Hmm? Some kind of star ladder or something? I think it takes us up to somewhere…" Chopper grabbed onto it and began to climb up. "Let's hope that we're brought somewhere."

"This better be worth it..." Yosho trailed as he climbed his way up the ladder. As he was thinking about his father, he wondered if his ways to getting women were actually good and not "cool".

* * *

**Kayzee just said a bad word... That's not good :P. Anyway, something interesting is going to happen next chapter! Let's see what it is...**


	97. Boys in Cyberspace

"I see something up ahead! I don't know what it is, but I get a feeling it's really nice…" Chopper trailed as he got on the platform which the ladder was near and found himself on purple ground with it being a checkered purple and light purple. He only saw a path going up ahead, so he sat down to relax after all of that climbing. Yosho was able to make it up and he saw Chopper sitting down.

"So yer tired, huh? Yeah, I hear ya. That climbin' was pretty long, if ya know what I mean. But, it takes a lot of muscles like mine to get up there! Yup!" Yosho smirked. "I don't know how ya managed to get up there with those arms. How do ya do it with such weak arms anyway?"

"My arms aren't necessarily weak. I'm just not able to carry heavy objects. Sure, I can punch things (although a normal punch wouldn't do a lot), but if you ask me to move a big rock, then I'm not able to do that. I can hurt people with some punches with any elemental power I have, but kicking for me is a lot stronger, especially when I have the Fighter ability on. However, you don't always need strong arms to climb up things like ladders..."

Everyone else managed to get up onto the purple ground and looked down and saw how high they were from Star Road. Because of how far they were from home, Kayzee was starting to cry.

"Kayzee? What's wrong? Are you feeling a little…homesick?" Parakarry asked.

"Y-Yeah... I'm so far from my sisters and the professor! Never have I ever been this far from home before!"

"You don't have to worry about your uh…father," Mallow assured. "He's probably at home, safe from harm right now. I'm probably 99.999999% sure that he won't be kidnapped by anyone!"

"It's just… We're just so far away. I know being on Chopper's planet is pretty far, but being up in Star Haven feels like I'm going to be going very far away from home. The professor is probably very worried about me right now. I know I'm made of mostly sugar, since I'm the cute and sweet one of my sisters, while Blayzee's smart and Tayzee's tough."

"You're not alone, though. Kayzee, I don't even know who my parents are, and my brother is out to kill me." C-2 Choppor spoke up. "I don't even know where I live. You're lucky you have a home. I have absolutely no data on where I live."

"And Kayzee, I kind of feel your pain when being homesick," Chopper sighed. "Ever since I had to leave my planet when I was four, I was crying for so long because my parents were dead, but I knew I had to stop crying and not become a crybaby. This is what I've become right now."

"I see what you mean..." Kayzee trailed. "I suppose I'll try to hold back the tears for now. I chose to come with you, so I want to finish this!"

"OK, now we got that out of the way, we should really see what's up ahead," Bow suggested. "I have a feeling there's got to be something interesting. I could imagine if we found what Yosho really wants."

"That's not going to happen at all, I bet!" Ghoster declared. "He's NEVER had any luck with the ladies! But I better take out my camera just in case he gets hit or something. It'll be GOLD! I can show it to all of the ghosts back home!"

"Yeah, that'll be great to see! Mind if I take a picture of him getting hit too? It would be hilarious!" Koopla snickered as Ghoster got a camera.

"No, Ghoster... I don't think so..." Chopper trailed.

"But come on! It'll be entertaining!"

"Humiliating your friends is not entertaining."

"Yeah, maybe you should treat Yosho a lot better," Bruce suggested. "He's our friend, and just humiliating him is WRONG. Koopla, I'm sure you're just trying to do what you've done to Bombette. Get rid of those cameras!"

Bruce kicked the cameras away, which landed in Chopper's hands. He was about to throw them away until Geno had an idea.

"You know, those cameras might come in handy sometime around here," Geno mentioned. "Chopper, maybe you should hold onto them for right now. How does that sound?"

"OK, I'll hold onto 'em," Chopper nodded as he put them away and got back up. "Let's get going now, shall we?"

He moved on to the next area with everyone else and saw a big door up ahead and a building. Once it opened up, it didn't lead inside somewhere. It led…outside?

"What the… What's this?" Geno gawked, but they walked through the door and saw some small buildings around that were blue and a gray floor. It seemed to be empty, but what shocked them was what they saw up ahead.

There was a pool and a hot tub.

"Oh my gosh! Chopper! Yer imagination was actually right!" Yosho gaped. "There IS a pool that you were talkin' about! I can't believe you were able to discover this!"

"What? This is…weird! I didn't think I'd see something like this! I find this VERY weird… Maybe it's… No, it can't be something like that." Chopper gawked until he heard giggling. "Huh? Who's there!"

He had a light ball out just in case, but when he saw it was only two Yoshi girls, he stopped and lowered his arms. He had a red ? over his head. One of the Yoshis was pink and had a blonde ponytail, and the other one was yellow with red hair.

"We didn't know other people were here! What a surprise to see someone more people!" the pink Yoshi greeted. Yosho, on the other hand, was in utter shock, as if he met someone he hadn't met in a while.

"Could it be…?" Yosho gaped as he looked at the pink Yoshi, who looked back at him in shock as well. "I don't believe it. It's you… Yoshina! I thought you disappeared from Yoshi's Island to never be seen again! I… This is something I never expected!"

"Yosho, I never knew you were here!" Yoshina gaped. "What are you doing here, though? This place is a secret!"

"I came here with my good friend Chopper. He's got the Star Rod with him, an' we're goin' to save the Mushroom Kingdom! That's why I joined Chopper…an' also to see what's around here."

"I thought you joined us because you wanted to see all the ladies…even when you couldn't get a girlfriend," Bow gawked.

"Well a lot of the time it was, but I knew that savin' the Mushroom Kingdom was important. Besides, Yoshina was the first person I actually liked, an' it was different than the others I tried to hit on. The reason why I hit on 'em is 'cause I thought Yoshina was dead from bein' carried out of the ocean. Because of that, I ended up goin' after others, remembering what my papa did. But now I regret doin' all that now that yer here, Yoshina..."

"It's OK, Yosho. I actually really liked you, but I didn't get the chance to tell you." Yoshina mentioned. "I was at the beach one day and a wave carried me out into the ocean. I was rescued by some Stars, who took me here. This Yoshi here is actually a Star. She's the one that rescued me."

"Ya actually liked me? Wow! I never knew that ya liked me back. This feels…amazing!"

"Hold on, how come you never mentioned her before?" Mallow gawked.

"It's 'cause I didn't want ya'll to let it bother ya. Plus... I wanted to try to keep myself cool while I could."

"If you told us, I think you'd be more likeable," Bow mentioned.

"Really?"

"Well, I think so..."

"You I suppose you wanna go out sometime, right?" Yoshina asked as she got out of the hot tub and used a towel to dry herself off. "I would think it would be a great idea. Maybe we can talk about what we went through after so many years of not seeing each other. Do you like the sound of that?"

"I would right now…but I can't," Yosho replied. "I have one last thing to do before I can go out to someplace with ya. I promised I'd travel with Chopper until the very end of this quest, an' I'm not goin' to be breakin' that promise. But, maybe this'll be somethin'… I guess."

Yosho kissed Yoshina on the lips, with both of them blushing. Chopper, being the eight year old boy that he is, covered his eyes to prevent himself from seeing such romance.

"Yosho…has a girlfriend now? Well that's a surprise. They actually really make a great couple." Bow turned around to Chopper. "How come you never kiss me like that?"

"I don't like that stuff," Chopper gagged.

"I can't believe a whole goal I was tryin' to achieve finally came true…at Star Haven!" Yosho realized. "Yoshina, I wish I could stay with you, but I have to get goin' now. I love ya, but that'll have to wait 'till everything's fine. Right, Chopper?"

"Yes, we need to save the Mushroom Kingdom, and if we don't all the Stars will die. Too bad I'm a little hurt right now." Chopper sighed

"Someone adorable such as you getting hurt by something? That's terrible!" Yoshins frowned as she patted Chopper on the head and gave him a lollipop. "Here, maybe this will make you feel better."

"Oh, cool! A lollipop!" Chopper smiled as he took the candy, but he paused. "Wait... Is this sugar free?"

"Yeah."

"OK! Fine by me!" With that, Chopper threw the lollipop in his mouth and swallowed it. "Thanks!"

_"Man, she's really sweet! This is a girl I really like!" _Yosho thought.

"If you want to heal yourself, the pool can help you heal. Don't worry, it'll be fine." Yoshina assured as Chopper jumped into the water and then jumped out. He stretched as he got out and had his HP and FP fully replenished, despite having full HP before.

"I feel GREAT! Say, Yoshina, do you know how we can get to Staris's home?" Chopper wondered. "We need to head on over there right now."

"You can go through that door there," Yoshina informed, pointing to the yellow door ahead. "You'll be in some cyberspace place when going through there, but it leads to the path you need to go. However, there's still more than that cyberspace place. The gravity changes a lot in there, and the road can get loopy. Sometimes you need to grind on the rails to get through a place, but it sure does have a lot there."

"Loops? Well that's something Chopper can go through." Mallow noted. "Thanks for the help, Yoshina!"

"Hopefully this whole trip will be over an' then we can go out someplace," Yosho hoped. "I'm so glad I don't have to hit on any chicks now. I was gettin' tired of it! I'm glad yer alive too, Yoshina! I promise I'll be back."

"Of course! You have a kingdom to save with Chopper! Good luck with your final quest!" Yoshina smiled.

"Thank you! …Though we still need to rescue Peach from Bowser and also find out where Mario went. But we can handle that." Chopper assured. "Getting the Star Rod back to where it belongs is our main goal. See you some other time!"

Chopper ran toward the big door up ahead, which began to open up. They began to see the sky turning black through there, and a light blue pathway was revealed to lead in. With that, they headed through the big door.

* * *

**Cyberspace-**

When Chopper stepped on the pathway, he saw that a light blue aura rose up into the space sky. One thing for sure was that this place looked crazy. Crazier than Star Road, that's for sure.

"Man, this place looks insane!" Bruce gawked. "Just seeing this pathway move like a corkscrew is just… Cool! Hold on a minute, a corkscrew? That's not a good thing at all! Chopper, there's no way some of us can get past a corkscrew!"

"Let me see this…" C-2 Choppor trailed as he began to walk ahead and saw the gravity was helping him move through, so he came back to everyone else to tell the news. "The gravity will help us through here. I suppose cyberspace does have a lot of things that require gravity. Try to be careful here, for changing gravity could make us fall into nowhere in this place. We could be going and going for HOURS! You don't want that, do you?"

"No, not at all. I'll try to be careful with the stuff here." Kayzee assured. "For some reason, I'm usually the one who causes a lot of trouble…"

They could see some C Robos around that were a shiny red, blue, or green color. It was like their bodies were diamond-like, so they would be called C-D Robos, and they're one of the toughest of all the C Robos.

"Whoa, look at the enemies here. They're pretty…strong, if you look at them." Parakarry gaped. "I don't know what their HP is, but they must have a lot if they're made of diamond material! That's bad!"

"I think you're right on that one," Chopper agreed. "I'm pretty sure a stomp or a hammer attack or a light ball will finish them. They're not made of darkness, but they do have some dark attacks, but I wouldn't be too sure on that one… We'll have to find out if we face one."

"I can hide you from them if they attack you. Maybe I'm going to need to give you a hand around here. I just have that feeling in my head…" Bow trailed. "But since this is our last goal to achieve, that means that Bowser's going to unleash his whole army upon us. As for Maquano… That starship could've been a warning."

"You seem to be in a very good mood…" Geno trailed as he looked at Yosho. "I suppose it's because you got to kiss someone you loved and also get a girlfriend, am I right?"

"Yer dang right I am!" Yosho smirked. "I never achieved such a goal in my life! Sure, these shades and this black jacket make me awesomely hot, but all the ladies just seemed to ignore me. Then again, they weren't Yoshis. Havin' a relationship with a Yoshi is probably the best thing to ever happen fer me!"

"Wanna know what I have a relationship with?" Ghoster grabbed a hold of Mallow's pants and pulled them up, giving him a wedgie.

"Ouch!"

"Is it Mallow?" Koopla asked.

"No! Pranks!"

"I thought you were being loyal to me!" Mallow cried, adjusting his paint. "I'm a prince that you wanted to respect!"

"Sorry about that... It was just a little joke." Ghoster shrugged. "I wasn't trying to hurt you in any way. Think you could forgive me?"

"I guess I can..."

"See? Ghoster apologized to Mallow and he forgave him!" Chopper noticed as he turned to Koopla and Bruce. "Now Koopla just needs to apologize to Bruce and let him forgive him."

"There's nothing we can do about it. All we can do is just move on through this place." Geno stated as Chopper sighed and moved on with his friends.

Chopper was walking instead of running, since he didn't have to run through the corkscrew. A C-D Robo attacked, but they were able to defeat it. They had 35 HP, an Attack of 12 and a Defense of 3.

After going through the corkscrew, they headed on through to the next area by using the Star Rod to shoot a star into the door. The next area was small, but there were three boxes with an empty star on them.

"I guess I need to shoot a star in all three of them at once," Chopper shrugged as he raised the Star Rod and fired three stars, one going into each. The star door ahead opened up, and they moved on. It was small in the area they were led to, but there was a purple ! switch on the ground and had some strange effect if hit. Geno began to look at it carefully.

"I believe you can use this to change the gravity here," Geno deduced. "Go ahead, Chopper. Give it a try. Only the Star Rod can be used on this switch anyway."

"OK," Chopper shot a star at it, and they all felt themselves going upside down. There was another pathway that was above the pathway they were on and a loop to go through. Luckily the gravity helped them go through the loop and made it through there with no problem.

Chopper opened up a star door ahead and everyone went on through to find another purple ! switch, so Chopper hit it with the Star Rod to make gravity revert to normal. They landed on another pathway, which led to a star door ahead.

After defeating the C-D Robos in the area, Chopper was able to shoot a star at the door to open it up. They could see a grind rail around the square-shaped area and some yellow Sentinels, which began to haunt some of their memories.

"Great... Sentinels..." Parakarry groaned. "Just what we needed..."

The Sentinels went after Chopper, but Bow used her Outta Sight ability to make Chopper invisible. The Sentinel seemed to ignore the others for some reason. It could be because they were not told to go after them?

"Wow… I was actually right about my ability being needed here." Bow realized. "I think it should be useful around here too."

They avoided the Sentinels that were trying to attack them and then proceeded onward, where there was a Save Block through the door, but something came down. It was some black C-D Robo that looked similar to an Anti Robo. Chopper tried to move past the robot, but it was blocking his path.

"Hold it right there! Don't move, or else I'll blast you!" the C-D Robo warned. "Actually, you don't want to fight me. I'm warning you. I'm much stronger than an Anti Robo. If you want to pass, then you must pay me 70 coins. No price drops! But, we could always go higher than that…"

"No way, man! I'm not going to be giving you any money!" Chopper retorted.

"So you refuse my offer? Huh… So I suppose you wish to battle me. Sorry, but I don't give any chances to anyone! Here it comes!" the C-D Anti Robo hovered up with a Max HP of 90, an Attack of 17 and a Defense of 0.

"Chopper… That robot is REALLY tough." C-2 Choppor warned. "It's probably the toughest enemy that we've seen so far. I don't recommend fighting it. We should've left him alone…"

"Don't be a chicken! We can take this thing on! It's not going to be so bad anyway! Just watch!" Chopper assured as he stomped on the C-D Anti Robo, making it come down because of the jetpack.

Bow used her Smack attack on the C-D Anti Robo, which made it quickly shake itself and use a laser sword to attack Chopper. He was lucky enough to guard the attack.

"Man, he can deal some serious damage…" Chopper trailed as he shot a star at the C-D Anti Robo, following up with a Geno Beam. The C-D Anti Robo made a flash appear from its gun and fired rapidly at Chopper with blasts, making Chopper take 19 damage.

"I need to protect myself here. I'll use a Repel Gel I got." Chopper sighed as he took out a Repel Gel and he began to rub it on himself.

"Hey! This isn't the time for using gel! You're… Oh, I see…" the C-D Anti Robo paused when it saw Chopper turn invisible. Koopla used her Dizzy Shell attack on it while it was distracted.

"Oh yeah? You think gel's going to stop me! Take this!" the C-D Anti Robo took out a cannon and fired a blast on Chopper. But it noticed Chopper was left unharmed, which made him looked surprised. "What the..."

Chopper threw a light ball at it before it had its chance to finish its sentence. Following Chopper, Ghoster punched the C-D Anti Robo in the face and laughed at it. The C-D Anti Robo tried another attack on Chopper, but it didn't work against him, so it had to deal with his hammer, which wasn't good.

Bruce attacked with a Body Slam, because blowing up would just be a waste of FP. The C-D Anti Robo sighed and didn't attack, because nothing could work. Unfortunately, Chopper ended up losing his invisibility.

"Aw, man! Oh well… He'll be down soon." Chopper assured as he shot a star at it, and to finish things off, Geno shot a Geno Beam at the C-D Anti Robo, giving Chopper 25 Star Points.

"Awesome! He's down!" Yosho smirked. "Let's keep movin' before anythin' else bad happens!"

Chopper nodded and they kept moving on. They headed into the next area with the Star Rod and found a straight area with some C-D Robos that tried to attack, but they were able to take care of them.

"I never knew there would be so much in this place. It's…really tough!" Chopper said. Going to the next area past the door, there's a grind rail that seems to go off of the pathway and to someplace else in cyberspace.

"Well, we gotta find out what's through there! Let's go check it out!" Kayzee suggested. And that, they did. Chopper got on the yellow rails to see what they would find ahead. While grinding on the rail, Chopper noticed a red, blue, and green light moving toward the right, which he remembered seeing on Clara.

"Whoa... Take a look at those lights." Chopper noticed.

"Is there a light show here?" Parakarry wondered.

"I think the Frenzyweed Boys are in cyberspace!" Kayzee gasped. "…But what are they doing in a place like this? There's nothing really interesting in this place! This is leaving me so confused!"

"The Frenzyweed Boys again? Oh, you mean the ones from those train tracks we took to go to Syrup Path? Oh, they were pretty annoying distracting us and all that." Mallow recalled. "I wish I could take them down! Too bad they escaped along with the other villains and Flyknightis on your home planet, Chopper."

"Yeah, that stunk..." Chopper trailed as he went through bright yellow rings that appeared up ahead, which made weird sparkling sound when he passed through them.

"I don't understand why they would be here," Koopla said, looking baffled. "There's nobody around here for them to beat up and steal things, and they don't look like they have anything to mess up things. Honestly, they shouldn't even be here at all."

"They're here fer a reason. If they wanna fight, I can finally get my revenge on that small green pipsqueak that tried to be cool by takin' my jacket!" Yosho growled. "Man, I just wanna sit on his head an' make him flat as a pancake!"

"Yosho! You're talking about me, you know!" Chopper snapped. "I'M green, and making someone flat as a pancake is something people would do to me!"

"Whoa... Sorry 'bout that, Chopper. Yer more of a palish green color than green, so I wasn't talkin' about ya."

"Oh... Well, I guess that's all right then."

"Danger! My scanners tell me once we make it through there, there's some kind of green cylinder that will suck you in!" C-2 Choppor alerted. "The only thing you _can _do is move up it. I think there's going to be a lot of these around this part of cyberspace. We better be careful around here for any enemies."

"We've taken on so many enemies before! You really expect us to lose against anyone! HA!" Ghoster scoffed. "The best thing I could actually do to them is make a prank on those Frenzyweed Boys. Yeah… I better get ready with the wedgies and the anvils right away."

Chopper was able to get off the rail and find a star door ahead. He shot a star at it, and the door opened up, allowing everyone to head through. But they ended up finding a dark green cylinder that was slowly spinning around. Chopper gawked as he took a look at them.

"Those were what I was talking about," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Whoa, look at THAT! It's slowly spinning!" Bruce gaped. "But I don't get what it is. Is it some kind of spinning drum thing? Wait… I think a spinning drum sounds like a nice name for this thing! Don't you guys agree?"

"I think that IS the name of this thing. Just try to stay away from this thing or else you'll be…" Geno paused when saw that Chopper got sucked into the drum, and he was standing right on it like the gravity changed. "…sucked in…"

"Are you OK, Chopper?" Bow asked. "Does that thing actually harm you in any way? I'm just being curious, that's all."

Chopper shook his head, which meant that it wasn't harmful in any way, so Bow floated over to it she got sucked into the gravity. Chopper just began to run up the drum.

"Interesting… So you can still move even if you're spinning around on that thing." Geno noticed. He tried it out and began to move up the drum. Everyone else did the same thing, and when they got to the top, they saw a gap between the drum and the pathway.

"Leave this one to me, Chopper!" Parakarry assured as he grabbed Chopper he began to carry him over to the pathway and then put him down. Chopper was left a little dazed.

When he shook out of his daze, Chopper noticed a familiar airship.

"Guys? What are you doing here!" Chopper gawked.

"Well, my boy… We heard that you needed to go bring that Star Rod back to that Star God's home, and we thought that you needed our help!" Kolorado declared. "So… We all agreed to come here, but we got lost in cyberspace thanks to those super powered boys…"

"Can't we just put an end to those boys?" Tayzee groaned.

Chopper shrugged and began to move on, jumping off a ramp ahead to go on a spinning drum sideways.

"Hey! Where's he going?" Blayzee asked. "In fact, where are the rest going?"

All of Chopper's partners followed him, noticing him leave. A C-D Robo was floating in cyberspace and noticed Chopper running on the spinning drum and then getting onto the one going up.

"Target sighted! Must destroy Chopper!" the C-D Robo fired some shots at Chopper, but he was able to avoid them while running up the spinning drum, which was unfortunate of the robot, because it missed.

Geno destroyed the robot with his Geno Beam, and then when they got to the top of the drum, Parakarry carried Chopper over to the door for him to open with the Star Rod. They headed through to find a slope going down to a spinning drum moving sideways.

"No problem!" Chopper began to run down the slope and also used his Speed Dash to go faster. After running through the spinning drum he jumped on a rail that went a little down and then up. Everyone else followed him, including the airship. The Mayor was looking at the spinning drums, and when he looked at them, he imagined them as a pickle. Suddenly, his eyes had pickles in them, showing that he's drooling over them..

"What's wrong, Mayor?" Blayzee asked. The Mayor pointed at the spinning drum, imagining it as a pickle.

"Pickle..." the Mayor drooled.

"Mayor, that's not a pickle! That object isn't curved like a pickle!" Tayzee face palmed. "You should pay more attention to what you see, all right?"

Chopper could hear the talking on the airship and saw a little further away a big light purple door, to his surprise.

"I don't believe it! We're coming to the end at long last!" Chopper gaped as he got off the rails. "Don't you guys think that this is a GREAT thing to see?"

Three C-D Robos appeared and blocked Chopper's way, aiming their guns at them, but Kayzee flew right in front of Chopper to fight...until they were punched away by the Frenzyweed Boys…who now stood in the way instead.

"Well well well!" Bindweed grinned. "If it isn't those stupid Dayzeeflower Girls and also those other weird friends they've got! Hey, you're name's Chopper, right?"

"Yup! I think that turtle guy wanted you down!" Thornbush recalled. "He even told us to come here to keep an eye out for anyone such as yourself! We've seen you before, but we're not going to stop this time!"

"Yeah! And those Dayzeeflower Girls aren't going to stop us!" Poison Ivy declared. "Cooties don't even harm us now! They'll only make us stronger!"

"Yer gonna pay fer takin' my jacket, pipsqueak!" Yosho growled. "I don't care if yer only five years old! I'm still gonna take ya down! Ya ready fer a big beating?"

Blayzee and Tayzee landed down besides Kayzee and got in their fighting stances while the Frenzyweed Boys couldn't help but scoff at them.

"Heh! Look! It looks like these girly flowers want to face us right now!" Bindweed laughed as they punched the three of them out of the way and pounded theirs fists, ready to take on Chopper.

"All right, they're out of the way! I hope they cry after that!" When the Frenzyweed Boys looked back at Chopper and his friends, the pale green boy drew his Star Rod.

"All right then! If you wanna fight, then we'll fight!" Chopper declared. "I'll show you how I REALLY fight! I'm pretty sure you're not going to like it anyways! Will you be destroyed? Maybe… Maybe not. But we'll see!"

"You heard him, boys! Let's get him!"

**Tattle: **_Those are the Frenzyweed Boys. They're just bad boys who like to cause mischief. They all have 90 HP, Bindweed has 12 Attack, Thornbush has 11, and Poison Ivy has 13. They don't have any defense either. Bindweed is just the normal attacker, Thornbush can use most of his powers, and Poison Ivy is a tough one, so start with either Thornbush or Poison Ivy. Just because they got superpowers doesn't mean you're no match! You're Chopper! You're the hero!_

Chopper used his Multi-Star attack, attacking all three of them with stars while Mallow used his Snowy attack to make a giant snowman fall on them. Unfortunately, it didn't freeze them.

"All right, boys! Let's try our attack!" Bindweed ordered as they formed a tower and shot a laser at Chopper from their eyes that dealt 14 damage.

"Ha! You think a tower's going to be so dangerous! Watch THIS!" Chopper fired three stars at all three of them, hurting them and knocking them down. Ghoster used his Prankster move to make Bindweed dizzy, Thornbush confused, and also Poison Ivy unable to see because of getting a wedgie.

"Ack! I can't see a thing!" Poison Ivy cried.

"Oh, THAT was great!" Yosho laughed.

They all tried to attack Chopper, but they missed. What was funny was that Thornbush ended up punching Poison Ivy in the face.

"Hey! Watch where you're punching!" Poison Ivy snapped as Chopper threw a light ball at him. Kayzee was able to get back up and grit her teeth at the Frenzyweed Boys. She was about to attack Thornbush, but Chopper stopped her.

"Take out Poison Ivy first! HE'S the tough one of the bunch!" Chopper informed. "We'd do that if we were fighting against Tayzee! We'd take her out first!"

"HEY!"

"All right," Kayzee shrugged as he struck Poison Ivy with her Heat Vision. Bindweed was able to punch Chopper, but his attack was guarded, and so were Thornbush's attack, while Poison Ivy missed.

Chopper Power Bounced on Poison Ivy and was able to stomp on him about twelve times before stopping. Bow used her Fan Smack on Poison Ivy, leaving him with 8 HP left.

"Attack!" Bindweed cried. Unfortunately, Chopper's Pretty Lucky Badge helped him by letting him avoid their attacks, making him smirk.

"OK, time to finish off Poison Ivy!" Chopper used the Star Rod to fire three stars, and Poison Ivy immediately fell to the ground.

"Poison Ivy! Get up already! Uh… Can't you get up? Uh oh…" Bindweed gulped as Geno used his Geno Boost to boost Chopper's attack up by 4.

Bindweed and Thornbush both attacked Chopper. He wasn't able to guard their attacks, but he was able to Power Bounce Thornbush and stomp on him eleven times. When Bow attacked him with her Fan Smack, Thornbush only had 10 HP left.

"Well, we're wearing them down!" Bow cackled. "So much for them being strong!"

Bindweed flew toward Chopper to punch him, and following that, Thornbush unleashed some fire breath upon Chopper. The pale green boy gaped as he took 12 damage from it.

"Whoa…" Chopper trailed. "But this battle's over for you, Thornbush! Watch this!"

He brought the Star Rod down, and Bindweed and Thornbush got hit by star energy, making Thornbush fall to the ground in defeat.

"Not you too, Thornbush!" Bindweed cried. "…Well, who really cares about them! ? I'm still left, and I'm the coolest one! Don't think this is over, Chopper!"

Koopla got in her shell and used her Dizzy Shell attack on Bindweed, making him dizzy. He tried to punch Chopper, but since he was dizzy, he missed the attack. "Why can't I attack!"

Chopper jumped toward Bindweed and used his Star Smash to whack the Star Rod at him while Kayzee used her Heat Vision after that. At this point, Bindweed didn't know what to do, since he had 16 HP left. So… He threw Poison Ivy at Chopper, who managed to block him with the Star Rod. He threw Thornbush afterward, but the same result happened.

"Choppor! Stop him!" Chopper cried.

"Of course," C-2 Choppor nodded as he shot Bindweed with a blast.

"All right, now! This is it for you, Frenzyweed Boys! You'll no longer bully people now!" Chopper declared as he fired a star from the Star Rod at Bindweed. However, this attack was much stronger, and because of that, it affected the other two as well. Bindweed was glowing red, Thornbush was glowing blue, and Poison Ivy was glowing green.

"What the heck? What's going on?"

"I think they're...blowing up?" Kayzee wondered.

"I was hoping that they would just learn, because I think that would...

"_**AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!**_" the Frenzyweed Boys screamed as they felt the light taking over their body.

"This... This can't be!" Bindweed cried.

"Why did this have to happen?!" Thornbush gaped.

"We really stink at fighting normal people!" Poison Ivy whined

"And to think we would win this whole time..." Bindweed trailed. "You, kid... Don't think we'll be gone forever, because our spirits will return to destroy you!"

"Well, I highly doubt it. Goodbye for now, Frenzyweed Boys..." Chopper trailed as they blew up, making leaves fall over the heroes.

"We did it! The Frenzyweed Boys are destroyed!" Blayzee cheered.

"We don't have to worry about them anymore!" Kayzee cheered.

"So what. They're gone. Big whoop." Tayzee groaned. "It just takes another boy to defeat another boy, pretty much. We'll see what happens when Kojo Pete's gone."

"Uhhhh... You know, technically we defeated them." Chopper corrected, pointing to his friends. "There's no way I could've taken them on alone..."

"Yeah, give us credit too," Mallow added.

"Well, it doesn't matter at this point," Tayzee groaned.

"OK..." Chopper walked over to the big door and opened it before turning to everyone else.

"Are you all coming?" Chopper's partners nodded and followed him, while the airship went through the large door as well, hoping to see what they would find out of there.

* * *

**Well, that's the end of the Frenzyweed Boys! Well, I had to do SOMETHING with them. What else could I even do? Well, if you didn't like them, then that's good news for you. I never really liked them anyway. They were jerks. :P**


	98. Ghostly Relations?

There was something odd about the place they found themselves in. It was kind of similar to the place where they met Yoshina, but instead of light purple for the ground, it was dark purple. Everything about this place was purple.

"This place… It's exactly like the other place we were in!" Chopper gaped. "Everything's purple!"

"I didn't expect us to be in the opposite of where we met Yosho's new girlfriend…" Geno trailed. "Strange... Yoshina never told us about this place at all. It looks a lot bigger, but it looks pretty empty…"

"Yoshina? You mean my daughter?" the Yoshi Elder gawked. "She's dating Yosho now? Well, I'll be! Son, I'm so glad that you found my daughter! I thought she was gone forever! I'm pleased to see that she's just fine."

"Wait a minute… Yer Yoshina's daughter! I didn't know she's yer daughter!" Yosho gaped. "Ya never told me about her at all? Man, fer a wise elder such as yerself, yer not really good at tellin' things to people like me! If ya told me earlier, I wouldn't have had to go hit on every single woman I saw!"

"Yosho, just settle down. You found Yoshina, so it's all right. Don't get angry now." Koopla suggested. "It's going to make things worse, like with Bruce… I didn't want to get in an argument, but it looks like things aren't just working out.

"Yeah, that's true. Koopla kicked my girlfriend, but you're lucky you're probably not going to lose yours, Yosho." Bruce mentioned. "She seemed very sweet, especially with helping Chopper recover from that battle. Well Chopper's still kind of battered up after that fight against the Frenzyweed Boys, though..."

"There's nothing for me to heal at. No pool or anything!" Chopper said in disappointment as he saw nothing around. "It would've been nice if there was one around here, but I'm not getting any chances at that. This place is just empty, even with all of these beautiful buildings around. For some reason, it reminds me of the City of Flowersville…"

"This place does feel a little familiar..." Blayzee trailed as Kayzee began to check around the place and gasped afterward.

"Wait a minute… Blayzee! I think this IS similar to the City of Flowersvile!" Kayzee gaped. "It must be a city where things might be in trouble! We need to go save the people here before they get hurt! Oh wait, there aren't any people here. My bad. Tee hee!"

"What? There's nobody around here! What about my toy car that I have at the office? Or even my Pokemon cards, like the one of uh…Gengar and Alakazam! And…" the Mayor gasped when he saw a building shaped like a pickle. It was almost like his dream came true.

"It...can't...be..."

"Uh oh, I think we're losing him," Parakarry noticed.

"Uh… Is that a building shaped like a pickle?" Bow gawked as the Mayor rushed toward the pickle. Mallow managed to stop him by stretching his arms and pulling him back.

"Mayor! You don't need to go over there! This pickle joke has been used several times, and it's just getting annoying!" Mallow cried. "Just leave it be for now! Think of the people listening to this!"

"Scanning place…" C-2 Choppor trailed as he began to scan around the area. "No lifeforms detected around here. This place is just abandoned, and it seems to have a lot of things here. Maybe we should take a look around this place for clues or for anything else."

"Right you are! I think there are some things around here. Choppor can't scan ghosts, but I can FIND them! Watch this!" Ghoster used his Ghost Vision discovered many ghosts flying around. "See? That's how you do it!"

"There are ghosts here? Oh… I was never expecting them around here. This is very odd…" Bow trailed. "But what do they even want anyway? There's nothing around here, and all they're doing is flying around like they're searching for… Chopper, you might wanna be careful. These ghosts could be looking for you."

"Oh, really? That's a bad thing! We need to find a safe place to hide, and FAST!" Chopper suggested as he checked the buildings around. "…Actually, we should just go into that pickle building. Ghosts don't expect people to be in a pickle. Actually, we'd be in a pickle anyway!"

"No more puns! Just get in the pickle building already!" Ghoster shouted, which made everyone run toward it. The ghosts ended up seeing them all and were chasing after them, but once they got in the pickle building, they stopped and looked confused out of their mind.

"Uh… Where did they go? Did they go inside of a pickle? That's weird…" a ghost trailed until it got smacked by another ghost. Thankfully, Chopper and his friends were safe.

* * *

**Inside-**

Inside of the pickle building the ground and the walls were green, and there was a fountain of a pickle with water coming from the hands. Everyone but the Mayor felt exhausted.

"Pickles… No, wait! I can't be drooling at fake pickles!" the Mayor gaped. "This pickle costume is really just armor! I'd rather see something else…like fried chicken! Yes, that stuff is delicious, isn't it?"

"Fried chicken? I never eat anything fried. It's really bad for you and it's fattening. You'll end up fat if you keep eating that. What have I been mostly eating? These." Chopper took out a banana that was ripe, which made the Mayor go after it - until Chopper ate the banana. "Mmmmm! Delicious! I LOVE these things!"

He threw the banana away and saw stairs going up to a door with a pickle on it, so he went up the stairs and to the door.

"Maybe we should just leave this place and take the right way…" Geno trailed as Chopper noticed a sign and shook his head.

"No, Geno. This IS the right way! That's right!" Chopper realized. "I guess this pickle building will lead us out of this city place and to the direction we need to move! We don't have to worry about a THING here. There's nothing threatening here to attack us, so we should be safe!"

"That's good. Now we need to think of a good plan to get us through here, so let's get started now." Blayzee declared. "We can't just run through this place where there could be bad guys. We need a strategy and…"

"Blayzee! Stop with that!" Tayzee snapped. "We tried your stupid plans and they end up not working! We just have to attack them instead of plan, because they could just attack us right away! You never know when they'll strike!"

A ghost appeared behind Kolorado, which got Dave's attention. "Hey, Kolorado! There's a ghost behind you!"

When Kolorado turned around, he didn't see the ghost. "I beg your pardon? I don't see a ghost anywhere..."

"i swear that it was there..." Dave trailed as the ghost appeared behind Tayzee, who happened to notice it.

"NOW we can fight something!" Tayzee grinned as she began to punch the ghost,which only laughed, since ghosts couldn't be hit by regular attacks. But the ghost got punched in the face by Ghoster and was thrown out.

"Get out of here, ghost! You're supposed to hate pickles, remember?" Ghoster yelled, pointing the wall of the room. He then eyed it carefully, using his Ghost Vision, and he found other ghosts in the room.

"All right, get outta here, ghosts!" Ghoster used his Psychic to throw them all out of the pickle building. They thought there wouldn't be anything around this place, but boy were they wrong.

"I think I should see what's up ahead," Chopper suggested. "My friends should come with me, while you guys go back to the airship and keep going. We'll take care of things around here. Don't worry about a THING, OK?"

"OK, my boy! If that's what you think is for the best, then we will." Kolorado agreed. "We will try to find that home of Staris's that you need to find, OK? If we find that place and Bowser's Castle, we will alert you! Take this communicator!"

Kolorado tossed Chopper a communicator, who put it away.

"Thanks for that! You better be quick before the ghosts get you too." Chopper suggested as they nodded and quickly made a run for it to the airship. Thankfully, none of the ghosts attacked them on their way. Now that they left, Chopper opened the pickle door, and everyone headed in. They found a hallway with a green rug like a pickle and also some white Fly Guys.

"Are these supposed to be similar to General Guy?" Bow wondered. "They do look like him..."

"Well, maybe it's best not to worry about him," Parakarry suggested.

Chopper was able to knock away the Fly Guy with the Star Rod's power, and it was finished off against Bow's smack. It allowed them to move further, which had a room with pickle juice and a pickle to cross to the other side of the room, where they would have to go up some stairs to a door.

"Wait a minute… Is that pickle right there?" Parakarry gawked. "A REAL pickle that was needed to be used to get over there? I wasn't expecting to see one of those here… That's very strange to see one now…"

"Don't worry about it. We can get through here no problem." Chopper assured as he jumped on the pickle, along with everyone else. They began to go over to the other side and got up the stairs to go through the door. They found another hallway that they needed to go through and could see some Goombas with pickle swords and pickle shields. They tried to attack them, but they were able to defeat the Pickle Goombas with no problem at all.

They found a cracked wall at the end of the room, so Chopper threw Bruce at the wall. After he exploded, they found a crack in the wall, but the thing was, it led to a hidden room that had a lot of purple. Maybe this must be where they needed to go to get out of the city and to somewhere else.

"Did we actually find a secret place? If so, then that's GREAT! We gotta see what's here!" Chopper suggested as they walked into the room with a spiral staircase going around the small room. With that, they began to head up, hoping to find something interesting.

* * *

**Bowser's Castle-**

At the entrance to Bowser's Castle, there was a red rug that led up to a throne. Bowser was sitting on that throne, looking a little bored. He had Peach hanging from the ceiling by a rope. There was a screen right in front of him that showed Chopper and his friends walking up a spiral stairway in a small room. All of his tough minions were in the castle as well, with the exception of Hauntost and Sir Flyknightis (only because he's not Bowser's minion).

"Gwa ha ha ha ha! Well look what we have here! It seems Chopper isn't with Mario right now!" Bowser cackled. "I don't know where that plumber went, but if he's gone missing, then that makes it better for me! He doesn't stand a chance against me! Plus, this castle is too far away for him to make it to! This time _I _will take out Chopper! Maquano will NOT be doing that, even if he's been trying to destroy him for many years!"

"Why would you want to do such a thing like that? Don't you have a soft side, Bowser?" Peach asked. "You never do this much to Mario! You realize how lonely he's been for many years? He lost his parents at the age of four and is the last survivor of his species. Chopper's just an eight year old child! Can't you go a little easy on the little boy?"

"When will you ever learn to shut your little mouth, Princess?" Kammy yapped. "We don't care about him being the last of his species nor do we care about him being an orphan! He's a threat to Bowser, and we must put him down! You should be thanking us because we'll be putting him out of his misery."

"Aw man! We wanted to take down Chopper!" Red frowned. "We've been working so hard to plan something out to beat him…but then Yellow HAD to ruin everything! You never listened to me! I wish you actually had a brain."

"Hey! Why are you blaming me?" Yellow whined.

"It's useless to blame Yellow now. That was before." C-1 TM stated. "Right now, that boy is still around, and after failing twice to take him and my brother down, I want my revenge once again. After two more upgrades, I am fully compatible to destroy those two once and for all! King Bowser, let me go to Chopper now and take him down!"

"Silence! All of you!" Bowser roared. "We'll get Chopper if he manages to take my road here! But that's too far from where Chopper is right now. If he SOMEHOW manages to make it here, then I might consider sending you guys out to stop him. Yes, that sounds like a good idea."

_"Oh King Booooooowser! I know where Chopper's going!" _Hauntost said through the screen, which everyone brought their attention to. _"Apparently they're going to be heading towards a giant asteroid called Astereo! It does have a lot of sound there, which is why it's a name from asteroid and stereo. Don't worry, I'll have them taken care of! Heh heh heh…"_

"You better! If you end up dead, then whatever. Either destroy Chopper or don't come back at all! I already lost Staris, and if you're gone, then I don't really care! But that's just me! Gwa ha ha ha!"

"So you're going to just leave him out there? Bowser, I don't understand why you want to be doing this." Peach sighed. "Even if he's a bad guy, he's still got feelings like you. You're acting like Maquano now! You just don't really care about any of your minions!"

"Oh, I do care about my minions. I certainly do care about you too. I was just trying to keep you away from Mario. I'm pretty sure he's getting tired of rescuing you, and also having to go into a castle to find a Toad that tells him 'Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!' He must be tired of all that, and that must be why he's not with Chopper! So, you still want to stay with me? We could even get married!"

"Wait, a human and some turtle dragon thing getting married?" C-1 TM gawked. "I...have no comment. Actually, I do. It's a stupid idea."

Bowser glared at C-1 TM and also snarled at him. This made the robot back off. "Ahhhh... Now that's much better. I'm glad you're well-disciplined, robot."

* * *

**Same room-**

"We've been going up these for a long time! When will this all be over for us?" Mallow wondered as Chopper found himself at the top of the tower room, where there was a Save Block and a Heart Block. He hit both of them and opened the door, which led them outside to light purple ground. They've gone higher up in Star Haven now, because they could actually see some other planets. Chopper smiled when he saw some shooting stars, which reminded him of Shooting Star Summit.

"We're back in Shooting Star Summit?" Bruce gaped. "Oh man… Don't tell me we have to go all the way back to Star Haven and start this whole thing over again… It'll take us HOURS to do that stuff! Come on, can't we have something else?"

"We have to start from the beginning again? Ugh… I was hoping we didn't have to go through this all over again." Bow groaned. "Going through Star Road AND cyberspace was a pain to begin with!"

Chopper took a look around him. There wasn't anything else around him, but he noticed some green Phantom Embers in the area. They weren't around Shooting Star Summit, so something might not be right.

"Weird…" Chopper used his Speed Dash to move faster through the area. He didn't see the steps going up to where they needed to go to reach Star Way. All they found was a pathway to the next area. The stars were bright and looked gorgeous. They could see Shy Ghosts in the next area, which were Shy Guys that became ghosts. They fought them and Chopper leveled up and chose HP to have 85 HP. After jumping up some steps up ahead that would lead to a gap for Parakarry to carry Chopper over, they found a sign at the end of the area.

"What's this? It says that we're on Star Path!" Yosho noticed. "So we didn't come back to Shootin' Star Summit! This is pretty interestin'! To think we had to go start this whole quest over again! I'm so glad it's not that now!"

"Hmmm… I suppose it is Star Path." C-2 Choppor confirmed. "The stars are brighter than usual and the sky's a little more to a black than to a blue. Yes, we're getting near…and that means if we're getting near, it's going to be a little darker, so watch out for that."

"It's a good thing we went into that pickle building," Geno smiled. "If we didn't do that, we wouldn't be here. We're definitely going the right way. I've been here before, and I know my way around here."

Chopper saw a small bridge made of stardust cross over a gap ahead. He walked onto the bridge and looked down to see all the stars. They really couldn't see the Mushroom Kingdom except for the clouds.

"Well, it's official. We're REALLY high up." Chopper stated. "Higher than where we fought Valentina over Nimbus Castle, which was high up on its own. Yeah, we're pretty high up...which makes me wonder if Mario will ever have to go through a galaxy or something. That would be interesting…"

A Ghost Guy tried to attack Chopper, but Ghoster punched it before it could get a hold of him. With that, they moved on toward the next area, where they found steps going up to a pathway...until a voice interrupted them.

"OooooOOooo… I have come for you, Chopper! Your soul will be MINE!" Hauntost appeared in front of them, which got them in their fighting stances.

"Who are you? Are you one of Bowser's minions?" Geno asked. "If so, then you better be ready for a fight..."

"A doll? Hey! Maybe I could use you as one of my puppets! Did you know that we've been watching you this whole time while you were getting those Power Stars? I bet you weren't expecting that!"

"All right, shut up, Hauntost, or else you're toast," Ghoster warned. "Warm buttery ghost toast, that is! Mmmm… But enough about that! Chopper, we're taking this ghost down once and for all!"

"You better have the stuff to take me on! Ghosts can't be hit by regular attacks!" Hauntost grinned as Chopper clenched the Star Rod.

**Tattle: **_I already told you about him before, so there's no point in telling you now. But, he's got new stats. Max HP: 200, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 2. Only Ghoster and Bow can really attack…but I think the Star Rod does have an effect on him…or maybe light energy does. I'm sure entirely sure on that._

Chopper shot a star at Hauntost, which it made him scream. When Hauntost looked at himself, he seemed more life-like than ghost-like. No longer was he transparent.

"What just happened? My voice! It doesn't sound so haunted! What did you DO to me! ?" Hauntost exclaimed as C-2 Choppor tested out his missiles, which struck him.

"Missiles confirm that Hauntost is vulnerable to all attacks," C-2 Choppor confirmed.

"No… NO… NOOOO! How could this…BE! My ghostly powers…GONE! That's it!" Hauntost growled as he fired some ghost energy from his hand at Chopper, who was able to guard it.

"Now we got him good! Maybe this won't be so bad…" Chopper smirked as he ran toward Hauntost and used his Star Smash on him, knocking him back.

"Take this, you mean ghost!" Kayzee shouted as she used her Heat Vision to make Hauntost burst into flames and making him scream. However, he disappeared and appeared in front of Chopper.

"You may have me vulnerable, but that doesn't mean you can kill me!" Hauntost scoffed. "Ghosts can NEVER die! I just disappeared when you beat me before! It's impossible to kill a ghost because they're already dead! But you wanna see something? Well OK!"

Hauntost licked Chopper, which had a chance of paralyzing him, which, surprisingly, it didn't.

"Eeeeugh... I got licked by a ghost..." Chopper gagged as he whacked Hauntost with the Star Rod. While he was knocked back, Geno attacked with his Geno Beam, sending him flying back even more. Hauntost quickly shook his head and grinned as a rope appeared right in front of him.

"Heh heh heh…" he pulled on the rope and an anvil came down on Chopper, squishing him. Kayzee pulled a bicycle pump out of nowhere and used it to help unflatten Chopper.

"Wait, where'd you get that anyway?" Chopper wondered.

"Uhhhhh... I don't know." Kayzee sweat dropped.

Chopper shrugged as he threw a light at Hauntost, which caused him to scream again. The light was just so much for him, due to being a ghost. This let Ghoster punch him too. Hauntost revealed his fangs as he went towards Chopper and possessed him, which made him look a purple color, which glowing purple eyes, and an evil grin on him. He held the Star Rod up.

"What happened to you? Are you even there?" Koopla asked.

Chopper began to hit himself with the Star Rod, which left everyone to gawk.

"Help Chopper!" Parakarry cried.

They were about to grab him, but Hauntost stopped possessing Chopper, which made everyone grab the real  
Chopper instead.

"Hey! Stop it, guys! I'm the REAL Chopper!" Chopper cried.

"No, I am!" they saw another Chopper, which left the first Chopper looked confused. They both looked exactly the same.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper attacked Chopper with the Star Rod, hitting him in the head and leaving him dizzy. This left not only the readers confused, but the characters as well.

Bow looked at Chopper with the Star Rod and Chopper without the Star Rod.

"Bow! I'm the real Chopper!" the Chopper with no Star Rod cried. "Don't let this faker fool you!"

"Bow? Don't you remember at the Crystal Palace?" the Chopper with the Star Rod asked. "I had to choose between people, and now there's someone here! Hauntost can change shape!"

"Oh, I think I know who it is," Bow assured as she used a Power Smack on the Chopper without the Star Rod, reverting him back to Hauntost.

"Ow! How did you figure out my disguise?!" Hauntost cringed.

"It's obvious that the real Chopper has the Star Rod."

"Oh, who cares? I can just do this!" Hauntost used his eyes to make a ray fire toward Chopper. Luckily, he guarded the attack, because Hauntost was probably going to devour his dreams after he fell asleep.

Chopper used his Jump Charge to boost his Jump up by 4, and then Ghoster threw a Ghost Ball at Hauntost to lower his defense. Hauntost had some black and red rays of dark energy from his eyes shoot at Chopper, which hit him directly and knocked him back.

"OK, time for a big jump!" Chopper was about to jump on Hauntost, but Geno used his Geno Boost on Chopper.

"You might need it to jump on him," Geno informed. Chopper nodded and used his Power Bounce on Hauntost, stomping on him six times. Hauntost only had about 47 HP left, so everyone felt fine fighting against him at this point.

Hauntost threw a Ghost Ball toward Chopper, but he was able to guard the attack. Chopper then shot a star at Hauntost and then Yosho used his Ground Pound on him afterward. However, when Hauntost fired the same ray as before, it ended up putting Chopper to sleep.

"Finally! Now I can recover some of my health with him asleep! Marvelous!" Hauntost cackled.

"Not for long," C-2 Choppor aimed at Hauntost, which made him stop cackling and fired a blast at him, knocking him back, but it didn't matter to him now.

Hauntost began to use his powers to make a cloud from Chopper go toward him. It went into his mouth and made him recover 13 HP from it. However, this awoke Chopper because his dream was gone and made him mad.

"Hey! I was having a nice dream while I was asleep! All right, take this!" Chopper growled as he used a Star Smash on him, and then Ghoster punched him with his fist. Hauntost quickly shook his head and tried to shoot another dark ray at Chopper, but he guarded it with ease.

"Sorry, Hauntost, but I'm not letting you do THAT again!" Chopper frowned as Hauntost's defense went back to normal. But, it didn't stop Chopper from using his D-Down Star to strike him. Mallow attacked with a Falling Cloud after that.

Hauntost was panting, but he knew he had to use Hypnosis again, so he tried again, but he wasn't able to get him like last time.

"Ha! Nice try, Hauntost!" Chopper scoffed as he fired a star at Hauntost, which left him weakened. Chopper looked at Ghoster.

"You want to be the best prankster, right? Well… You can do the honors of taking him down, then!"

"Oh, awesome! Hauntost! I'm going to finish you off! That's right! ME!" Ghoster declared as he used his Psychic and began to lift Chopper up.

"NOT ME, GHOSTER!"

"Oh... Whoops!" Ghoster threw the Star Rod at Hauntost, with the Star Rod striking Hauntost's heart with the Star Rod. This eventually led Hauntost to scream in horror.

"Gah… What's…going on! Oh no… Not now!" Hauntost screamed. "I can't believe this whole time…light energy and star energy can destroy me! You… Ghoster! Why would you do this to me?! To your own BROTHER?!"

"_**WHAAAAT?**_ You're…my _**BROTHER!****?**_" Ghoster gaped. "No wonder why you never returned. You became this…"

"Oh my… This was…unexpected." Bow gasped.

"Yes, I'm Ghoster's brother! I was jealous of you because our dad always liked you more than me! The reason you don't recognize me is because I don't look like this!" Hauntost used his power to turn himself to a blue color with purple eyes. "THIS is what I look like! I was just trying to hide myself so I wouldn't be recognized by you. This whole time, you never knew who I was! I was lucky enough to find Bowser, who gladly hired me to guard the second Power Star! When I saw you come into the tower, I was hoping for my chance to rid of you! …But I didn't."

Ghoster looked a little sad, but he still gave his brother a glare. "Well, even if you're my brother, it serves you right for what you've done! I think it's for your own good that you disappear. But if you see our parents… Tell them…I said hi."

"V-Very well..." Hauntost mumbled as the light took over his body and blew him up. Hauntost was no more.

"Are you OK, Ghoster?" Mallow asked as he noticed Ghoster wiping a tear from his face.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Ghoster assured. "I'm just a little sad to see my brother go, but I feel better now. He got what he deserved, and I'm happy about that. He always hated me as a child... But let's not worry about that. Let's move on."

They walked to the next area to find a lot of star water around them and also a pathway to a big blue castle. It looked pretty big, and from the looks of it, it looked like it could probably take a while.

"That's a big castle, but I think we just need to go through this castle to make it higher up," Chopper deduced. "I think I DO see something up at the top of the castle anyway. C'mon! Let's go!"

Chopper and his friends walked up the steps to the light blue door to Star Castle, a place once inhabited by royal Stars. While they did this, Ghoster looked up at the stars and could see some of them shaped as his parents.

As he blinked, he saw stars shaped like Hauntost as well

* * *

**Yeah, that was unexpected. Ghoster and Hauntost are really brothers, but Ghoster ended up taking him out. I guess they both just don't like each other... But, that's something you tend to see a lot between siblings.  
**

**Anyway, the next chapter should be a little interesting... :P**


	99. What Makes Star Castle Odd

**This is probably the weirdest chapter you'll see in this story by far. Don't believe me? Well see for yourself!  
**

* * *

When they walked in the castle, they noticed the interior was white with a little bit of blue. It looked very nice, and there was nothing around except a door up ahead and two pathways to go from the left and right of that door. The castle was empty and had no Stars around. For some reason, they believed that this place was abandoned.

"All right, so now we have the Frenzyweed Boy and Hauntost down. So we have two down, and I don't know how many more to go." Chopper deduced. "I don't know how many of Bowser's minions there are anyway! However, I find it pretty shocking that the Frenzyweed Boys and Hauntost could be destroyed by some kind of light."

"Yeah, I know. Hauntost got what was coming to him anyway. Don't feel bad for me, because I think that was best to do." Ghoster replied. "After what he tried to do to Ghost Town, I'm not going to forgive him. Even if he's my brother, it's not going to happen. Sorry, but he deserved to be destroyed by me."

"Your brother reminds me of my own, Ghoster," C-2 Choppor remarked. "I wanted to take him down because it was my mission to free my friends. In fact, I only joined Chopper because I needed his help to free them, but I felt like I needed to get revenge on Bowser for what he's done to them. However, I still swore that I would free my brother…of his spirit. Neither of us have stars, so we were practically made to destroy. However, I did sense something in him..."

"So when you were trying to blast at things, you really didn't want to?" Bow asked.

"Affirmative."

"I saw you hurting those Frenzyweed Boys with your gun and also your brother on Chopper's planet," Kayzee recalled. "I guess you were doing that because you didn't have much of a choice. Sometimes I feel sorry for you."

"You don't need to be sorry. If I wasn't here, you wouldn't be able to get through all of these dangerous places without my light visors or those switches. I actually had a feeling I needed to stay on Chopper's side. Even when I first saw him in Koopa Bros. Park, I had some strange connection between him and I. I think it was destiny that we'd work together to save the Mushroom Kingdom."

"Wow, I never knew that," Koopla gawked. "After hitting you with my shell, you could've have gotten dents. Nah, I'm just kidding. But really… I didn't know about that."

"That reminds me when I saved your butt from Choppor, Chopper. Remember that time?" Bruce recalled.

"Yeah, I certainly do," Chopper nodded.

Parakarry was checking through his mailbag for anything important. He wanted to make sure he didn't forget any letters, since he had the time to check. He noticed two letters in his mailbag.

"Oh dear… I forgot to mail two letters! Let me see who they're to... One is for Mario, and the other is to…someone from a town called Rogueport?" Parakarry nearly guffawed at the address." I'm sorry, but I think my boss gave me the wrong letter. I don't go to that place to mail letters. It takes a while to get there. But the one to Mario I CAN deliver. I just need to know where he is."

"Rogueport? Sounds like a town for rogues..." Koopla trailed.

"Probably because it is," Geno replied.

"Well, let's not worry about this "Rogueport" place for right now," Chopper suggested. "We need to get going. I kind of hope we find Mario around here..."

"It almost feels like Bowser kidnapped Mario," Mallow remarked. "Maybe he came down and grabbed Mario! Yeah! Chopper! I think Bowser was able to grab Mario while we were fighting The Master!"

"Now that you mention it, I think that might be the answer," Bow agreed. "Bowser would be the only person who would come and kidnap Mario. He doesn't usually do that, but he could possibly be trying to lure us into a trap. I think we better be careful, Chopper."

"Yes, I agree with her. Though we don't have the proof, we're pretty much thinking that Bowser has to do with this." Geno nodded. "But I can't be completely sure on this. He would've told us that he kidnapped Mario."

"Let's see what we got around here anyway. We'll check the two doors to the left and right first." Chopper declared as he walked over to the north, which was to the left in his view. Opening the door, they found a Toad in the castle and also a bed.

"Huh? What's a Toad doing in an abandoned castle? In fact, how did you get into this place?" Chopper wondered.

"Shhhhh! Don't let anyone know about this!" the Toad whispered. "Chopper, I'm that Toad that let you rest in those really uncomfortable beds in Bowser's Castle. We ended up staying in our cells for some reason, but we were rescued and brought here. But… It's not exactly safe."

"What do you mean? Are Bowser's minions here too?" Chopper gawked before Toad nodded. ""Well that's bad. I wish there was something we could do to stop them. Wait a minute… I can just fight them! I've beaten them before, and I can probably do it again! Yup!"

"Good! But, before you go, don't you want some rest? The Toad House slogan is… "Refresh your Body and Soul!" You could probably use some rest from fighting, right?"

"Oh, what the heck."

"Please, get some sleep," the Toad stepped out of the way as Chopper jumped onto the bed and began to fall asleep. After about twenty minutes, he woke up, completely revitalized and better and jumped off the bed and stretched, while everyone else woke up.

"Did you sleep well? Then take care—and stay safe from harm! To get through this castle, you need to go through a dungeon…of bathrooms!"

"OK, thanks," Chopper said as he left the room and went down south to the other room. C-2 Choppor noticed a hidden ? block above them, so Chopper used his Rocket Jump to reach it and get an Ultimate Shroom and took it with him left the room to go into the main door. There, they found another hallway with some Elite Koopatrols and Hammer Bros. They noticed Chopper's arrival and they got ready to fight. That is, until Ghoster used his psychic to push them against the wall.

"No, you won't be doing any of that, I'm afraid. You don't really stand a chance against us anyways! We took down Hauntost…and we can take you down if you want us to!" Ghoster shouted. "Blast them, Choppor!"

C-2 Choppor aimed at them, but then he brought his gun down. "I'm sorry, Ghoster. I'm not a killing machine, you know. They're not trying to kill us as of right now. In fact, they look like they're in some pain right now."

"Let us go! We just wanted to go to the bathroom! I've wanted to go take a crap for HOURS! I almost have to crap my pants! It's just so bad, with all the mushy brow-"

"Dude! You're just making it worse!" an Elite Hammer Bro. snapped as it smacked its companion. "Plus that's sickening! This isn't where you gross people out you know!"

Of course, hearing that made Bow and Kayzee want to puke.

Ghoster let go of the Koopatrols and Elite Hammer Bros. and tried to bust through the cracked wall which led to a bathroom place. Chopper picked up Bruce and threw him to the wall to blow it up. The enemies quickly ran into the next room, which had light purple and black purple checkered floors and doors that were blue and pink.

The Elite Hammer Bros. looked baffled when they only saw four blue doors.

"You gotta be kidding me! That's only four rooms to go into! That's just not…" one of the Elite Hammer Bros. saw the others walk into a bathroom. "…cool. Ummmm..."

He decided to give a pink door a knock. Since he got no response, he sneaked in without anyone noticing.

"So he walks into a girl's bathroom? There are three girls here, and they can see him going in!" Bow stated. "That's just not right at all."

"Ya know, this place is empty, so it's no big deal," Yosho informed. "Plus, ya don't have to go to the bathroom. Yer only a ghost. A ghost goin' to the bathroom just doesn't make sense at all."

Chopper walked over to one of the girl's bathroom doors. He knocked on it and no one answered. It wasn't locked, so he opened it. Bow tried to pull him away from that door since it was a girl's bathroom, but Chopper saw something through there.

"Don't walk in there!" cried Bow. "You should be going into the blue doors!"

"But I saw another pathway through that door! I'm not kidding!" Chopper explained as he walked back to the door and opened it. It showed another bathroom area that looked exactly the same, but the doors were in a different order this time. Chopper walked into a blue door to find an Elite Koopatrol using it. It tried to attack Chopper, but was ended up being defeated. Chopper looked down at the toilet, which looked like someone was using it.

"Uuugh… That's not nice to see." Chopper gagged as he flushed the toilet. It was starting to smell anyway...

When Chopper opened the door, Yosho pushed him out of the way. "Finally, yer done! I need to take a leak, an' FAST!"

The Yoshi rushed into the door, while Chopper could hear water running inside, which made him step back.

"Man, what's with all this toilet stuff? In fact, why is there toilet humor in this place?" Chopper wondered. "Well, we never seen any toilet stuff at all, so I guess it's just…here…in…Star Haven…"

They could hear flushing and some water, indicating that Yosho was washing his hands. After he came out, he grinned.

"Ahhh! now I feel better!"

"Did you wash your hands?" Geno asked.

"'Course I did! What? You think I don't wash my hands?"

"You better have..." Bow trailed.

Chopper found the right door and headed through to find another familiar room. Chopper walked into one of the blue doors to find a big toilet.

"Maybe Bubba Blubba would fit on this toilet," Bow wondered.

They left the bathroom area to move on to the next one through a pink door to find more doors. There wasn't much around, but there was only one pink door.

"There's only one girl's bathroom here?" Kayzee gaped. "That's not a nice thing for them to do!"

"Never mind that," Bow suggested. "The sooner we're out of this dump, the sooner we can be happy, Chopper!"

They moved into the pink door to find a blue door with a gold frame. Chopper looked confused, but he opened it to find a pathway going up to a staircase to a door ahead. There was water surrounding the pathway, and not only that, but there were statues of stars taking a leak.

"What…the heck? This is weird." Geno commented.

They noticed a golden toilet by the door. It seemed like the door was locked, so Chopper sat on the golden toilet, which made a key pop out. When he noticed this, he grabbed it.

"This looks pretty golden to me!" Chopper smiled.

"I hope that wasn't a pun..." Koopla trailed.

"It wasn't. Anyway, I'm unlocking the door right away." Chopper unlocked the door with the key, which broke the lock off the door. Everyone then quickly ran through the door to see what they would find up ahead.

Everyone found themselves in a purple room, where they found no bathrooms and a Save Block, which Chopper hit first before doing anything else. The room seemed to have stars glittering in the room, which looked beautiful. Chopper noticed on the ground some red and black. It looked like a symbol of Bowser that he usually had on his castle or something like that.

"Oh, no! Guys, Bowser beat us to this castle first!" Chopper gaped. "At this rate, Bowser could end up taking over Star Haven too! Maybe this must've been his plan. He wants to take over Star Haven to get as much power as he needs. Perhaps even more power than the Star Rod…"

"More power than the Star Rod? Then that's a problem. At least we're out of that bathroom. It was pretty disgusting in there with the toilets." Bow recalled before looking at Chopper and blushing. "But at least we still have each other, don't we?"

"Wait, what about the whole 'cleaning my hands' thing?"

"Eh, who cares?" Bow shrugged as she hugged Chopper. "I don't think it can tear away our relationship anyway."

"Yeesh... How long has she been over Chopper anyway?" Mallow asked.

"Ever since we first met her," Koopla sighed.

"Oh... Don't you feel a little bad for him?"

"Somewhat, considering that he doesn't want this. Then again, I guess he deserves it for bein' annoying at times and makin' horrible puns."

C-2 Choppor looked down at the Bowser symbol and began to remember when Bowser got rid of the three C Units that he saved.

"C-3 Cosmo… C-4 Crater… C-5 Nebula…" C-2 Choppor aimed his gun at the Bowser symbol and shot it, making a huge hole appear. At this point, he could feel some anger in him, but it made him stop for a moment. "I don't understand... Is this the 'emotion' real people have? I thought robots didn't have emotion nor a heart..."

"Well just because you're a robot doesn't mean you can't have emotions. You have a heart." Ghoster stated. "No, I'm not talking about the name of the organ. I'm talking about kindness and emotions. You have a heart because you've been helping people. You saved your friends, and also you want to get your revenge on Bowser. Dude, that's what a heart is. Feeling."

"That…actually makes sense. I think I have to agree with you, Ghoster." Parakarry nodded. "You're getting emotions within you right now, and you know how to control it. I don't know what you've been doing before, but when you were on Bowser's side, you probably didn't have it in you because Bowser's a cold-hearted Koopa who wants nothing but to rule the Mushroom Kingdom and kidnap Princess Peach."

"Yes, that is true," Koopla nodded. "But enough about that. Shouldn't we get moving right now? We can't just sit here and chat all day you know."

Everyone agreed and headed through the door. There wasn't much around, unfortunately, but there were some Koopatrols lurking in the room. There was also a spiral staircase leading up to the upper floor and a door up ahead.

When they went upstairs, they found a bunch of books. It was surprising for some reason. Chopper even took a look at the books, which were very old and had dust on them. When Chopper blew the dust off, it flew out of the castle. It looked a lot familiar to the stardust from the Crystal King…

"Hey, did you see that dust that just flew away? It looked like stardust!" Mallow gaped. "I don't know what stardust is doing here anyway! Do you, Chopper?"

"No idea," Chopper shrugged as he saw a ladder that led up to somewhere else with a locked door on the ceiling.

"Let's go down the stairs and to the door we previously saw," Geno suggested.

Everyone agreed and headed down to the lower door and found a hallway. There were Elite Hammer Bros. and also C-D Robos that were trying to attack, but were beaten down by Chopper and his friends.

"These guys aren't a match fer us!" Yosho grinned. "Especially this cool Yoshi who's got himself a sweet an' cute girlfriend!"

"Yosho, just because you've got a girlfriend doesn't mean you have to brag about it," Parakarry sighed.

Chopper saw a Rainbow Block blocking a pathway up ahead, so he smashed it with his hammer, allowing them to go to a small area with a steel floor. When Chopper took a look at the floor, he began to ponder until he had a solution.

"Be careful, guys! I'm about to make a move here!" Chopper warned as he used his Rocket Jump to go down. He landed on a spring that let him bounce down to a chest. He opened it and found a Castle Key inside and grabbed it. "OK, guys! I'm coming back up!"

He jumped onto the spring and went to everyone else and held up the key. They weren't awestruck, but they knew they could unlock the door.

"Hold on a minute, what's this over here?" Bow noticed as she floated over to a switch on the ground. Chopper walked over to it and he used the Star Rod to hit it. This caused the whole place to shake.

"Wh-What's g-going o-o-on!" Mallow gasped until the shaking stopped. "Whoa... I have no idea where that came from!"

"We should go check out what happened in the other room," Geno advised.

Everything was silent right now as they walked through the hallway to return to the room they were previously in. Climbing up the stairs, they found the door on the ceiling was on the wall instead.

"I guess that when I hit the switch, it made this place turn around…or rather…I don't really know," Chopper shrugged. "I wish I knew a little more, but I guess not. This might not be the only thing weird so far. Let's go check through the door."

He opened the door and walked through a hallway with everyone that was like a corkscrew, leaving everyone confused as they walked through it.

"Such a strange room..." Kayzee trailed.

"It's just like those weird, confusing rooms!" Bruce blurted.

The next room had some platforms circling up to a door, so they all carefully began to jump on them, using Parakarry at times to cross over to platforms Chopper couldn't reach himself. However with the Diamond Shoes, it wasn't a real problem. After making it up to the top of the room, Chopper opened the door to go back outside. They saw a bridge leading up to another castle tower, which could lead to the top. They also happened to see a rainbow.

"I don't get why there's a rainbow there. It's REALLY strange…" Bruce trailed.

"Well, we've seen a lot of weird things," Mallow noted. "What could be worse?"

Everyone else shrugged and began to cross the bridge, but they saw some Elite Koopatrols land down to attack, but were soon sent away by Ghoster's Psychic.

"Now THAT I can do on them!" Ghoster grinned.

The Elite Koopatrols were sent flying down to the castle and into one of the bathrooms, where they could hear an Elite Hammer Bros. screaming.

"Whoa! I didn't mean to interrupt you!"

"Get outta here!"

"I...probably don't wanna know what was going on." Yosho commented as they headed into the tower to find a spiral staircase that led to the top, where there was a ladder for them to take. After going up the stairs and climbing the ladder, Chopper saw the rainbow leading to a large asteroid.

"Wow, that's the biggest asteroid I've ever seen!" Chopper gaped. "I think we need to go head over there. So there's no time to lose! We need to go IMMEDIATELY!"

"Of course," Bow nodded as she and the rest of Chopper's friends followed him across the rainbow.

"You think this is where the trail ends?" Bruce asked.

"Probably not..." Geno answered.

* * *

**Yeah... This was definitely a reference to Mother 3, a game that's already weird as it is.  
**


	100. Kojo Pete and Popple: Their Last Stand

"This rainbow is shorter than I thought..." Koopla trailed as she noticed they were getting closer to the asteroid. "At first I thought this would take a while... Guess I was wrong."

"Wait for me! I don't want to be left behind!" Bruce cried, who was having a hard time catching up. Mallow immediately got Bruce on a cloud with him and began to catch up with the others.

While they traveled, everyone took a look at their surroundings and saw how beautiful it looked. The stars were shining, like they were playing a song. The twinkles were playing a great song that everyone couldn't help but smile at.

"Oh my… Can you hear that, Chopper? Those stars are playing a song. Isn't it beautiful?" Bow asked as Chopper took a moment to look up at the stars.

"Wow… Those stars just really like to brighten things up. Everything looks GREAT around here! The rainbow, the stars, and even that giant asteroid we're close to." Chopper smiled. "You're right, Bow. This is really nice. I'm really sorry so many bad things happened to you, like in Poison Forest, Metal Chopper kidnaping you and fighting King Lakilar in Flower Palace."

"The part with Lakilar was my own fault. I thank you for helping me with so much. Traveling with you makes me remind me of the times when I was alive. But it doesn't matter now. The goodbyes will wait until everything's all over."

"Yes, that's true. We need to get a move on now. Onto the asteroid!" C-2 Choppor declared as they all ran on the rainbow to get to the asteroid. They even saw a yellow gate that opened up for them to land on the asteroid. The brown asteroid appeared to be mostly barren.

"Umm… I'm not seeing anything around here." Parakarry frowned. "Chopper, do you think everything's over on the other side of this place? It might be a possibility…"

Chopper began to ponder for a moment before nodding to Parakarry.

"Aw, man! It's barren? No wonder we weren't seein' anythin' around here." Yosho said in disappointment. "But if yer right, then yer right. I think I'm retirin' bein' a ladies man now that I got Yoshina with me."

"But you only got to talk with her for about ten minutes. You're not with her yet you know." Mallow pointed out.

"Err... No comment."

"I can't believe we've come this far!" Kayzee giggled. "I thought there would be so much around here but we're actually seeing nothing! It makes me wonder if Kojo Pete is around here... If so, then maybe he's the reason why it's barren here."

"If he's here, then maybe I'll give him a good prank or two!" Ghoster smirked. "I never get tired of doing it, and I think a Koopa victim would be great! …No offense to you, Koopla and Parakarry."

"None taken," the two replied.

"Hmmm… It seems fine here." Geno noted, seeing nothing around as he looked carefully. "But I just have some feeling that there's a lot of danger here. I don't know. It might be in my head. I hope it is, because if it's not, then we got some problems ahead of us."

"Let me check for anything," Chopper suggested as he began to look carefully around the asteroid until he shook his head. "Nope, I'm not seeing anything around here. I guess it's safe."

"If it's safe here, then we can take a look around here. There's no harm in doing that." Bow shrugged.

Everyone nodded and began to walk around the asteroid. There wasn't anything special, unfortunately. No enemies, no platforms, and no hidden things. It felt a little silent. But what was around were cracked rocks, which could be blown up by using Bruce. When Chopper threw Bruce at one of the rocks, he blew it up, but he didn't find anything inside of that rock.

"Nope, there's nothing in this rock. How about that one over there?" Bruce suggested as he walked over to the one ahead. Chopper ran up to him and threw him to the rock, making him blow up in front of it. But something DID appear from the rock.

"Uh oh… Not those enemies. I HATE those kinds of enemies! This is really really REALLY bad." Parakarry gulped. Chopper didn't seem worried, but when he saw the enemy, he looked worried. The enemy was a brown Cleft which could blend into their surroundings very well in a place like this. Thankfully, they're not intelligent. There were two of them that tried to attack. Their defense was 6, so that could be a little bad, but luckily Chopper's Star Rod could affect them.

After hitting the Space Cleft, C-2 Choppor fired a blast at it. They had to attack it a couple of more times because they had about 34 HP. The two Clefts were finished off by Chopper's Star Rod, and they dropped some coins, two hearts, and a flower for Chopper to take to recover some of his HP and FP. It wasn't that much, but it's better than nothing.

Chopper noticed he wasn't going as fast on the asteroid because of the gravity. Thankfully, they could jump higher, so that helped them a bit. After about five minutes of traveling on the asteroid, everyone began to feel exhausted. They've been going for a long time, and they haven't found a thing except for rocks for a while.

"Huff huff… We've been going for a long time. Look, Chopper… Maybe it's best if we turned back." Koopla sighed. "There's nothing around here, and we haven't found a thing either. No enemies, no people, no nothing. All we can do now is turn back."

"For once… I agree with Koopla." Bruce groaned. "There's nothing here. This is a big asteroid, but there's still nothing. I'm sorry, but there's no way we're getting to Staris's home or to Bowser's Castle. I think it's over."

"I suppose there's no other choice. We should just go back now." C-2 Choppor suggested as he turned around and began to slowly walk back. Everyone else did except for Bow and Chopper.

"Wait! Don't go!" Chopper cried until he noticed Bow with him. "Hmm? You didn't go with them. How come?"

"Well… It's because I really do care about you." Bow explained. "Plus, you wouldn't want me to go off alone, right? Especially someone cute like me... But anyway, that's not the point. I think we COULD find something around here. Have you tried using the Star Rod?"

"Well… No…" Chopper trailed as Bow took the rod from him and held it up. "Hey! What was that for? !"

Suddenly, the ground was glowing and a yellow star was on the ground. Everyone else turned around and noticed a shrine rise up with an electric gate in the way,

"This is…unbelievable! This is actually the Star Shrine that's been hidden for five hundred years!" Geno gaped. "Could it be possible? This place TRULY is real! I don't believe my own eyes!

"Oh, man… Our friends can't go in." Chopper frowned, noticing that they were outside the gate. However, Bow grabbed his hand, making his eyes widen.

"Don't worry about them. They'll be fine. At least you still have me. Come. Let's just go into this shrine to see what we can find." Bow dragged him up the stairs like he was a plushie.

"So they're goin' into that shrine, huh?" Yosho wondered. "I bet they're gonna be makin' out."

As he chuckled, Ghoster smacked him.

"Quiet! Maybe we can listen to what's going on. In fact, I can just go in!" Ghoster tried to get past the gate, but he got electrocuted instead.

"Looks like somebody isn't immune to electricity. That was a stupid move, Ghoster." C-2 Choppor stated as Ghoster shook a fist at him. "Ghosts can't get past a Star Gate so easily."

"Guys! Stop fighting! We're not going to solve anything if we fight!" Mallow cried.

"He's right. All we can do right now is wait." Parakarry said. Kayzee used her power to look through the shrine to see what's in there. Geno noticed this and shook his head.

"Awww… I wanted to see what was going on in there!" Kayzee whined.

"Sorry, but I think it's best that we don't peep," Geno suggested.

"Well, I guess we'll just wait here..." Yosho trailed.

* * *

**Inside the shrine-**

When the two were inside, they found nothing but stain glassed windows with stars on them. The inside was a light blue color. Bow took the time to gaze at the place as she let go of Chopper.

"Umm… Can I have the Star Rod back now?" Chopper asked as he tapped on Bow's arm.

"Oh yes, here you go," Bow gave Chopper the Star Rod and held onto it for right now. Eldstar appeared in front of them, making Chopper yelp a tiny bit.

"Welcome, Chopper! I'm surprised you discovered this place on the asteroid!" Eldstar welcomed. "It's so nice of you to make it here! We can open the way above the asteroid right now. Don't worry, there are PLENTY of things to do around there. I think there might be people you know there too."

"What do you mean by that?" Chopper asked.

"Well, we'll show you!" the other six Star Spirits appeared and disappeared after three seconds. Chopper noticed the picture he saw before, but this time, a light beam was coming out.

"Oh! Looks like we'll be fine! We can head up someplace else now on the asteroid! It was a good idea to not turn back!" Bow smiled as she kissed Chopper on the cheek.

"Umm… I just didn't want to turn back because I didn't want this to be all for nothing..." Chopper trailed. "But that was gross!"

"Well, whatever. I was fine with doing that anyway." Bow shrugged as the rest of Chopper's friends appeared. Chances are the Star Spirits used their power to get them here.

"Hmm? We're in the shrine? Amazing!" Geno gaped. "I don't know how you pulled it off, Chopper, but that was impressive bringing up he—and why do you have a kiss mark on your face?"

"Oh..." Bow trailed as she wiped it off Chopper's face. "See? It's gone!"

"It doesn't matter now. That ray of light should take us to somewhere nice." C-2 Choppor stated. "I highly recommend that we take it up right now."

Everyone agreed and walked into the beam of light to take them to another place on the asteroid.

* * *

**Above the asteroid-**

Chopper and his friends found themselves a little higher up on the asteroid on some platforms made of stardust. They noticed a pathway ahead and a couple of Phantom Embers and evil Stars called Anti Stars, which resemble weak Stars, but they are evil instead.

"So we're above the asteroid? It looks like we're right above the shrine." Bow noticed. "That must explain why we can see some of the shrine below us anyway. This place looks marvelous, doesn't it, Chopper? The stardust, and also the stars here are so pretty."

"Yeah, I guess so."

"So… Chopper, you never told us what happened that started all of this." Geno recalled. "You faced Bowser before you met everyone, right? I don't think you told us the story about what happened. I'd be really interested to hear it."

"Oh, it all happened because I wanted to take a vacation," Chopper explained. "But it turned out this vacation became some crazy adventure in the Mushroom Kingdom. I was hoping that I'd be able to take a vacation, but I guess I really can't. Then again, I probably wouldn't have met you guys, and Choppor wouldn't have become like this. This is probably the worst vacation I ever had, with all of this evil going on..."

"Well how is it bad?" Ghoster wondered.

"Vacations are supposed to be about fun, not being forced to do something! But, I guess I should explain what happened..." Chopper sighed. He began to explain to everyone about finding a couple of Toads fleeing in fear while he found Bowser, so he decided to duke it out with him.

"And then what happened?" Ghoster wondered.

He explained that they fought until Bowser used the Star Rod to become invincible, where he couldn't even do a thing to him and was defeated by the evil Koopa King. Then he explained about being taken to Toadsmeth's lab by Goomba Village, where he met him and got a call from Eldstar to begin his adventure. Bow, Kayzee and Mallow seemed to be the most interested.

"Wow! That's really intense!" Kayzee gaped. "At least you're not hurt…but it's a shame I never came to help you. I would've come to Toad Town if there was any trouble. Then again, we never really leave the city..."

"I remember meeting you when you returned to Toad Town," Bow sighed. "Who ever knew that we'd fall in love with each..."

"Stop it! Stop it!" Chopper cried. "Let's just go!"

"Please..." Koopla sighed.

Chopper checked the path going to the right and made a signal for everyone to follow. They walked up a long pathway going up on a slope. Chopper tried to use his Speed Dash, but things weren't working out for him with it. Meanwhile, Parakarry was flying a lot faster, to his surprise.

"My mailbag is feeling so light! I'm glad we delivered those letters before anything bad could happen." Parakarry sighed. "But I wonder how the new postman is doing right now. He's taking over while I'm out here with you. Basically, my boss is giving me a vacation right now, and if I don't return to the post office in three days, I might lose my job!"

"You're going to lose your job if you don't come back in three days?" Koopla gaped. "Oh boy… That's not good. If only we could go faster. I don't see that working though. It's impossible to go forward in time."

"Too bad there's nothing for me to blow up," Bruce groaned. "I love to blow things up, and I know Bombette loved to do that. Too bad she's not at Koopa Village because of SOMEBODY…"

"Bruce, you've said that a couple of times and everyone knows that already," Mallow groaned. "Koopla, you and Bruce need to get along again. You were getting along just fine when we were traveling. It's easy to apologize and forgive. Heck, even Ghoster apologized to me once and I forgave him! It's REALLY easy!"

"Yeah, I think you two really need to stop with all of this," Yosho concurred. "Everyone agrees that it's gettin' annoyin'. It should've ended a couple of chapters ago anyway. That's the truth, an' you should NEVER ignore the truth, or else somethin' bad's goin' to happen."

Chopper nodded in agreement as they made it up to the top of the slope to head to the next area, which had more Phantom Embers and Anti Stars, which they defeated with no problem. Chopper even leveled up and got 85 FP.

They could see some statues shaped like a stars around as well. Chopper shot a star from the Star Rod at them and they exploded to reveal an Ultimate Shroom and a Sweet Punch in them. He smiled as he picked them up and put them away.

"I like this place. I never knew we'd expect to see all of this." Geno commented. "I was never here before, and seeing this place for the first time is an honor to the Stars. I mean, it's an honor to see a place like this."

"Yeah, it's beautiful. I hope there's no evil going on here though." Kayzee hoped. "Those pictures in the shrine looked kind of scary…but I don't know about you guys, but I think Staris looks cute. Sure, he's trying to destroy us, but he does look cute and huggable like Bloopi!"

"Uh… Kayzee, you know that Staris is gone," Chopper noted. "Me, Bow, C-2 Choppor and Geno ended up destroying him. We don't have to worry about him anymore, so we're safe and sound from him. Too bad you never saw what he looked like in his sixth transformation. He was huge!"

"Oh, wow. I never knew that. Wait! I see some purple ground ahead!" Mallow noticed

Everyone headed toward the pathway to a big area with some light blue buildings and fountains. It looked pretty cool like every other place.

"What's that over there?" Bow noticed as everyone stopped to find the airship from before. Everyone on there was waving to them, and all eleven of them waved back to them. The airship went over to them so the people could get off.

"Blayzee! Tayzee! You made it here!" Kayzee cheered as she hugged her sisters, while Tayzee was getting a bit annoyed. Chopper looked around at the buildings and saw that things were OK - until a giant Koopa robot stomped on one of the buildings!

"What the… A giant Koopa robot? What's it doing here!" Chopper looked at the robot's two red eyes, which looked down at Chopper. It flicked Chopper away at another building and laughed.

"Mwa ha ha ha ha! Ah yes, the little pale green boy that looks like a flea!" Kojo Pete cackled, who was revealed to be inside. "You're just the one who I've been looking for!"

"Kojo Pete! What are you doing here! Are you here to stop us from moving on?" Blayzee asked as she and her sisters flew up to the robot.

"Curses! The Dayzeeflower Girls! You will not stand a chance against me, for doing that means my plans will fail, and I can not have them fail! You've been so much of a nuisance to me! I will destroy you!"

"Ha! I don't think that's going to work!" Kayzee tapped the robot, which began to fall and hit the ground, but Kojo jumped out of the robot in red armor with a helmet that hid his face. There were two orange glowing eyes from the helmet and also an orange cape. He was also holding a black ray gun as well.

"Now then, you wish to face me? Well let's see if you'll change your minds now!" Kojo grinned as he pulled out Professor Plutonium and aimed his ray gun at his head. The three girls gasped while Chopper's eyes widened.

"I don't believe this. He's going to use them to win? This isn't good at all..." Geno trailed.

"Professor!" the girls cried as the Plutonium looked at them and cried out to them. He was shaking in fear as he shed a tear, making the girls enraged with Kojo Pete.

"Mwa ha ha! One attack and your father will get it!" Kojo Pete cackled, which made the girls stop and hang their heads low. He grinned as he fired a blast that them, knocking them out.

"Girls!" Plutonium cried. "Get up! Please!"

However, that's when Chopper stepped in and got in a fighting stance.

"What? You want to fight against me! ?" Kojo Pete gaped. "Look at yourself! A mere child facing against an armored person such as myself! How pathetic!"

"Hey, you want me, right? So how about you let go of that professor guy and fight us! We'll be a little more fair to you!"

"Hmmmmm... Perhaps I should! Very well, Chopper! Let's see how 'great' you are! And by great, I mean pathetic! Mwa ha ha ha!"

**Tattle: **_That's Kojo Pete. I guess he's the Dayzeeflower Girls' archenemy. I guess that would make sense Max HP: 200, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 2. That ray gun looks pretty strong. You might want to be careful when going against THAT thing… Chopper, try to take him down. You'll be doing the girls a BIG favor._

Chopper became Suplex Chopper and went over to Kojo Pete and grabbed him, making him confused.

"What's this? OOF!" he got punched in the face by Chopper's fist, but it only did 6 damage. That is, until C-2 Choppor attacked. He unleashed some missiles upon Kojo Pete, which exploded upon impact. No matter... He was still able to attack Chopper.

"Not bad, but let's see if you like THIS!" Kojo Pete fired his gun at Chopper, which knocked him back, but it didn't make him unconscious like the Dayzeeflower Girls. "You should be lucky, Chopper! I could've put that at full power, but I decided not to. Just because you destroyed the Frenzyweed Boys doesn't mean you'll defeat me, Kojo Pete! I'm the…"

"Oh, shut up!" Chopper groaned as he took out the Star Rod and used Star Smash on his helmet, leaving him dazed. When Bow used her Power Smack to smack Kojo Pete's face, his head spun around like crazy and his head was backwards. He grabbed his head and moved it back as he fumed.

Kojo Pete fired a freeze blast at Chopper, which he was able to guard and avoid becoming frozen. He threw the fireball at Kojo Pete with his D-Down Hand. It even struck the gun, which was starting to melt.

"What? NO!" Kojo Pete cried. "Not my Powerful Outstanding Obliterating Prototype!"

"That can be abbreviated with P.O.O.P., right?" Chopper asked.

"We were just through a bathroom area..." Geno face palmed.

"But that's not what I had in mind... It's easier to call it P.O.O.P..."

Kayzee slowly opened her eyes and saw Kojo Pete frustrated, so she used her Heat Vision on his butt, making him smell something burning. He noticed his butt was on fire so he used his cape to fix the problem. He wasn't sure what to do now. However, that's when he realized that he had two blasters, so he pulled them out and blasted Chopper with them.

"OK now… Just a jump boost and I should be good!" Chopper used his Ultra Jump Charge move to boost his jump attack while Geno fired a Geno Beam at Kojo Pete afterward.

"These blasters are much more useful than that ray gun! I can attack twice with these, for attacking twice makes this battle victorious! Mwa ha ha ha!" Kojo Pete cackled as he turned to Professor Plutonium. ""I'll deal with you later."

Chopper got hit by both blasts, which could do 6 damage each, and it knocked away his Suplex ability. However, that didn't matter right now. He had a boost from his jump!

"All right, here we go!" Chopper began to use his Power Bounce on Kojo Pete's head, stomping on him twelve times. Following that came Koopla's Dizzy Shell, leaving the Koopa to become dazed. Kojo Pete tried to fire at Chopper, but he ended up missing, which made him get hit by Chopper's Mega Smash attack from his hammer. Bruce used his Bomb attack afterward.

"Hmmm… I guess I should do this!" Kojo summoned three electric drones that are floating beside him. "These things should hurt you a little bit more! You don't even stand a chance against them!" he cackled until he saw four fireballs come toward him and hit him and the drones.

"Maybe I should've done that…" Geno trailed as Chopper shrugged and let Geno use a Geno Beam on Kojo Pete. Just like before, the Koopa missed his attack, but thankfully, he was no longer dizzy. However, that didn't stop Chopper from hurling an ice ball at him with his D-Down Hand attack.

"S-So c-c-c-cold!" Kojo Pete shivered while his teeth were chattering. Yosho smirked and used his long tongue to inhale him and spit him out at the robot, making him take 10 damage.

"Grrrr! Stupid little boy! I never knew you had it in you. Very well, then let me get something else out. This might actually work." Kojo Pete pulled out a red laser sword.

"Oh, you gotta be kidding me!" Chopper face palmed as Kojo Pete struck him with his laser sword. "You're not Darth Vader, for Pete's sake!"

Since Kojo Pete was up close, Chopper was able to punch him with light energy around his fist, knocking him back. Parakarry knocked him down even more with a Shell Shot attack. Kojo Pete threw his laser sword at Chopper, who managed to kick it away, but he still ended up taking damage from it.

"Yeesh... That was a fast one!" Chopper sweat dropped.

Kojo Pete grabbed his laser sword while he was struck by Chopper's Star Fire, which ignored his defense. Mallow used a Shocker after that. Kojo Pete threw some more drones, only to have them destroyed by Ghoster's Psychic attack. Kojo Pete was even slammed onto the ground from the attack and even dragged around.

"Uh, Ghoster, not like that. That's too far." Chopper noted.

"Aww…" Ghoster frowned as he let go of Kojo Pete. Chopper used his D-Down Jump to stomp on the Koopa afterward. Kojo Pete was exhausted, but he fired a blast from his blaster at Chopper and then used his laser sword to attack, making Chopper cringe in pain.

"It seems I'm actually wearing you down! Excellent! Now I can…" Kojo Pete was interrupted when he got knocked down by Kayzee, who gritting her teeth in anger.

"Kayzee?" Plutonium looked at Kayzee, looking shocked. She then stopped and fell over on the ground, which made Chopper jump up in shock.

"Please... Stop him..." Kayzee moaned. Chopper slowly nodded as looked over at Kojo Pete.

"I'm sorry, Kojo Pete…but I gotta do this," Chopper frowned as he held the Star Rod up and fired a star at him. He was using his Star Fire to send him flying out of Star

"_**Curse you Day—NO! CURSE YOU CHOPPEEEEEEEEEER!**_" Chopper listened carefully to Kojo Pete He got his 43 Star Points. Before he couldn't see him anymore, he noticed a red eye appearing from the top of his helmet.

"What the heck...?"

"I can't believe we managed to defeat Kojo Pete..." Bow trailed.

"And he was a huge threat to the City of Flowersville too," Chopper realized. "I didn't like seeing him get thrown out like that, but we had no other choice.

"You got a point there," Ghoster agreed as he floated over to the professor and poked him and then grabbed him by the pants.

"Ow! Hey! What are you doing?" Plutonium asked.

"Get them awake right now, or else I'll give you a super duper atomic ghost wedgie!" This made the professor get a chemical to wake up the girls and heal them. He even gave one to Chopper to drink to recover his HP and FP.

"Thanks, Professor!" Blayzee smiled. "...Say, where's Kojo Pete?"

"We took care of him," Koopla answered.

"Really? That's great! We should really thank you!"

"You guys actually did?" Tayzee gawked. "Wow... You know, I guess I can respect you guys for helping us."

"We could stay here and celebrate, but we don't have much time," Kayzee noticed. "It could be the end of Star Haven any minute! If we do nothing, we'll fail!"

"Kayzee, you can go ahead. You and your friends have to keep moving right now." Plutonium said as he kissed Kayzee's forehead. "If you don't make it to Staris's home, then there will be trouble. I'll stay with the girls and everyone else."

"Thank you, Professor!" Kayzee smiled as she kissed her father and flew back to Chopper. "Let's go now! We can't just sit here!"

"OK!" Chopper nodded as they waved goodbye to everyone for now and took the stardust path ahead. However, seeing that red eye on Kojo Pete's head started to bother him a little bit. What the heck was that thing?

* * *

**Past the stardust path-**

After taking the stardust path, they found a purple path instead with shooting stars coming down. They noticed some Elite Koopatrols and Elite Magikoopas walking around the area. They also happened to notice yellow Piranha Plants called Star Piranhas.

"Man, we're coming up to some really cool stuff," Chopper realized. "I never expected to find that stardust path really short, but we've got more things to do than just talk about how the place looks. We've already spoken about that before."

They all stopped and looked up to see the airship moving on.

"There goes the airship with the professor and my sisters. I hope they'll be OK." Kayzee said worriedly. "I know the Frenzyweed Boys and Kojo Pete are gone, but Bowser is much more menacing than those two. I'm not really worried about them encountering Maquano because we haven't really seen much of him at all. Maybe he gave up?"

"I don't think he's given up..." Parakarry trailed. "It probably wouldn't make much sense for him to give up anyway."

"I don't think many villains have given up yet, like Valentina, C-1 TM, etc.," C-2 Choppor stated.

"Not to mention Popple and Rookie…and also Jr. Troopa," Bow added. "I don't think they've given up just yet. We're probably going to end up seeing them anyway, so I would suggest we stay on guard for right now."

"You're probably right, Bow. They could be ANYWHERE…" Bruce trailed. "I think we should be careful around here. You know what I'm saying, right?"

After agreeing to move on, they decided to make their way through the area.

"This place doesn't seem so safe," Ghoster noted. "I'd try to make sure there's nothing to surprise us. Too bad my Ghost Vision isn't much use in this place. That's a shame."

But he wasn't worried, because he could take care of himself around here and beat up some baddies real easily. Afterward, they found two Elite Hammer Bros. in the area that were throwing their hammers at Chopper. Thankfully, Geno was able to attack them with his Geno Whirl by destroying one with a single hit.

Chopper finished off the other Elite Hammer Bro. with the Star Rod by sending it flying away. They noticed the Elite Hammer Bro. was shaking a fist.

"That takes care of him! Now let's see what else we have ahead!" Mallow smiled. Chopper nodded and moved on to the next area, where they found another stardust path and also a grinding rail. Chopper took the rail, and it went below the stardust path and by the asteroid.

"There's certainly nothing down on that asteroid, that's for sure. Only up here is where all the stuff is. We're lucky to find that Star Shrine." Geno said while taking the path instead of the rail. Chopper was followed by Bow and C-2 Choppor, who were flying instead.

Chopper jumped off the rail when he was back on the stardust pathway and was at the end of the area. He was waiting patiently for his friends to come over to him, which they were able to come over with no problem.

"This place is really weird. We see stardust paths, and now we see purple areas." Koopla noticed.

"I wonder where Eldstar and the other Star Spirits are anyway," Geno wondered while they moved on to the next area to seea slide that went around the asteroid, but there was a bunch of rubble in the way of the pathway.

"I'll take care of this," the wooden doll fired a Geno Beam at the rubble, destroying it. Chopper immediately went down the slide and everyone else who couldn't fly got on the slide too. Yosho seemed to be enjoying the ride for some kind of reason.

"Yeah! Now we're talkin'! This ride's a pretty cool one! I could stay on it fer hours!" Yosho cheered. "This is goin' to be one heck of a ride!"

There were many obstacles in the way such as Elite Paratrols, which are Elite Koopatrols with wings. Yosho used his Dragonbreath to take down the enemies in their way and allow them to go further down the slide. They had to make a U turn to the left and then at the end they found a spring that took them up to another area on a high ledge. There, they found a gap between two stardust paths.

"Looks like I'll need to take you over there," Parakarry declared as he grabbed Chopper's arms and carried him over to the other side while helping others afterward. But it wasn't exactly over. They found a further gap up ahead.

"Uh oh… Wait a minute! I can handle this! Just watch!" Mallow summoned a cloud, which appeared between the two gaps. Chopper looked surprised and jumped on the cloud, not even falling off at all.

"This works well, Mallow! Good job!" Chopper smiled.

Everyone else jumped on the cloud to make it over to the other side. Some Elite Koopatrols tried to attack, but they defeated them. Moving on to the next area, there were two hidden blocks C-2 Choppor discovered, so Chopper hit them to find a Sweet Punch and an Ultimate Shroom.

"Wow, those Star Spirits are pretty generous, giving us some items," Bruce noticed. "We're pretty lucky that we're getting them from them, right?"

"Of course, Bruce," Chopper agreed. However, he heard a noise up ahead, which sounded like cackling. Geno could hear it too, and one thing for sure was that he wasn't happy to hear it.

"Let's go check that out," Geno suggested. Chopper nodded in agreement and began to move on after hitting a Heart Block that was a little further back and the Save Block that he found nearby. They could see a sign up ahead that led to a purple path, but also they could see someone holding up a golden statue of Staris.

"_**Nya ha ha ha ha! **_At long last, I, Popple, the shadow thief, have gotten one of the rarest treasures of them all!" Popple gloated. "Who would be so stupid to put a statue here that's open to anyone? Oh, who cares?"

"Hey! Stop right there, Popple!" Chopper shouted. Popple turned around and noticed Chopper, but unlike before, he wasn't shocked. In fact, he was grinning.

"Well well! You! Pale green! I was expecting you to show up earlier. I've been waiting for you this whole time, see? Oh, yeah!"

"What do you mean? You're alone right now, and you don't have any rookie to fight with you!"

"What? Whatever happened to the leaf one?" Bow asked.

"Let's just say I encountered him by himself at that castle in the jungle area of Clara…" Chopper trailed.

"Well I've come prepared!" Popple exclaimed. "I went and found me a rookie, hear? One that'll take you down for me, see?"

"Darling! What's all the ruckus?"

"...Who was that?" Parakarry gawked.

Everyone but Yosho gaped when they saw Birdo walk over to Popple while giving a wink to them.

"Oh no! Not her again!" Mallow cried.

"What? Ya met her before?" Yosho gawked.

"Yeah... In Nimbus Castle... She tried to attack us before."

"Yer kiddin' me, right?! She tried to attack you in Nimbus Castle!? Oh, boy… This ain't good."

"Those people again? Oh, why must THEY be here?" Birdo sighed. "Why can't we be alone, darling, speaking the language of love?"

"Wh-Who are you calling 'darling'?" Popple asked as he stopped grinning. "N-Now is not the time to be doing this, see?"

"Darling? What the heck?" Chopper gawked.

"This, uh…dame passed my audition perfectly, see? She's my all-new, bigger and better rookie, Birdo!"

"Darling… Don't call me Birdo… Call me Birdie!" Birdo squealed.

The others couldn't help but snicker, while the shadow thief himself was starting to get annoyed.

"…I don't care about names, see?" Popple growled before turning to Chopper. "Ha HA! I'll show you! Ya hear! You'll be all bamboozled, see! With my new rookie's power… You'll see what I mean!"

"Yes, the power of love!"

Silence.

"AARGHH! QUIET! Stop freaking me out! I don't care what kind of power it is! Any kind will do! I will destroy you, see? DESTROY YOUUUUUU! Yeah, here comes destruction, ya knuckleheads!"

**Tattle: **_Popple never seems to give up, but looks like he's not alone this time. Max HP: 130, Attack Power: 12, Defense Power: 1. He'll use EVERYTHING he's got on you. I don't think he's going to be showing any mercy in this battle. This could in fact be the last time you'll ever fight him._

**Tattle: **_Wait… Popple's new rookie is BIRDO! You found her in Nimbus Castle, in an egg! This doesn't seem really good right now. Max HP: 150, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 2. I would HIGHLY recommend taking Birdo out first. She's the stronger one, and she'll use many egg attacks on you. Just be careful against her, because she's going to do a lot._

Chopper used his Multi-Star attack in order to attack both Popple and Birdo, while Geno attacked with his Geno Flash, making an explosion from the energy that struck the two.

Popple pulled out a bomb from his sack and threw it at Chopper, who managed to guard it. Birdo fired an egg bomb from her mouth, which exploded in front of Chopper, making the front of him look black with soot, but he shook it off with ease.

"Wow, she's really asking for it. OK, I can handle that!" Chopper used his Jump Charge move. Since Geno knew he wanted his help, he raised his attack up. Popple grabbed an Ultra Shroom from Chopper and quickly ran back, holding it up.

"I'll be taking that, see?"

Chopper fumed over losing his Ultra Shroom, but he couldn't do anything about it yet. Birdo tried to inhale Chopper by sucking him into her mouth, but he was able to flee from the attack.

"OK, here we go!" Chopper used his Power Bounce on Birdo and stomped on her ten times, which dealt A LOT of damage. Koopla used her Shell Slam to attack both Popple and Birdo, and to also get Chopper's Ultra Shroom back, which Chopper held up and put away. The shadow thief was not pleased.

"Grrr!" Popple growled as he began to throw things from his sack at Chopper. He was able to hit him with some Bob-ombs, but Chopper also got hit by Super Shrooms that recovered his HP. Two to be exact. Birdo fired multiple eggs at Chopper, only guarding four of them to prevent himself from taking too much damage.

Chopper used a D-Down Jump on Birdo, and then Bow used her Power Smack on her. For now, things seemed to be working nicely.

Before Popple could attack, Birdo went behind him, squealing, "Don't worry, darling! I will protect you!" as she grabbed his shoulders. A heart appeared over her head, and Popple looked rather scared, since she inhaling him like a vacuum.

"St-Stop it! _**STOP IT!**_" Popple cried as he tried to escape by trying to reach for Chopper's hand, but he got inhaled by Birdo and she shot out four giant eggs, which left Chopper confused. The eggs rolled towards Chopper, who managed to guard them. He used his Multi-Star attack to hit the eggs and Birdo, breaking them all and freeing Popple, who was steaming.

"Never do that AGAIN, Birdo!" Popple roared as C-2 Choppor aimed at Birdo and fired a blast at her, leaving her with 47 HP left. Popple stomped on Chopper's head, while Birdo shot another egg bomb that Chopper guarded.

Geno used his Geno Boost on Chopper, which allowed him to use his Power Bounce on Birdo, stomping on her thirteen times. Parakarry flew up high so he could get ready to use his next attack. Popple, meanwhile, tried to steal from Chopper, but failed horribly, while Birdo tried to inhale Chopper, which seemed to fail as well.

"All right, I'll just use a Star Fire on them both, and then Parakarry will do the rest," Chopper declared as he used his Star Fire to strike them both, which left Birdo with 10 HP left. But it wasn't over for her yet. Parakarry came down toward her and knocked her over in defear. Popple looked shocked, but he also felt relieved that he didn't have to feel uncomfortable around her.

Popple stomped on Chopper's head, which he managed to guard, while Chopper landed a Star Smash on him and Mallow landed a Shocker on him. After stealing an Ultra Shroom from Chopper, he was stomped on by Chopper to get his Ultra Shroom back. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him after that, due to his attacks ignoring defense.

"Gah! This isn't over, see? I still got a few tricks up my sleeves!" Popple growled as he took out a time bomb from his sack and threw it over to Chopper. In three turns, it would explode and do a ton of damage.

"Oh crud… This isn't good. We need to make sure we take him out FAST…or maybe you can help us Bow." Chopper suggested. Bow nodded and used a Power Smack on Popple.

"Not exactly what I meant, but OK," Chopper shrugged as used his Mega Smash on Popple to deal a lot of damage

Popple grinned and he stomped on Chopper. Since his HP was low, he ate an Ultra Shroom to recover 50 HP, making everyone guffaw. However, C-2 Choppor unleashed some missiles upon Popple, which left him with only 39 HP.

"That bomb will go off soon, and I will be victorious! There's nothing you can do about it!" Popple cackled as he threw a bomb from his sack at Chopper.

"Oh, boy… I'll need to attack Popple first, and then you can hide us, Bow." Chopper explained as he used his Power Bounce and stomped on him twelve times, while Bow made everyone transparent, including Popple.

"What are you doing!?" Popple exclaimed as the bomb exploded, which was an immense explosion. It could be seen from far away. But when the explosion was gone, things remained the same. Popple was confused.

"We did that so you wouldn't die. You're not REALLY evil, you know." Chopper explained as he fired a star at him, while C-2 Choppor shot a blast at him. Of course, that explosion didn't mean the battle was over.

"Gah! I don't understand this! Fine! I'll take something important! You'll be done soon!" Popple stole an Ultimate Shroom from Chopper, which he retaliated by stomping on him.

"OK, I got it! Now finish him off, Geno!" Chopper cried. Geno nodded and fired a Geno Beam, which defeated the great shadow thief. Chopper got 45 Star Points and a level up, upgrading his BP to 51.

"Y-You!" Popple roared as he slowly got up and glared at Birdo. "Look at you! Pathetic! You're useless, see?"

"Wh-What do you mean?" Birdo gawked. "Are you...breaking up with me?"

"This has nothing to do with that, see? What I am saying is that you're _fired!_"**_  
_**

"Are… Are you saying that was all my fault! Ooh! Shocking! SHOCKING, I say!" Birdo gasped as she kicked Popple off the path, making him plummet down to the Mushroom Kingdom.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAH!**_"

His sack was falling too, and everything he stole was falling out. The Goomba portrait was even landing in Goomba Village, while everything else he stole was returned to where he first stole it. The Staris statue landed in Toad Town.

"Whoa… Is Popple all right?" Chopper gaped.

"I think he'll be fine," Geno assured.

"Clearly this is a test for me. Yes, the powers-that-be want me to go out on my own." Birdo said. "Once I overcome many hardships, I shall be one step closer to superstardom! I CAN'T believe I lost to YOU!"

With a huff, she walked away from the group.

"Well looks like that's the last time we'll ever face off against Popple," Bow sighed in relief. "We should get going. I think those Star Spirits are waiting for us."

Everyone agreed and headed on over to the purple path up ahead. Hopefully they would find something interesting up ahead.

* * *

**Well, I guess after the next chapter, Chapter 16 will be officially halfway completed. I'm sure what you'll see in the next chapter will be unexpected. :P  
**

**Or maybe some of you will. It really depends.  
**


	101. A Little Game of Mario Party

When they reached the next area, they noticed how similar it was to Shooting Star Summit and the place where they fought Hauntost (like we haven't seen that before...). However, there was star energy on the edges that could help prevent someone from falling, such as the eleven heroes. Chopper noticed that all seven Star Spirits were in a circle over the ground. He walked in the middle of the circle to be surrounded by them. His partners got in the circle too and looked at the Star Spirits.

"Welcome, Chopper and Co.! We're so glad you could make it here!" Eldstar greeted. "Ever since you rescued us and restored the Star Spirit, we wanted to pay you back with a little something special. It's the only way to go to **Rainbow Path**, which is a long road that will lead over to where Bowser's Castle is."

"The only way we can actually let you through is if you play a game that we were saving for you!" Mamar offered. "Don't worry, it's a fun game, and you'll all love it so much! But we can only have five teams of two, so one of you might have to sit out for this little game."

"I'll sit the game out," Geno announced as he stepped up. "I'd actually like to watch to see what it's like anyway. I'm always interested to see how things go in a game between people. I'm usually the 'watcher' of some games."

"You don't want to play? OK…" Skolar trailed. "Wait! Aren't you Geno? Hmmm… I guess I can see why you don't want to play and watch instead. You probably already know the game anyways. We always like to let people who've never played the game before play it. I suppose you can have the entertainment of watching them."

"Entertainment? What entertainment are you talking about?" Parakarry gawked. "Wait! Don't tell us that you're going to torture us or make us get hurt…or possibly beat each other up! No! I won't do such a thing! I don't care what you think! That is wrong on so many levels! And… And…"

"Ho ho ho ho! No worries, my Paratroopa friend! You're not going to be beating each other up." Muskular chuckled. "Sure, you may have to hit each other, but you're not going to get hurt or die. We would NEVER let that happen to you anyway. We're good Stars. The only people that might possibly be laughing is the audience."

"Audience? What audience? Are we going to be watched by so many people? …Is there going to be over ten million people watching us right now!?" Chopper gaped. "Oh, crud! I can't handle that many people! They'll be…wanting to go after me for being so cute!"

"Relax, Chopper. There are not a lot of people who are going to be watching. You're going to be just fine." Misstar assured. "The only thing I'd be worried about is how Princess Peach is doing right now in Bowser's Castle, but you'll have your chance to go after Bowser and defeat him soon enough."

"You'll laugh, you'll cry, or maybe you might end up being competitive in this game," Klevar explained. "It's one of those games where you REALLY want to win. It's a game Mario has played about three times so far. It's fun and sometimes a bit challenging. You'll probably handle this game just fine though. Don't you worry."

"You'll be playing through for twenty turns. There aren't really any rules in the game, but you have to hit a block that has a number between one and ten, and that's how many spaces you'll go." Kalmar explained. "If land on a blue panel, you get three coins, if it's red, you'll lose three coins. You need to find the star and it costs twenty coins to get one. You can find a Boo that will steal coins for only five coins, and a star for fifty coins. Well… You'll hear the rest later."

"Yes, I think the time has come! There will be two people per team. We'll pick teams when we get there. So… Let's go!" Eldstar summoned a beam of light down and everyone was taken up. The Toad who hosted the Mario Party games was traveling up with them on a small cloud.

* * *

**Star Land-**

The whole place is called Star Land, which looked pretty big. The pathway was made of stardust, and there were Thwomps around that could stomp on them and also there are blue, red panels and also a Bowser panel. There was a bank thing that could take 5 coins away from them if they walked past it.

Everyone landed on a purple platform when they were suddenly popped out of a pipe. They could see a sign with a star on it. There was also a Koopa with a white flag with a star on it that was on the platform with them, and thankfully, it was no evil Koopa either.

"Welcome, people! My name is Koopa!" Koopa introduced. "…Which is also the name of my species. Don't worry about me, I'm not going to kill you, for I am one of those good ones. I guess you were summoned here by the Star Spirits, huh? Well, good! But we'll have to put you in teams. Two people per team, and there will be five teams."

"OK, just make it quick, OK? My arms and legs are falling asleep!" Koopla groaned, who became impatient.

Koopa took a looked at both Koopla and Bruce. "How about… Koopla and Bruce become one team!"

Of course, the results weren't positive between them.

"No! I'm not going to work with HER!" Bruce retorted. "Do you even know what she did to my ex-girlfriend! It was horrible! There's no way I'm going to deal with her! That's final!"

"We can't work together at all! He refuses to even talk to me, so I'm doing the same! Change the teams right NOW!" Koopla roared as she shook her fist at Koopa.

"Sorry, but either you play, or you don't get to go to Rainbow Path at all. I didn't make the teams. Toad gave me the teams. So you can blame him instead of me."

The female Koopa sighed as she lowered her fist.

"Fine, we'll work together," Bruce groaned. "But there's NO way we're going to do something like this EVER again. If you try to kick me, I'm going to blow you up before you could even try anything else! You got that?"

"Now then… The next team is Parakarry and Kayzee. Yes, I think this team will work out fine. Two people who can fly is not really a bad thing at all! You two are fine with this, right?"

"Sure thing! Kayzee and I get along just fine!" Parakarry nodded.

"I'm fine with it too!" Kayzee declared. "Don't worry, Koopa. A postman is definitely a good friend to have anyways!"

"OK, good! Now… Let's look at this. Ah! This should be an interesting one for you guys! The next team is…Chopper and Bow! Yup, two people that are green on the same team! It would've probably fit a lot more if it was Chopper and C-2 Choppor, but this one's fine too!"

"So we're a team? I really like that, don't you, Chopper?" Bow smiled as Chopper's antennas sprung up in fear.

"Oh, no! Why did you have to put me with Bow?" Chopper cried.

"Well, I think it works fine," Koopa replied. "Both of you are green, after all..."

"Come on, Chopper! It will be fun!" Bow blushed as she kissed Chopper on the cheek, making his face turn red in fear.

"And now she's going to kiss me more!"

"Well, there's no changing teams," Koopa said as he looked over at Mallow and Ghoster. "Next team is Mallow and Ghoster! You two can get along just fine, which is what I heard. That's why we chose you two to be on the same team!"

"Oh, cool! We're on the same team, Ghoster! It's a great thing that we get to work together!" Mallow smiled.

"I agree with you, Prince Mallow! You can consider me your right-hand man...er, ghost if you want." Ghoster declared. "We're like buddies! …Hold on, that's for me, Choppor, and Chopper! You're my second banana…or maybe it's the other way around."

"Wait, I didn't get a team!" Yosho guffawed until he looked at C-2 Choppor. "Wait, are ya sayin' that I'm workin' with the tin can? Er… OK, that's nothin' really bad. I guess I'll go with it, OK?"

"Yup, you two ARE on the same team!" Koopa replied. "I hope you can both get along just fine, because if you can't, then there's a problem. I'm sure you're able to handle it anyway."

"I have no problem with this at all," C-2 Choppor stated. "I think it should be just fine with me and Yosho. …But don't call me tin can ever again, Yosho."

"Well, don't screw us up in games..." Yosho trailed.

"Now then! Since we got all the teams, how about we see who gets to go first?" Koopa had five dice appear over each team's head, and Koopla, Kayzee, Chopper, Mallow, and C-2 Choppor jumped theirs. Koopla got a 1, Kayzee got an 8, Chopper got a 6, Mallow got a 5 and C-2 Choppor got a 10.

"Holy… A 10?!" Yosho gaped.

"OK, turn order has been decided. C-2 Choppor and Yosho are first! Kayzee and Parakarry are second. Chopper and Bow are third. Mallow and Ghoster are fourth. And last is Koopla and Bruce. OK now! Here's a present for all of you! You each get **ten coins**. Make sure you use these wisely. Whoever wins gets a special prize, so you may want to win this one…"

"Aw, sweet! We get to go first!" Yosho fist pumped. "Ya know what they say: First is the best!"

"Don't you mean 'first is the worst'?" Mallow corrected.

"Er… Shut up!"

"Don't worry about it. I mean, we're all fine with our teams!" Chopper assured before looking at Bow. "Although, I'd rather NOT be with Bow... . Yosho, you and Choppor can get to know a little more about each other when it's all over."

"That's a good idea. I think we should do that, Yosho." C-2 Choppor suggested. "That way, we'll have something nice to do instead of just sitting here and doing nothing. But we can't call each other names…"

"And Koopla and Bruce, you two NEED to work together. Fighting is not going to work, and it's starting to tear us apart. We can't have this happening. It's going to hurt us a lot."

"Well that's not going to change anything one bit!" Bruce retorted. "Sorry, but she's just a jerk!"

"Shut up, Bruce. I don't really care about your girlfriend." Koopla snapped. "I gave you a chance before, but I think it's too late for that now. This is just going to be so stupid…"

"Guys! If you wish to find the star, you must make it over here!" Toad shouted. They saw Toad was around at the center of the game board on a platform they need to reach.

"There's where you need to get the star!" Koopa explained. "Now that you've been able to talk to each other a little…let the game begin!"

And with that, the game of Mario Party began.

"All right, let's do this! Hey! Choppor! Hit the block so we can get movin'!" Yosho cried. C-2 Choppor saw a block appear over his head with numbers and jumped under the block to get an 8.

"That's 8 spaces. Not too bad…" C-2 Choppor began to move 8 spaces with Yosho following him. They landed on a green ? panel, and Toad was replaced with a fake Bowser, unfortunately.

"Wait... Bowser's here?!" Yosho gaped

"Don't worry, that's not really Bowser... It's just a fake!" Koopa assured.

"It sure looks real, though..."

"OK! We're ready to go next!" Kayzee said cheerfully as a block appeared over her head and jumped under it. She only got a 5, so she and Parakarry walked the five spaces and landed on a blue panel.

"A blue panel! That means we get three more coins! That's a good thing, isn't it?" Parakarry wondered.

"Uh huh!" Koopa nodded as Chopper began to ponder as he looked at the map.

"Are you going to go, Chopper?" Bow asked.

Chopper jumped up a little and nodded. He jumped under the block and got a 10, so they both walked ten spaces and landed on a blue space.

"Good, we landed on a blue panel. That's three more coins for us!" Chopper smiled. "Hopefully we should be safe…for right now. The only real problem is that we're right next to a Bowser panel, so getting a 1 could REALLY be a problem for us."

"OK, Prince Mallow! Let's get this show on the road!" Ghoster declared. "We'll take them all down with no problem! Yup, we'll even beat Chopper and his uh…girlfriend? Anyway, go ahead and go for it, Mallow!"

"Ghoster, I can't reach the block!" Mallow cried. "Can you give me a hand and lower it down?"

Ghoster noticed this and grabbed the block and lowered it down for him. Mallow hit a 7 and he and Ghoster moved 7 spaces, landing on a blue panel and getting three coins.

"Well looks like everyone's doing fine right now," Geno noticed. "Everyone so far got three coins except for C-2 Choppor and Yosho. They're kind of in last place right now, unfortunately. I think they'll be able to step it up. I have a feeling that they can."

"Koopla and Bruce just have to go," Eldstar mentioned, who noticed the two weren't getting along. "Hopefully they'll be able to do something. They're not getting along so well."

"Guys, it's your turn. Guys?" Koopa noticed that they had earplugs in to ignore each other. He sighed and took out a megaphone, wishing he didn't have to come to this.

"_**It's your turn, guys!**_"

The earplugs came out of the two and Koopla covered her ears, while Bruce tried to do something else to keep him from hearing the loud voice. Koopla immediately pushed Koopa away and grabbed the megaphone to have it in his face.

"_**We can hear you loud and clear!**_" Koopla yelled as Koopa felt he was deaf.

"Oh… And if you managed to go around this whole game board and see me, I'll give you ten more coins… Ooog… My ears…" Koopa moaned as he his ears in pain. Koopla hit a block and got a 3.

"A 3? That's bad… We're off to a TERRIBLE start right now…" Bruce groaned. When they walked the three spaces, they landed on a red panel, losing three coins.

"This is starting to suck," Koopla groaned.

"They just lost three coins. Wow, they are not having any good luck with this." Geno gawked. "They better get their act together if they don't want to be losing any coins or losing any mini-games. Teamwork is another thing they need to use to work through this game."

"Indeed," Eldstar agreed.

The game was a three vs two team mini-game, with three teams against two (Kayzee and Parakarry, Chopper and Bow, and Mallow and Ghoster vs C-2 Choppor and Yosho, and Koopla and Bruce). They had to balance a fragile egg over a skinny bridge above a huge cliff to its mother. When they were teleported out to the game, everyone was gaping.

However, just because three teams were working together didn't mean they had an advantage. Buttons needed to be pressed in order to move, and it's a lot easier for the team with four people to do it than the one with six.

"OK, let's be careful with this egg!" Chopper suggested as everyone began to slowly carry the egg over to the nest. However, Bruce couldn't even carry the egg, and he was a little squished because of Koopla.

"I'm getting squished! Leave me some space, Koopla!" Bruce shouted as he kicked her leg. "You always have to be like this all the time! I'm so sick of it!"

"Stop it, Bruce! I WILL kick you if you keep kicking me! We're trying to win here!" Koopla snapped as Bruce ignored her, so she stopped carrying the egg and grabbed Bruce's legs. At this point, they were getting in a fight.

"Quit yer arguin' an' fightin' already!" Yosho snapped. "We're losin' already now! We'll be in last place before ya know it!"

"My prediction is that we're going to lose this game," C-2 Choppor stated. "They're doing this with no problem, and Koopla and Bruce won't stop fighting. All we can do is just do this ourselves."

"Hold on! I got the egg!" Bruce cried. Koopla tried to help again, but they were unfortunate enough to make the egg fall off the bridge.

**FINISH**

Apparently, the team with three teams won the game, so they got ten coins each while everyone returned to the game board. Koopla and Bruce were still in last place, which was unfortunate. There were some secret ways to go on this game board around the outer part.

"It's unfortunate that Koopla and Bruce are not getting along in this game," Geno sighed as the two glared at each other. "I was hoping it would do something, but it doesn't appear to be… Hopefully they'll put their differences aside and learn to forgive each other. I hope they can do that…"

C-2 Choppor and Yosho were up now, so Yosho hit the block and got a 10 again. He smiled and walked ten panels with his robot companion to land on a mushroom. They got a normal mushroom and were able to go five more spaces. They even got to a Boo!

"A Boo? Wait… It's Bootler!" C-2 Choppor gawked while Bootler began to look at them carefully.

"Ah, yes! You're friends of Lady Bow and Chopper, are you not?" Bootler asked. "Skolar wanted me to come here so I can be a part of this game. Do you wish to steal some coins right now?"

"Yes, and steal them from…Mallow and Ghoster. I'd like to see how they feel to lose their coins. I don't want them to feel bad, but we need some coins, so take the 5 coins for right now."

"All right, I'll see what I can do," Bootler said as he received 5 coins and disappeared and appeared right in front of Mallow and Ghoster. He attempted to scare them, but only Mallow was the only one who feared him.

"Hey, get out of here!" Ghoster tried to punch Bootler, but he missed and lost some of his coins while Bootler disappeared.

"I was able to get twelve coins from them. I hope that's good enough for you."

"Sweet..." Yosho grinned as he received twelve coins and landed on a blue space. "We're kickin' some serious..."

"OK, I think we get it," C-2 Choppor sighed.

It was now Kayzee's and Parakarry's turn. They got an 8 and moved to a blue panel. When Chopper and Bow went up, they landed on a ? panel, which made the platform switch back to Toad.

"What? No!" the fake Bowser roared as he was switched with Toad.

"Looks like we made it go back to Toad. How interesting…" Bow trailed. "Hopefully we can get the star first!"

"Yeah, let's hope..." Chopper trailed.

Ghoster hit the block to get a four and landed on a blue panel with Mallow. Koopla and Bruce were lucky enough to land on one too, so they didn't get a red like before. The game was a 5 player one, where usually the five teams go against each other. Right now, they were sent to the ocean, where one person was driving a boat while the other skis. It was like a race but with bats.

The drivers were C-2 Choppor, Parakarry, Bow, Ghoster and Koopla. The skiers were Yosho, Kayzee, Chopper, Mallow and Bruce. When they noticed the environment, they seemed to be enticed by it.

"Wow... What a nice ocean!" Chopper smiled.

"Yeah! I like this place!" Kayzee agreed.

"OK, whoever makes it to the finish line first, wins," Muskular explained. "Skiers, you just attack each other with the bats. Don't worry, you'll be healed up after the game is over."

"Ummmmm... That's a little strange..." Mallow trailed.

"So we're teaching kids that violence is necessary in games? Uh… OK then!" Chopper and the rest of the skiers began to ski while the boats began to take off. With their bats, they knew they had to hit each other.

"This might be tough driving. I don't have any feet to help me…" Bow trailed. She had to use one of her arms to drive the boat, and the other to steer it. This was not going well for them. As for C-2 Choppor and Yosho, it was going very well, as well as Kayzee and Parakarry.

"Hold on a minute! Watch this!" Ghoster used his psychic to make the pedal go down, and the boat began to take off. "Aw yeah! Now we're talking! Mallow, go beat people up with that bat."

"OK…" Mallow trailed as he began to whack at Yosho with the bat, which made Yosho fight back with his bat…until Kayzee came and hit them both with her bat.

"Note to self: Watch out fer little girls holdin' bats that have superpowers," Yosho noted as he rubbed the bruise on his nose. Koopla was going fast at this point, and she grabbed the bat to throw at Yosho, but he dodged it. "Hey! The drivers can't be usin' a bat!"

"Sucks for you," Koopla shrugged.

"Koopla! You just wasted our bat!" Bruce shouted. "Now how am I supposed to use it?"

"You don't even have arms! I can do all of this myself!" Koopla retorted as Bruce got hit by Chopper's bat.

"Sorry, Bruce. You'll recover from that anyway." Chopper assured as he ducked from Kayzee's swing and was ready to fight back. He swung multiple times, but Kayzee was able to avoid them.

"Well looks like we got some real good batters here," Geno noticed. "I don't know about you, but this might be a close one.

"Hi-ya!" Chopper tried to swing at Kayzee (though he didn't feel good about it), but she was able to melt it with her Heat Vision and stick her tongue out at him.

"Ha! Your bat's gone!" Kayzee laughed until Chopper grabbed hers by inhaling it.

"Ha-HAAAAA! Yup! Not too smart now, huh?" When he opened his eyes, Kayzee used her Adoration to force Chopper to drop the bat and slow them down.

"Chopper! Don't fall for Kayzee's Adoration!"Bow cried.

"I can't resist! I'm trying to, but it's not working! I mean, when I looked at her, I suddenly became confused!"

**FINISH**

Kayzee and Parakarry were the ones able to cross first and got ten coins, making them in first place.

"Yay! We won!" Kayzee cheered.

"Good work, Kayzee!" Parakarry congratulated. "You really did show them who's boss!"

"Beaten by a girl... Bummer." Yosho frowned.

* * *

**Twelve turns later-**

After about twelve turns on the game board, Kayzee and Parakarry were in first, followed by C-2 Choppor and Yosho, Mallow and Ghoster, Chopper and Bow, and in dead last, Koopla and Bruce. Geno was being almost like an announcer at this point.

"Oh man… This game is coming close. Look at this, Kayzee and Parakarry are pretty much taking the lead EASILY with 2 stars and 141 coins. Kayzee's powers must REALLY be helping her and Parakarry win. C-2 Choppor and Yosho are doing pretty well too. They got 1 star, and 89 coins, but Kayzee and Parakarry have won the most mini-games so far. Mallow and Ghoster are doing just fine, with 1 Star and 54 coins. Let's hope they do a good job too! Chopper and Bow now… They've won a few mini-games, but Chopper's been having a bit of a hard time dealing with Bow, considering she likes him and stuff... They only have 34 coins and no stars, but maybe they can turn this around and win? As for Koopla and Bruce… I REALLY don't think they're doing so well. Look at them! They don't have any coins and stars! They've been landing on a lot of red panels, and that stinks. If only there was a way to get those two to forgive each other and do something."

Geno watched them compete in a 4 vs 1 challenge, with the one team being Koopla and Bruce. Guess who won that?

Suddenly, a letter hit Geno in the head, so he picked it up and saw that it was a pink color. "Hmmm? What's this?" He opened the letter and saw who it's to…and who it's from. He looked surprised to see who this is actually written to. Yes, VERY surprised.

"Oh my gosh… Bombette wrote this, didn't she? I think this should get them to stop fighting! But I really can't go out there now. It'll ruin the whole game for everyone! I wish there was SOME way…"

"We NEED to get a star before Kayzee and Parakarry get more. We gotta find something to do. But for now, let's just hit this block." C-2 Choppor said as he jumped under the block and got to move 2 spaces. He and Yosho ended up landing on a panel with a Goomba on it, which made a Paragoomba fly down.

"I was wondering when I'd get my chance to come! All right, I'm going to take 30 coins from each of you right now!" the Paragoomba said, making everyone lose 30 coins.

"What? Aw, come on! Now we only have 4 coins left!" Chopper said in disappointment.

"Don't worry, boy! Whoever wins this mini-game gets all the coins! Mostly first and second will be getting the coins. But winner takes all. That's how it's done! Now let's take you to an exciting mini-game that's based on luck!"

Everyone was teleported into a laboratory where there was a giant bomb with Bowser's head on it and pumps that were red, green, pink, yellow, light blue, and blue. One of them could cause the bomb to explode. C-2 Choppor and Yosho were the ones going first.

"OK, Choppor! Let's choose carefully!" Yosho suggested. C-2 Choppor nodded and walked up the stairs to the five pumps. The robot began to look at them carefully, and he used the yellow one. They turned around to see what would happen, and steam came from the nose of the bomb.

"What does that even mean?" C-2 Choppor asked while everyone shrugged.

"That means you're safe!" Geno assured. "Don't be afraid and try to concentrate, OK? That's how you might win."

C-2 Choppor and Yosho went back down the stairs and Chopper and Bow walked up the stairs next to look at the pumps. Chopper was about to choose the green, but Bow slapped his hand away.

"Pick the pink one. I think that might be the one. That and it's also my favorite color." Bow smiled as she blushed at him. "Pink is also the color of love, too."

"...But I don't like love!" Chopper sighed as he chose the pink one. Steam came out of the bomb, making him sigh in relief. "Oh, thank goodness! I thought it was going to explode right in front of us! I'm so glad that nothing even happened!"

"See? Love does work." Bow smiled as she grabbed his hand and dragged him down the stairs, which he didn't like.

"I don't really know why Toad put them in a group..." Geno trailed. "Well, it doesn't matter at this point. Koopla and Bruce are next.

"I say we go for the blue one. I think it would work out well!" Bruce suggested. Koopla shook his head and walked over to the green one. "No, that one isn't going to be good, Koopla!"

"Well how about we use both? That'll work!" Koopla and Bruce both hit the switch, but one of them was the wrong one, triggering the bomb's eyes to count down to four. When it blew up, it sent the two flying out, and they kept arguing, blaming each other for the game.

"Looks like Koopla and Bruce are out…" Kayzee trailed. "They're doing pretty badly right now, but oh well! At least it isn't us! Let's go win this like every other game we've won!"

"All right, let's see what we got!" Parakarry and Kayzee flew up the stairs and looked at the pumps. There were now five pumps, so Kayzee decided to go with the green one. Unfortunately, that was the wrong one.

"Uh oh… I think we messed up." Kayzee gulped as the bomb exploded, leaving only four pumps left. Mallow and Ghoster went up and used one of the light blue pump. Thankfully, the bomb didn't explode, so they went to the back of the line.

"OK, we got this! There are two teams out, an' only three left! We got this!" Yosho declared. He used the green pump…but this triggered the bomb.

"Nice..." C-2 Choppor trailed as he gave him a blank look before the bomb exploded, sending them flying out and leaving three pumps left.

"This is getting close!" Bow realized. Only we and Mallow and Ghoster are left! Chopper, we MAY have a chance at winning!"

"I hope we do," Chopper nodded. "If not, then we'll only have four coins! …Well maybe not, because you DO get some if you're in second place. Let's hope we're lucky."

When they got to the pumps, Bow pressed down the yellow one. Thankfully, it wasn't the one to trigger the bomb, so they got behind Mallow and Ghoster.

"That was a close one!" Geno sighed. "For a second there I thought that they would be in some trouble!"

Mallow gulped as he walked up the stairs, with Ghoster not even worrying at all. He looked at the switches.

"I'll go for this one!" Ghoster declared as he used the pink one, but the bomb just exploded, sending them flying. Both Chopper and Bow gaped when they realized that they received 114 coins overall.

"We got 114 coins?!" Bow gaped. "That's intense!"

**FINISH**

When they returned to the board, Kayzee hit the block and she and Parakarry moved 8 spaces and landed on a happening panel, making it switch back to Toad.

"Oh! Interesting! Now Chopper and Bow will be getting a star! How nice!" Geno noticed as Chopper hit a ten, so he and Bow jumped onto a cloud to reach Toad, who was waiting for the two of them.

"Congratulations, Chopper and Bow! You were able to make it here, and you have enough coins!" Toad congratulated. "Do you want a star?"

Chopper nodded and gave 20 coins and he received a Star. They were taken back to the start, where Koopa awarded them with 10 coins, and Toad was replaced with Bowser. However, when they landed on a happening panel, it went back to Toad, though it didn't matter at this point because no one was close to the star yet.

Mallow and Ghoster got a 7 and went over to a blue panel. Geno decided to throw the letter over to Koopla, which he managed to hit her in the head on accident while the block was over her head.

"Ouch!" Koopla grabbed the letter and noticed that it was to Bruce. "It's for you, Bruce. Wait, it says it's from Bombette!"

"What? Let me see!" Bruce gasped as he snatched the letter and read it carefully.

_Dear Bruce,_

_I know that you've been all over me after we broke up, but sadly, I need to leave this village. Apparently a Koopa girl kicked me while I was telling the Bob-ombs to stop, and I just knew I had to leave. Don't blame her though, it was my own fault, and I kind of felt like I had to move on and maybe find some new things around. I hear there's a town further from the Mushroom Kingdom with thieves. I might take a look over there. Don't be mad at the Koopa. Please… I know I shouldn't have yelled at them. I'm sorry I'm leaving though. I understand you'll be upset._

_Love,_

_Bombette_

"So she said it was her fault…" Bruce trailed. "I guess I could understand that. Koopla, it's not your fault. You just were getting annoyed, and you wanted peace and quiet. However, I didn't like that you kicked her, but I'm not going to get all angry at you. You think you can forgive me?"

"…Sure, I forgive you. Now how about we actually play this game?" Koopla suggested. Bruce nodded and hit the block for a ten. They moved 10 spaces and landed on a blue panel. It was a free-for-all game, and it was a game called Mushroom Mix-Up.

They were all over a lake on some mushrooms. There were seven of them, with a black one in the middle, a red, green, yellow, blue, pink, and a light blue. The captains were the ones on the mushrooms, so it was C-2 Choppor, Kayzee, Chopper, Mallow, and Koopla.

"Good luck, Koopla!" Bruce cried out.

"Thanks!" Koopla nodded.

Geno is sitting on a lavender mushroom by the mushrooms was supposed to hold a flag up.

"It feels so good that they're no longer fighting," Geno smiled. "Though they may not have a chance at winning, they've won their friendship back! THAT is much more important than winning a game."

He held up a pink flag, and it made everyone jump onto the pink mushroom. Nobody fell, so everyone was doing just fine. When all of the mushrooms rose up, Chopper jumped onto the black one.

"What on earth is he doing?" Mallow asked.

Everyone shrugged, and then Geno brought up a green flag, making everyone go on there. Unfortunately, Kayzee tripped and fell in the water. Parakarry was able to fly down and grab a hold of her.

"You're safe now, Kayzee," Parakarry assured.

"Phew... That was close!" Kayzee sighed.

Geno held up a red flag, and everyone walked toward it. Mallow was too slow and fell in the water. Ghoster pulled him out of the water with his psychic, while C-2 Choppor was unfortunate to fall off too.

"Go Koopla! You can do this!" Bruce cheered.

"You can do it, Chopper! I mean you're too cute to fall in there!" Bow cheered.

Chopper sweat dropped as the mushrooms began to go down faster. He tried to reach the next mushroom, but Koopla managed to jump on him and make him fall over to reach the mushroom. In the end, she was the last one standing.

**FINISH**

"Yeah! We did it!" Koopla cheered. Everyone was was cheering too, especially Chopper, who was clapping while floating in the water.

"So could someone get me out of here?" Chopper wondered.

* * *

**Later-**

At this point things were going right for Koopla and Bruce. They were actually winning some mini-games and were able to steal a star from Kayzee and Parakarry, so now they had a star. The next mini-game was a four team vs one team mini-game called Piranha's Pursuit. The one team was Mallow and Ghoster.

They were all teleported to a rain forest, and the four teams were on a big cloud. A Piranha Plant with legs appeared and began to run toward Mallow and Ghoster. Mallow was on a skateboard, while Ghoster was grabbing onto his shoulders.

"Go, Mallow! We're not going to be eaten by some Piranha Plant!" Ghoster cried.

"OK! I'm going!" Mallow listened as he was moving with the skateboard and jumped over branches that were falling, as well as some rocks. The plant was growing bigger and was trying to bite Ghoster.

"NO! Bad Piranha!" Ghoster shouted as he punched the plant in the face, which made it try to chomp Ghoster, but he just tried to swat at it. Luckily, Mallow had managed to make it to the goal and have the Piranha Plant bump into the finish line and fall to the ground.

**FINISH**

They played another three teams vs two teams mini-game, with C-2 Choppor and Yosho and also Koopla and Bruce as the two people. Their goal for this was to find a golden Staris statue underground. They needed to smash their way through.

"I got an idea!" Kayzee declared as she began to punch at the rocks, which was beginning to crumble. Chopper began to smash more of them with his hammer, which made things a lot easier.

With the other team, C-2 Choppor was trying to blast through the rock with his guns, and Koopla was trying to smash them with her Shell Toss attack, which made this a little interesting

"Almost got it!" Koopla shouted.

"The other team might be almost there! This ain't good at all!" Yosho gulped until Bruce's fuse lit up.

"No problem! I'll blow these rocks up no problem! Watch and learn!" Bruce walked toward the rocks and blew them up. They were able to grab the Staris statue and become victorious.

**FINISH**

The two teams celebrated as they won the last mini-game of the whole game and were taken back to the game board, where everyone would get evaluated.

"Well, looks like you managed to make one heck of a party! It was enjoyable, wasn't it?" Koopa asked as everyone nodded. "Good! Now let's see the amount of stars…"

It seemed that everybody had at least 1 star, so it didn't make much of a deal. "Each of you have 1 star? Wow… Let's look at the coins! I must say, it seems like Chopper and Bow have the most coins! OK then, here's the Bonus Stars! Lemme see here… This Bonus Star goes to the team who won the most mini-games! And that is… Kayzee and Parakarry!"

"Hey! We actually got a Bonus Star! All right! We're in the lead!" Parakarry and Kayzee cheered.

"Congratulations to you two! The Coin Star goes to Chopper and Bow, since they have the most stars!" Koopa announced as Chopper and Bow smiled.

"And… It looks like they also won the Happening Star too! They had a pretty rough time through this game, but they really did a good job! Since they have 3 stars now… It looks like they've won!"

"Really? That's cool!" Chopper smiled. "I guess you don't have to win every mini-game to win this game!"

"Yeah! And I really enjoyed working with you too..." Bow kissed Chopper on the cheek and blushed as Chopper frowned and wiped it off.

"I expected that..." C-2 Choppor trailed.

"Hey, Eldstar! What do we win for this whole game?" Chopper asked as Eldstar appeared.

"Well, you get this! Here you go!" Eldstar gave Chopper a new ability, which was called Star Call. "With this, you can call upon all of us when you are in grave danger. We will give you all the help we need. BUT, this is only for REAL emergencies. We can't do much on an enemy, sadly. Since you played our game, we can let you through. All of you can go!"

"Great game! I really liked it!" Geno smiled. "Koopla, Bruce… You may not have won, but you got your friendship back. I think that's much more important than winning a game, you know."

"Yeah, and it was all thanks to a letter," Bruce said as he held up a letter. "Now we can take Rainbow Path to Bowser's Castle! I can't wait to have this all over so we can all relax!"

"Then let's go!" Chopper cheered as the pathway to Rainbow Path opened up. They headed out toward the right direction to see a beautiful rainbow road.

* * *

**It's about time Koopla and Bruce settled their conflict! Yup! Next part begins Rainbow Path!**

**...And it also happens to be one of the longest chapters in the whole story, believe it or not.  
**


	102. Taking the Rainbow Path

Our heroes made their way onto the rainbow-colored path and noticed all the yellow stars they could see around the sky. One even had a face, and also some stars of different color were making Mario and Luigi's head up in the sky. Chopper smiled as he looked at the stars of Mario, Luigi, and even some of Yoshi and Peach as well. He was sure that they'd be seeing them for a while, because the path looks like it would be a long one.

"This is it, Chopper. This can be considered the last stand." Geno declared. "...Actually, not necessarily. The last stand will be where Bowser is and where Staris's Shrine is. THAT will be the final hour I suppose. This place is pretty big, so we don't want to be getting lost. We MUST stick together."

"I have to admit, the sky is looking rather dark around here," Bow noticed as she looked at the sky. "I don't know what's going on, but it feels like I can see some darkness far ahead. Do you guys have any idea on what that could be right there? It might be a little something of where Bowser might be…or maybe Staris's home. …Or could that be from Maquano?"

"I have no idea, sadly," Chopper shrugged. "We haven't even HEARD anything from Maquano. Sure, we saw Bowser at that game…and he was able to steal my coins, but Maquano hasn't appeared for a WHILE. I think he's planning something, and I don't like it one bit."

_**"****OOoooOOOOooooooOOOOOoooo… Turn back now, or you will face my WRATH! No, scratch that. Come here now, Chopper… SO I CAN DESTROY YOU! Yeah, there we go! THAT is what I'm talkin' about! Er, I mean… OooooOOOOOOoooo… Who dares come onto MY territory?"**_

Everyone heart the ghastly voice around them, which felt like it was coming from a ghost. Ghoster used his Ghost Vision to see who it was, but he couldn't find anyone around, sadly.

"Eeeeek! Who's saying that?!" Kayzee screamed. "In fact, where are you!? I'll try to beat you up at least!"

The creepy voice stopped, making everyone look confused.

"Where did that voice come from? For some reason, it sounded pretty familiar…" C-2 Choppor trailed. "But it didn't sound like Maquano at all. His voice is too…dumb and biker-like. I don't remember who even rides a bike…or a motorcycle."

"Oh, that stinks. I was hoping I could see the ghost, but I guess not." Ghoster frowned. "This one must know about Ghost Vision, so that's why he's staying hidden. But it doesn't seem like we actually HAVE to go see this ghost. I don't even know where he is or WHO he is, unfortunately."

"Then we better just take a look around to see then," Koopla suggested. "I think that would be the best thing to do right now besides just sitting here and doing nothing."

Everyone agreed and began to head on through the path. There was nothing interesting they saw, so Chopper moved on to the next area to find some Elite Koopatrols and also some golden Chain Chomps. They tried to rush toward him, but with the Star Rod, he managed to take them down.

"This isn't exactly a safe place… We just need to keep going." Chopper held the Star Rod up to reveal anything. A star appeared and exploded, making an Ultra Shroom come out and land nearby, so he took it with him and moved to he next area, where they could see some steps that they walked up. Unfortunately, they found Bullet Bills made of diamond coming toward them, which made everyone duck and destroy some of them that tried to attack.

"Oh man, I hate these Bullet Bills! Why are they here anyway!?" Bruce exclaimed.

"Beats me," Koopla shrugged as they walked over to the blaster and destroyed it with Bruce's Bomb attack, letting it drop a bunch of coins for Chopper to pass on ahead. In the next area, they could see a slope on the path going down to a loop. Chopper smirked as he ran through the loop, while everyone else followed by flying past it.

"Yeah... Good thing I'm not usin' that thing." Yosho sighed.

After Chopper ran up the slope past the loop, they found a pathway up ahead, so they were able to head through there, only to find some steps going up to the right to a high ledge. There was a Save Block here too, but they saw another way to the north.

"Huh? What's this path over there? I swear, I don't think I've ever seen it when I came here." Geno noticed as he saw a black sign, but when he touched it, it slowly faded away like darkness.

"That was weird. How could a sign disappear like that?" Parakarry wondered.

"I'm really not so sure..."

They noticed the darkness from the sign made an arrow pointing to the north. Yosho kicked the arrow, but it poked him in the nose.

"Well it certainly is a live one!" Yosho gaped. "I think the ghost really wants a piece of us! Well, he's goin' to be getting' a piece of me if he's goin' to face us! Yeah, I'll give 'em a big whoop or two! What do ya say, Chopper? We should go check out what's over there."

"Hmmm… I suppose we can." Chopper shrugged. "But we can't stay forever. We gotta go back here after, OK? Good. Now let's check what's there."

Chopper began to head on over to the north with his friends. They saw a big area with no rainbow in sight. The ground was made of darkness, and the sky looked black with yellow stars on the walls. At this point, everything felt silent.

"I don't feel comfortable here. It seems really scary…" Mallow trailed.

"I really have to admit. This place really is kind of…dark and scary, especially when you're completely alone." Chopper shivered. "I swear this place is just too dark…"

"Do you want my hand?" Bow asked.

"No way! I can handle myself!"

"Hey, guys... Look over there." Parakarry noticed a gravestone in the center of the room. "What's that doing here?"

"I don't like the looks of that grave… I wonder who died." Bow wondered as she slowly followed Chopper (who had the Zap Tap Badge on at the moment) over to the gravestone.

_Here lies the biker, Bob, the biggest jerk on the planet. He was killed by his own brother, Maquano. He has lived from the year ? to this day. As of now, he is haunting Rainbow Path and bringing people he hates to this dark graveyard. If you're here, then there's a reason._

"Bob? Is he…the one who stole those tickets from us in Nightclub Casino! He's…DEAD? !" Chopper gaped. "I don't feel comfortable here. I say we get out of here!"

Everyone attempted to head out, but the exit was blocked by darkness. They could hear an evil laugh as Bob's phantom appeared. As a phantom, he was completely black with white eyes. He also didn't have legs either.

_**"****You fell right into my trap, Chopper!" **_Bob cackled._** "Now I've got you at long last! I may have been destroyed by Maquano, but my goal to becoming the hardest has not ended! You're in my world now, and in my world, you will suffer!"**_

"Oh, great... Him again..." Chopper groaned.

_**"Not just a boss, but a super boss! And you know what? Super bosses are usually harder than the final boss!"**_

Everyone gulped as they got in their fighting stances, realizing that optional bosses usually were harder. What made it worse was the stats Chopper received from Toadsmeth.

**Tattle: **_This is Bob's phantom. He is a lot different than the normal Bob that he was before. Max HP: 290, Attack Power: 15, Defense Power: 1. He's got some VERY powerful moves that can even make him so strong, that he could possibly be stronger than even Bowser and Maquano! Bob wasn't kidding when he said he was going to be the toughest boss in the entire world. He's tougher than three C-D Anti Robos put together! That's how tough he is! Take him out FAST before things begin to go bad!_

_**"****There's no way you can harm me! Ghosts aren't affected by normal attacks! Try everything you can on me, 'cause It ain't gonna work! I've got some awesome powers that'll take you down! I'll even show them to you!" **_

"All right, let's see how you handle this!" Chopper ran towards the grave where Bob was floating above and he pulled out the Star Rod. Bob looked confused and got hit by a star, which made a bright light appear from him.

_**"****GAAAAH! Hey, this isn't fair! How can you do this? …Stupid Chopper…" **_he was then hit by Geno's Geno Beam afterward, but Bob wasn't going to go down without a fight, and he had something planned. He fired some white energy toward Chopper, but he was unfortunate to miss the attack. What was also strange was when the background changed. There was a sudden bloom and a harp playing, and the sky turned to a light blue, where they could see clouds. The ground changed to light brown.

"What the… This is odd. I didn't know this could change…" Chopper trailed as he used his Power Bounce on Bob and stomped on him twelve times. Bow floated over to Bob and used her Power Smack deal 10 damage. Bob's face looked a little swollen, but he didn't care at all that it was swollen, especially when he summoned his ghost motorcycle and charged toward Chopper with it, which he was able to run him over with it. While it did 15 damage, he ended up getting hurt by Chopper's Zap Tap.

"Hold on a minute, let me just lower his defense a little," Ghoster suggested as he hurled a Ghost Ball at Bob to lower his defense. Chopper nodded to him, thanking him, and then he hurled a light ball at the punk.

_**"****Gah! So…much…LIGHT! I can't take it anymore! …No, I'm not giving up so easily, but I still got this!" **_Bob revved his motorcycle, and a white laser fired at Chopper, who managed to guard the attack with no problem at all. He became Sorcerer Chopper afterward and struck lightning on Bob, making him cringe in pain.

"Good thinking, Chopper!" Koopla smirked as she got in her shell and used her Dizzy Shell attack. It hurt Bob, but he didn't become dizzy, unfortunately, but that's because he's an optional boss, and some bosses are immune to those attacks.

_**"****Nice try, but I can't become dizzy! Watch this!" **_Bob made some leaves attack Chopper, which didn't do anything. He looked confused and then became angry. The whole area changed to a graveyard, like how Ghost Pass would look like.

"This is interesting. Everything's changing up like this. I kind of like it!" Ghoster noticed as Geno used his Geno Boost to boost Chopper's Attack up by 4 so he could use a Power Bounce.

"Hi-YAAA!" Chopper used his Power Bounce and stomped on Bob eleven times. He was not pleased with this, so he came toward Chopper to land a combo attack, but Chopper only took 9 damage, with Bob getting hurt in the process. Some smaller Bobs came from him and helped boost his attack.

"Geno, you should get rid of them!" Chopper suggested. Geno nodded and turned into a cannon, firing a ball of energy at Bob and the mini Bobs and making them all take damage from the attack, destroying the minis.

"Good! Now I'll attack!" Chopper declared as he walked over to Bob and he used a Mega Smash on him. He did this because Bob's defense would go back to 1 after he landed the attack. With that, Bob grabbed Chopper and threw him at the wall while the background began to change to an 8-bit area. Even everyone else felt 8-bit.

"I feel kind of lightheaded right now…" Chopper trailed, rubbing his head. However, he walked over to Bob and used a D-Down Jump, with his stomping sounding a little different. Mallow made a cloud fall on Bob, which angered him. He got back on his motorcycle and revved it even louder, firing a white laser at Chopper, which he managed to duck.

_**"****Stupid motorcycle! Can't you do anything right!** **?"** _Bob raged._** "All you've been doing is sitting here all day and just being inanimate! DO SOMETHING!" **_

All of this yelling ended up getting Bob hit by a Power Bounce, with the help of Geno's Geno Boost to stomp on this baddie nine times and knocking him down. Bob slowly got back up and changed the place to a desert, which a certain Koopa wasn't fond of.

"Oh great, now we're in a freakin' desert! I hate these places!" Koopla groaned. Chopper told her not to worry as he ducked from Bob's punch, who got hit by the electricity from Chopper. After that, ge used more magic from his ability engulf Bob with flames. Bruce walked over to Bob and he exploded, making Bob come down toward Chopper and throw a bomb at him, making his ability get knocked away.

"I can't attack just yet. I need to recover my HP and FP." Chopper said as he took out a Jelly Ultra and he ate it, recovering 50 HP and 50 FP. C-2 Choppor fired missiles at Bob while Chopper finished healing. The phantom threw some white energy toward Chopper, and once he hit him, everything changed again. They were up on a mountain with snow, and it was also cold.

"I can't handle the cold!" Chopper shivered as he became Ice Chopper and he used his Ice Storm on Bob. Yosho quickly laid an egg and threw it at Bob, leaving him dazed.

_**"****Oh yeah, I almost forgot something!" **_Bob made a blizzard appear and attack Chopper. Even though it did some damage to him, he didn't become frozen. The whole background changed back to the dark area from when they first saw the grave. At this point, Bob knew that this fight wouldn't be as easy as he thought.

_**"****You're not so weak as I thought, Chopper!" **_Bob realized as Chopper removed his Ice ability and pulled the Star Rod out._** "Maybe I should try some things on you that I tried on Maquano! Yeah, it'll work out well! ...Wait, is that that weird Star Rod thing?"  
**_

Chopper used his Star Fire attack on Bob, and since it ignored defense, it did 10 damage. Parakarry followed up with a Shell Shot next, while Bob was screaming in pain from the light.

_**"****The light! Why does it burn so much! No, I can't worry about that. That's a foolish thing to worry about. I'm better than that! It's noogie time!" **_

Bob was about to grab Chopper but the Star Rod's power kept him away, plus when he grabbed Chopper, he got zapped by the Zap Tap Badge.

"So much for that!" Chopper used a Star Smash attack on Bob, and then after that, Yosho used his Ground Pound to leave Bob with only 30 HP left. With that, Bob ran toward Chopper to land a combo attack, but Chopper guarded the hit and Bob took damage from the attack, so Chopper used his Star Fire and Bow used her Power Smack to leave the phantom panting.

_**"****One thing I'm not getting is that I feel like I'm dying… This isn't right!" **_Bob fired another white laser at Chopper, which knocked him back. The phantom smirked and was going to finish him off by dashing toward him to fire a white ball of energy.

"Oh no you don't!" Chopper jumped off the wall and used Star Fire on him, and when the stars went right into his body, he felt a shining light on him.

_**"****AAAAAAAAAAHH! What's this…SHINING LIGHT? Chopper, if you even THINK that I'm going to be destroyed, you're wrong! I'm going to…"**_

Bob noticed the light that was completely enveloping him. At this point, he knew his time was up

_**"****Well, if you see Maquano, tell him…that I'll be giving him those noogies! I'll noogie him in his sleep! I'll even go on his computer, and I'll watch my favorite show: Magical Bunnies…" **_

When Bob finish, the light made him explode. Not only that, but the darkness in the area was gone, making the ground its rainbow color again and the sky it's nice color. Chopper got 50 Star Points from the battle and leveled up to upgrade his HP to 90.

"So Bob must have been causing all this darkness in this area," Geno realized. "Thank goodness we took care of him. We would've been in a lot of trouble if we didn't find him. But right now, we need to keep moving."

"Agreed, let's just leave this area before anything else bad happens," Chopper suggested as he left the area with his friends. He hit the Save Block when they left the other area and wanted to clear the gold Bob-ombs around with some fireballs. Bruce helped him clear out them as well, so they went up the stairs to the upper part of the area.

"Man, this is really intense. There are a lot of enemies here. That and…WHOA!" Chopper noticed a golden Chain Chomp coming their way. "Heads up! Chain Chomp coming toward us!"

"We need to get out of the way!" Mallow stretched his arms to grab Chopper and pulled him toward the invisible walls that were around Star Path. They noticed the four golden Chain Chomps ignored Chopper and his friends as they kept moving.

"It's strange… Those Chain Chomps didn't even look at us." Bow noticed. "I don't even think they really care that we're going to be saving Princess Peach. Next time if they appear, use my ability to avoid them, OK, Chopper? I think it'll work out just fine if we stay hidden from the Chain Chomps. We won't even get hurt."

"OK! Let's move now!" Chopper suggested as he headed to the next area and could see the path was curvy, but there were some brown blocks on the ground with Firebars spinning around in a circle.

"I got enough coins, so…" Chopper became Water Chopper and he squirted water at the Firebars, getting rid of the flames. This allowed them to move on. Yosho was looking at the rainbow and liked how it was glowing and beautiful.

"Man, I can't believe we're in a place this beautiful! It's full of life here, of ya ask me! It's…even better than bein' up in the clouds at Nimbus Castle!" Yosho smiled. "We were seein' a rainbow there, but this whole path is a rainbow! Talk about awesome! Oh, and not to mention that these sunglasses are helpin' me protect my eyes from this much light! I'm such a lucky Yoshi!"

"I'll say! This has EVERYTHING! I love it so much! And…" Bruce heard some barking sounds and the gold Chain Chomps were coming toward them. "Chain Chomps!"

Bow immediately made everyone invisible so the gold Chain Chomps would pass by them. Like before, they didn't pay much attention to them.

"This is going to be a pain with the Chain Chomps coming," Geno sighed. "We need to be VERY careful when walking. But I suggest we go faster right now in order to avoid them coming here."

Everyone nodded and when they moved, they became visible. Chopper ran toward the next area and saw a rainbow bridge crossing over to the next area, but there's a rainbow door there that was locked. It could only open up if the Chain Chomps were coming. There was sparkling water down below and some steps going down that led to the water.

"I say go into the water first before doing anything else!" Chopper jumped into the water and could see two islands. Luckily, since he was Water Chopper, he could surf over the large area. There was one island with a tree with rainbow leaves and another one had a Koopa with a mustache. For some reason, it looked a lot similar to the one from Koopa Bros. Park.

While Koopla was swimming towards the tree, she stopped and saw the Koopa with the mustache and the yellow shell. She began to squint a little to see who it was. For some reason, it looked like someone she had seen before in the past.

"Hey, Chopper, could you look over there for a moment?" Koopla asked while Chopper was whacking the tree with his hammer and grabbed a Rainbow Fruit, which could recover 75 HP and also Rainbow Water, which could recover 75 FP. He heard Koopla's voice and looked at the Koopa with the mustache, who was waving to him.

"Hey, that looks like the Koopa we saw at Koopa Bros. Park!" Chopper gawked. "What on earth is he doing here though? How on EARTH did he get to this place? This is just very confusing…"

"I'm sorry, Chopper. You said you've seen him before?" Parakarry questioned. "He reminds me of one of the Koopa Bros.!"

"Yeah, he does…but I want to see what he has to say," Chopper removed his power and swam toward the small island, while Yellow snickered. He was selling rainbow snow cones. There was a stand that even said "Rainbow Snow Cones" on it.

"Hey, didn't Koopla and I see you at Koopa Bros. Park? You offered me a hot dog and a ride on that train."

"Umm… No, that wasn't me. That was my…uh…evil twin that sells explosive hot dogs." Yellow lied badly. "I'm the good twin, Bobsled. I got some snow cones here, and they're really good! It doesn't cost any coins, so you don't need to give it to me in order to pay the money. Try one!"

Yellow put a bomb on the cone and put rainbow flavor on it and gave it to Chopper. The bomb's fuse was running, and when Chopper got the cone, the rainbow flavoring dripped on his gloves, making them messy.

"Aw, man! My gloves are sticky, and so are my hands!" Chopper cried. "I need to clean them, so can you hold onto this?"

"Oh, sure! I will!" Yellow grabbed the cone and Chopper began to clean his hands and gloves. Yellow was smiling as he watched Chopper. And then he looked back at the snow cone's fuse.

He was no longer smiling at this point.

_**KA-BOOM!**_

The bomb exploded right in his face, making his mustache come off. He knew he would be caught, so he quickly dove into the water to swim away and go through some hole that led down from Rainbow Path. It was like a waterfall that led down to Star Haven. The other Koopa Bros. were waiting down on the rainbow platform below the waterfall.

"Don't tell me. You messed up, didn't you?" Red asked as Yellow nodded. "Great, looks like we're screwed! We're running out of plans now!"

"Red, couldn't we just ambush them somewhere?" Black wondered. "I think that would work much better than sneaking around and doing it."

"I think I have to agree with Black. We should just go in for the attack right now!" Green suggested. "We always screwed up because of Yellow! How about we ambush them? We'll actually fight them that time! …And another thing…"

"What, Green?" Red asked.

"Is Dr. Pepper really a doctor? I don't understand why he can be considered a soft drink. I bet the person who thought of this is named Dr. Pepper. What's next? Dr. Tomato?"

"Uh… A pepper's a vegetable, and a tomato is a fruit."

"Isn't a pepper a fruit?"

"Nah, I think it's a vegetable," Black stated.

"It's a fruit!"

"Forget the whole fruit or vegetable thing," Red snapped. "Let's just catch Chopper!"

* * *

**Back with the heroes-**

Chopper grabbed the Rainbow Key that was right by him, but he was wondering where that salesman was. But, they had to leave, so everyone went up on the bridge to unlock the door to the next area, which was straight and had Firebars and gold Bob-ombs.

"This shouldn't be too hard. There's a Heart Block ahead anyway." C-2 Choppor said as they beat the enemies and moved over to the next area, but not without hitting the block. They found this next area a little small, but they were stopped by a voice.

"Hold it right there! This is where you stop!" the Koopa Bros. came down while flashing their thumbs. "Here come the Koopa Bros.!"

"Huh? You guys? Uh… Hmmm… You guys… Well what are you doing here?" Chopper asked.

"What are we doing here? We're here to kick your butt! That's what!" Red responded. "If it wasn't for that Star God, then we would've been able to show you some REAL stuff before! We're ready now, and you'll be going down in a matter of minutes!"

However, he paused when he noticed someone behind Chopper coming their way.

"Who's that coming here?"

"Uaaaaaaghhhh! I found you at long last, Chopper!" Jr. Troopa came running in and knocked the Koopa Bros. away.

"Dwahhhhhhhhh! Not agaaaaaaaaain!" Red cried as they were sent flying away. "When will we EVER get our chance to win? !"

"Oh, no... HIM again?!" Koopla gaped. "Geez! When will he EVER give up?!"

"At long last, I've got you where I want you!" Jr. Troopa cried. "After eleven defeats against you, I am fully ready to defeat you! And this time, defeat will be on YOU! You definitely remember me, don't you?"

"Nope, not at all," Chopper replied.

"Whaaaaaaaat! How could you not remember me! We've faced each other eleven times! It's me! Jr. Troopa! Or should I say _Master _Jr. Troopa! But now's not the time for chit-chat! I'm finally going to settle my score with you, Chopper! You better be ready!"

"Oh, come on! I wanted to fight the Koopa Bros.! Not this annoying Koopa! And we already faced you about eleven times! That's TOO much!"

**Tattle: **_I guess this is the last fight you'll ever have with this little guy. I think he's giving everything he has against you! Max HP: 230, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 3. You're going to want to be careful fighting him. He's got some pretty strong moves when he uses magic. Trust me, Chopper. He's not an easy foe. Not even Time Out's going to help you here._

"Wow, that Tattle really tells us that he' immune to Time Out!" Kayzee gasped. "I think he's going to be pretty tough!"

"Yeah, but he's still no match for us!" Chopper declared as he started off the fight with Star Fire, making Jr. Troopa get hit by stars. Unlike some of the bosses (like Bob's phantom), he was not extremely affected by light.

"Yeeeeeow! Those stars really hurt! Where did you learn something like that! ? Grrr!" Jr. Troopa growled as C-2 Choppor fired some missiles at him, which made him grit his teeth in anger, so he walked toward Chopper and stomped on his head. It did do some heavy damage to him, but it wasn't all that bad.

Chopper used a D-Down Stomp on his head, which was good because Jr. Troopa had 3 defense points, and then C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him. Because his attacks could pierce through defense, he was the one helping Chopper the most.

"Darn it! Darn it! DAAAARN IIIIIIIIIT!" Jr. Troopa cried. "OK, let's see how you deal with this! _Ultimate Power!_"

At that moment Jr. Troopa quipped his jetpack that made him go fast, a spike on his head, and a spear pointing away from him. But what Jr. Troopa did was he moved back with his jetpack and he came toward Chopper with the spikes on his head striking him first, but it was guarded by Chopper, luckily. Unlike his jump, this was able to do 14 damage.

Chopper was forced to use one of his Copy Abilities, so he decided to be Tornado Chopper. He made a big tornado and attacked Jr. Troopa with it to deal 7 damage. Mallow's Thunderbolt came in handy, so he used that attack to make lightning strike Jr. Troopa, who was able to come at Chopper again, knocking his Tornado ability away.

Chopper quickly shook his head and became Ninja Chopper. He disappeared and reappeared near Jr. Troopa and dove down at him from an angle, not hitting the spear and spikes.

"Smart move, Chopper!" Parakarry smiled as he flew up high to get ready for an attack.

"Shooooot! OK, I might as well try something else… I'll show you something!" Jr. Troopa's spike, spear, and jetpack were gone and took out his wand. He used his magic to fire lightning down on Chopper. His Ninja ability was knocked away, unfortunately, so he couldn't use that. Thankfully, he could be stomped on, so Chopper used his Jump Charge to boost his Jump attack by 4.

"Heads up!" Parakarry came flying down toward Jr. Troopa and attacked him, knocking him to the ground, but the young Koopa wasn't done yet. He got back up, panting a little bit.

"I'm not done yet! Take this!" Jr. Troopa got in his egg and surrounded himself in flames as he rolled toward Chopper and hit him. It wasn't as bad as the lighting, but this wasn't something they saw before.

"Geez... You're really using as much attacks as you could." Chopper gawked as he shook the flames off him.

"Let me boost your attack again. I think it'll be helpful." Geno suggested as he raised his arms up and raised Chopper's attack by 4. With that, Chopper was able to stomp on Jr. Troopa thirteen times, and after that, Jr. Troopa felt a little weaker, but that didn't stop him from striking Chopper with magic.

"OK, I think I should lower his defense!" Ghoster declared as he created a Ghost Ball and threw it at Jr. Troopa to lower his defense. Chopper walked over to Jr. Troopa and used Star Smash on him, smashing him on the head with the Star Rod, making him a little dizzy, but Jr. Troopa whacked Chopper with the Star Rod after.

"Ah-HA! Take that, Chopper!" Jr. Troopa grinned. Chopper retaliated by using Star Smash on him, while Bow used her Fan Smack on him. Jr. Troopa used his power to have a spike appear on his head to make it difficult for Chopper to jump on him. However, he didn't have a problem, because he used a Mega Smash on him instead, followed up with an egg Yosho threw at the small Koopa.

"Stupid defense, being down! I'll show you this!" Jr. Troopa roared as he came rushing at Chopper with the spike, but his attack was guarded by him, so Chopper didn't take that much damage. Jr. Troopa only had one more turn with his defense at zero, so they had to finish this up quick. Chopper simply fired a star at Jr. Troopa, and Koopla used her Shell Toss to hit him.

Magic was fired by Jr. Troopa from his wand, and Chopper guarded it just fine. Jr. Troopa's defense is back, so he had to use a D-Down Hand on him and threw a light ball. Bow used her Power Smack on him, leaving the baby Koopa with 17 HP.

"Darn it! Fine, let's see how you like this! This is the best I got!" Jr. Troopa equipped his jetpack, his wand, AND the spike on his head. He began to boost his Attack up by 3, making him deadlier.

"Oh boy… We gotta finish this!" Chopper used his D-Down Hand to hit Jr. Troopa with a light ball, and C-2 Choppor got his missiles out and fired them at the Koopa kid, knocking him to the ground in defeat. Chopper leveled up after receiving 47 Star Points, and upgraded his FP to 90.

"Nooooooo! Dang it! I can't believe I lost again!" Jr. Troopa whined. "Don't think you've won so easily, Chopper! I'll be back one day, and I'll win next time! You'll wish you never fought against me!"

And at that moment, Jr. Troopa ran away. At this point, Chopper hoped he and his friends would never see this horrible kid again.

"It's about time..." Bow sighed.

"Finally! We probably won't see him ever again!" Chopper cheered. "Let's just go before he comes back. Too bad we didn't fight the Koopa Bros. though… But we'll see!"

Chopper walked over toward the next pathway, and he and his friends began to follow him. They had a feeling that they were getting closer to the end of Rainbow Path.

* * *

**Some time later-**

"Man, how far have we been goin' anyway? I feel like we've been doin' this fer a VERY long time!" Yosho groaned. "But, it doesn't really matter that much. I like seein' all of this here 'cause of hos relaxin' it is! I wish I could've brought Yoshina here. She probably would've love this place, but I had to go leave her back there… What a shame fer me to do."

"Don't worry about it, Yosho. We'll all be fine." Chopper assured. "Yoshina's been there for many years. There's no way she'll get hurt there. You just need to worry saving the Mushroom Kingdom wit us. Plus, you need to worry about your safety right now. She's safe, and you're not."

"Heads up, Chopper! Some Chain Chomps are coming towards us again!" Bow yelled and she made everyone invisible. The Chain Chomps passed through them without them getting harmed.

"Those Chain Chomps aren't nice at all!" Kayzee whined. "They're just coming toward us without even moving out of the way! They're very rude!"

"Let's not even worry about them. They're doing what they want to do." Geno stated. "You can't stop them from doing that, I'm afraid. All we can do is just move on and ignore them for right now."

Chopper began to walk on the straight path that they were on. There was a small little box on the ground and a hidden block above it that required the Rocket Jump, so Chopper jumped on the box and used his Rocket Jump to get the block and smash the box, getting an Ultra Shroom from the block.

"You know, I don't understand why you eat mushrooms," Ghoster wondered. "Aren't mushrooms disgusting? In fact, don't they make you go hyper in any way? Anyone have an explanation for that?"

"No need for explanation! All we need to do is get moving!" Mallow declared. Chopper nodded in agreement and moved on through the area, using Bow to avoid the Chain Chomps yet again.

There were some rainbow-colored Dry Bones lurking around the area, which must be because the rainbow made them that. But with Chopper's fireballs, they were defeated EASILY, getting some Star Points from them.

Speed Dashing toward the door, Chopper swung the Star Rod and a star went into the door, opening it. It allowed everyone to go in to find some stairs leading up, so they walked up the stairs and avoided the Chain Chomp. But some of the stairs were being blocked by Rainbow Blocks.

"Aw, man! Rainbow Blocks! Well, it would make sense for them to be here." Koopla shrugged. "You know what to do, Chopper. Smash them with your Diamond Hammer and let's just get going. We can't stay here forever or else we'll be in some big trouble."

"I think Rainbow Path mostly will take my abilities to get through here," Chopper remarked as he smashed the Rainbow Blocks with his hammer You all already got to do something on Star Road and those other places. I finally get my chance here!"

"So many blocks!" Mallow gaped. "Man, you're lucky that you have that hammer to help you. Without that, we would be in some big trouble!"

Chopper agreed and used the Star Rod to open the door. He found a long rainbow bridge with two rainbow rings, which didn't do much at all. There was also a rainbow boost that could make Chopper move a little faster.

"This is odd… Why is there rainbow rings on this bridge?" C-2 Choppor wondered. "Well, we can't really question that right now. We should just go through here and… Chain Chomps coming toward us!"

Bow made everyone invisible again as the Chain Chomps passed them. Once they were gone, Chopper shrugged and used the boost to move faster across the bridge while everyone followed him.

"Maybe I should try this out!" Bruce used the boost, but he ended up slipping and rolling toward Chopper, though he didn't actually bump into him until they got to the door, where Bruce knocked Chopper to the ground as he stopping. "Sorry, Chopper!"

"Don't worry about it, Bruce. I'm just fine." Chopper assured as he opened the door. Everyone reached him and proceeded on to the next area, which had a spiral pathway going up higher on Rainbow Path. From what they knew, going up meant that they could get closer to Staris's Shrine.

"Well, since I can fly up there, I'll meet you at the top, Chopper!" Parakarry declared as he began to fly up to the top, where everyone else watched. It wasn't a big deal that everyone couldn't fly anyway. Chopper simply used his speed to go around the spiral path to the top, where they found a speed ramp that led to another part of Rainbow Path with a large gap in between. After using the ramp, they didn't see any railing on the edges, making Mallow gulp.

"Uh oh… Chopper, we have a HUGE problem. We can't even walk around safely! And also…" Mallow stopped when he saw the Chain Chomps coming toward them. "Hold on! Chain Chomps are coming towards us!"

"Hold on, I'll handle this," Bow floated ahead and covered her face. When Chopper realized what she was going to do, his antennas sprung up.

"Guys, turn back NOW," Chopper ordered. "If you see what she's going to do, there's a chance you're going to be scared."

He immediately turned around and covered his face. Everyone decided to do this too and they did. The Chain Chomps were coming toward Bow, but then she used her Spook to make them stop and run away in fear. With that, they were no longer racing, making them safe.

"There we go, Chopper! Our problem is solved!" Bow declared as she grabbed Chopper's hand and dragged him through the area, which made Chopper groan. However, the pathway ahead was blocked by darkness, making Bow let go of Chopper.

"Wait, is THAT why you brought me here? OK… I'll handle it." Chopper shrugged as he threw a light ball at the darkness to destroy it. Everyone else came to him and were able to take the path to another area.

They could see a Bowser Statue in the area with a crack in it. The door up ahead was locked, and there was an opening that seemed to have a bomb slot. Unfortunately, Bruce couldn't fit through, so Chopper became Bomb Chopper and threw a bomb in there, making it explode.

"What the…" Chopper saw four small Bowser statues appeared from its remains. They appeared to be moving, but Bruce walked over to them. That is, until the Bowser Statues spoke.

"Halt! If you want to make it through here, you must guess which one it holding the right key!" one of the statues had a key and began to move around. When they stopped, Chopper threw a Bomb at the last one, which dropped the key. Once they were all gone, Chopper picked up the key.

"That wasn't such a hard puzzle..." Yosho trailed.

"Let's get going, then!" Chopper suggested as he walked over to the door and unlocked it with the key. They found a small little area with a Save Block and Heart Block, so Chopper hit both of them.

"OK, let's move on," he opened the door with the Star Rod and headed on through to find an area that was a little big, but they could see the end of Rainbow Path up ahead.

"Hey, we made it to the end!" Kayzee squealed. "I don't know why the Save Block was there, but we're just fine!"

However, they noticed a shadow getting bigger in front of them. It looked like something Chopper, Koopla, and Bruce had seen before. However, it looked like one of Maquano instead. It was a Trojan Maquano.

"Well well well! It looks like you managed to show up, Chopper!" Trojan Maquano bellowed. "Too bad it all ends here for you! Ha ha ha ha! You're going to wish you've never come here!"

"You're kidding me, right? You REALLY think you can fool us with that disguise?" Koopla face palmed.

"You tried this before, and it was pretty bad…" Bruce trailed as Trojan Maquano lifted its cardboard sword up to strike down on them, but they all avoided the attack before they could get hit.

**Tattle: **_OK, first the Bowser one and now this? I don't really need to tell the stars, but I'll give them anyways. Max HP: 10, Attack Power: 1, Defense Power: 7. This is not really as powerful as the Bowser one. It's…the same. Even with a high defense it's nothing! Seriously, I imagined Maquano to look scarier than this!_

Chopper walked over to Trojan Maquano and he used his hammer on him. That only did 1 damage, but Bruce's Bomb attack could wipe the floor with this thing.

"Leave this to me, Chopper! I'll blow that thing up!" Bruce declared as he walked over to Trojan Maquano and blew it up instantly. As it fell apart, the Koopa Bros. landed on the ground and flashed their thumbs.

"Here come the Koopa Bros.!"

"Wait, what the heck?!" Chopper gawked. "I thought you guys were knocked away by Jr. Troopa!?"

"Just because a little pipsqueak was able to knock us away doesn't mean we're going to just let ourselves fail! No way" Red shot back. "Since you probably took care of him, we got this in the bag! You're probably too weak after your fight! Now to show you our new skills!"

Red got up on the tower and he pointed at them while his finger flashed. "Now! Time for our special move: super flaming spin!"

All the Koopa Bros. got in their shells and spun around while flames surrounded them. Each of them attacked, with Chopper guarding each attack.

"Ha! Did you like that? That was our new attack! I bet you weren't expecting THAT!"

"True, but I don't think you'll expect this! Go, Bruce!" Chopper pointed at the tower and Bruce used his Bomb to explode right in front of them, making the tower fall over and knock them down.

**Tattle: **_You know the Koopa Bros., and you should know how they fight. They all have 90 HP and an attack of 13 and a Defense of 2. They're not really that tough, since you were able to take them on before. Honestly, if they're flipped over, you got this fight. Just keep them all flipped over, OK?_

"Can't…get up!" Red groaned, struggling to get up. This allowed Chopper to use his Power Bounce on Green to stomp on him eight times.

"All right, I'll show them what I got!" Koopla declared as she got in her shell and used her Power Shell, hitting all four of the Koopa Bros. Unfortunately, they were all able to get back up again after falling.

"OK, let's take out Green first, since he's at the front," Chopper suggested as he jumped on Green and flipped him over. Geno used his Geno Beam to attack after that. Green couldn't get up, but the other Koopa Bros. used a normal attack. However, Yellow used an Electric Shell, Black used a Dizzy Shell, and Red used a Fire Shell. As deadly as they looked, Chopper was able to guard them.

"See? We all learned an elemental shell attack!" Red grinned. "I bet you never learned that! That's what makes us the coolest of the cool!"

"You're kidding me…" Chopper walked over to Green and whacked him with his hammer, and then Kayzee used her scream to make the Koopa Bros. cover their ears from the noise.

"Ack! My ears are about to pop!" Black cringed as it made them flip over, only to have Green get back up. Chopper simply used his D-Down Jump to flip Green over again.

"This isn't as hard as I thought…" Koopla trailed as C-2 Choppor used his Multi-Fire to make him fire blasts at all four of them. It did 8 damage to them, and it felt like they were all going to be getting back up except for Green.

"Screw Green! We can make the tower without him!" Red declared. "No, wait! Let's use our OTHER attack."

The three Koopa Bros. that got up got in their shells and began to use an attack similar to Parakarry's Air Raid, except much more dangerous. It could deal 15 damage, which is what Chopper took from their attack.

"OK, let's finish Green off," Chopper suggested as he walked over to Green he used his Mega Smash to leave him with 10 HP left.

"Laser Cannon fully ready. Stand back!" C-2 Choppor aimed at the four and he fired the cannon, which did 10 damage to all of them and made Green get knocked away in defeat. He simply hid in his shell in this weakened state.

The three Koopa Bros. remaining formed a tower again and used their flaming shell attack. Since Chopper didn't have his Zap Tap Badge on anymore, he took 15 damage, unlike before, which could've been 16. Chopper had Bruce use his Bomb attack to knock them all down, and then he attacked Yellow with a regular Jump attack. The Koopa Bros. were struggling to get up once again.

"Gah! Our power is great…but getting up while on your back…not so great." Red moaned.

Chopper used his Power Bounce on Yellow again and stomped on him nine times. After that, Yosho used his Ground Pound on Yellow's belly, which he tried to hold in pain.

"My belly's starting to hurt..." Yellow cringed.

All three of the Koopa Bros were able to get up after struggling a couple of minutes. However, Chopper used Star Fire on all three of them, making them take 10 damage.

"I think I got a good idea on finishin' off Yellow! Watch this!" Yosho walked up to the front and unleashed his Dragonbreath on them, scorching Yellow and making him flee.

"Hot! Hot! HOOOOOOT!" Yellow cried as he began to roll around in his shell while Red face palmed.

"Grrr! Well he always was stupid." Red remarked. "We messed up on many things anyway, so I don't really care about him being defeated. Black! Let's do this!"

Black got down and Red jumped on the top, pointing at Chopper while flashing his finger.

"You're going to regret defeating us last time, Chopper! YOU HEAR ME! Watch this!" Red and Black got in their shells and both of them attacked Chopper. When they stopped, Bruce blew up in front of them and knocked them down.

"Red… Maybe that was a bad idea…" Black moaned.

"Shut up…" Red shot back, struggling to get up. Chopper smiled and stomped on Black with a normal jump. Thankfully, they still struggled to get themselves up.

"OK, let's just finish this up," Chopper threw a light ball at Black, and then Mallow made a cloud fall on him after that, leaving him with 10 HP left.

"Ah…HA!" Red was able to get back up and helped Black back up. However, despite this, they were a little exhausted.

"Yeah, 'Ah HA!' But it'll be 'Ah HA' for me soon! Hi-ya!" Chopper fired a star at Black, and then he was finished off by Ghoster's Psychic, which made him hit Red while Black was knocked back by the other two, hiding in his shell in his weakened state.

"Crud… I'm the only one left! Well no matter! I'm going to mop the floor with you right now!" Red growled as he got in his shell and used his Fire Shell on Chopper, hitting him directly. The pale green boy simply flipped him over with his D-Down Jump.

"Not again! I HATE it when you do this!" Red cried as Koopla attacked with her Shell Toss, while he struggled to get himself up.

"This is it, Red! Just one jump and it's over!" Chopper jumped up and stomped on Red, which knocked him over to the other Koopa Bros., who were hiding in their shells. Chopper got himself 48 Star Points and a level up and upgraded his BP to 54.

"I'm not done yet! For old time's sake, take this!" Bruce walked toward the Koopa Bros., who got themselves up and exploded, sending the Koopa Bros, flying off of Rainbow Path.

"_**NOOOOOO! Yellow, I blame all of this on you!**_"

They screamed as they fell toward the Mushroom Kingdom. They ended up landing in their own park and destroyed it in the process because of how high they were from the Mushroom Kingdom.

"Well, looks like we won't be seeing them again," Chopper smiled. "There are still some minions left that Bowser has, so I don't think it's all over yet, guys. There are PLENTY of minions to beat up, but as of now, we're done with Rainbow Path now!"

"We're almost there, Chopper. I can feel it." Geno sensed. "Yes, we're coming near to the end of our adventure soon. We better hurry before Bowser can do anymore evil deeds…such as try to destroy Mario…or maybe you."

Chopper nodded and he toward the rainbow bridge leading to a place above Rainbow Path. For some reason, they place looked a lot familiar to Kayzee.

"No way... We're heading there?" Kayzee gasped.

* * *

**Yeah, it's one of the longest chapters like I said before, but it's definitely one of my favorites. Probably because I liked all three fights (even though I HATE Jr. Troopa, I'll admit that I liked the fight against him). I bet some people weren't happy to see that the Koopa Bros. were knocked away by Jr. Troopa again. Well, at least they fought them.**

**Well, the next chapter is a lot shorter, and it's a little different compared to the other chapters in Chapter 16 so far. A little more story, actually.**


	103. Star Town and Its Past

Chopper was the first to make it to the town, which appeared to be medium-sized. There were some light blue buildings, a shop, an inn to stay in, and also a kitchen house where some Stars living there could actually make food. Also, there was a place where they could get Badges.

"Did we just walk into some kind of town similar to Star Haven?" Bruce gawked. "It feels like we're back from the start of this whole adventure! I don't mean the very beginning, I mean the beginning where we got to Star Haven. Look at this place! It looks fairly familiar to that town in Star Haven! But which one is Star Haven? I'm so confused…"

"They're both Star Haven, Bruce," Geno explained. "However, we just made our way to **Star Town**. It's the oldest town created by Staris. The first place of Star Haven is Staris's Shrine, since he created his own home first. It's actually very difficult for one to get there on foot. It's actually impossible without the Star Rod, which we thankfully have.

"That's why the Star Spirits let us go to Star Road, because we restored the Star Rod," Chopper nodded. "But I don't understand why they couldn't have just taken us there instead of just taking the long way. I would've wanted to take the shorter way, because it would've made things easier for us."

"Maybe it's because they don't have enough power to do it," Mallow shrugged. "They probably used up most of their power to give you the ability to shoot stars from the Star Rod. Even if they didn't do that, I don't think it would've worked, sadly. Many big things happened while we were here, like with Ghoster and Yosho."

"Yeah, we know that already," Ghoster replied. "Hauntost deserved to get destroyed by me."

"Was Hauntost your older or younger brother?" Kayzee asked.

"Honestly... I don't know."

"Well that's a shame. It would've been nice to know if you were older or younger." Bruce sighed. "Usually they make the good guy the younger brother and the bad guy the older brother for some reason. It kind of sucks with that, but I hope one day they change that around and make something with the older brother being the good guy and the bad guy being you-know-what."

Chopper noticed the Stars around were pretty weak, just like the others past Star Way. He looked a little sad to see them like this, especially when they began to die.

"I feel bad for these Stars..." Bow trailed sadly. "I'm not one to always feel bad for people, but these Stars are DYING. That's probably the worst thing to happen. I don't understand why Bowser had to go steal the Star Rod."

"Well technically, Maquano told him to go steal it," C-2 Choppor noted. "But when did Maquano hear about the Star Rod? That's something I want to know right now. I suggest we just take a look around here and get some information. Hopefully they can say something…"

"All right, then let's get started!" Koopla began to take a look around, and everyone except for Chopper followed her. He was looking at all of the Stars and saw them die. He even looked up at the sky to see some more stars disappearing from the sky.

_"Hey, Chopper! Come over here!" _Chopper's antennas sprung up when heard a voice and saw between two houses, Fairisp was waiting for him. This got Chopper's attention and ran between the shop and the inn.

"Fairisp? What are you doing here? Did you just leave me when I fell down from those clouds after fighting Valentina?" Chopper asked as he heard her cackling softly. "Excuse me... Were you cackling at me or something?"

_"Um… No, that wasn't me."_ Fairisp responded._ "OK, it was me, but it was a little joke I remember hearing. But, you need to listen to me, Chopper! That last Power Star you got, Maquano put something in it that when you place it at Staris's Shrine, the Mushroom Kingdom will be destroyed! I heard Maquano even talking about this!"_

"Where exactly did you hear this from?" Chopper asked before Fairisp made his sight fade away.. "Ack! What are you doing! Don't do this to me again! I'm telling you!"

* * *

**500 years ago-**

When his vision came back, he found himself in Star Town again. He was in the exact spot and could see all the Stars circling around, looking a little worred.

"Huh? I'm in the exact same place as I was before! What is this?" Chopper walked over to the Stars and began to listen to what they had to say. It seemed like it was something very important.

"Maquano and his minions are coming to Staris's home!" a Star cried. "They're going to destroy the place! Oh man, why did a day like this have to happen? After getting such a great visitor from a faraway planet! I wish Tonberria stayed a little longer, because she could've been some great help!"

"It's too late for that, I'm afraid. The only one who can help us now is Staris. He can probably drive those evil ones away! If only someone could fight them!"

They all turned around and saw Chopper, which gave them an idea.

"Hey, you really remind me of that Tonberria girl who came here. In fact, your skin color looks A LOT similar to her's. Think you can help us? You seem to look like her a little with the skin, and from the looks of it, you have something special."

"Umm… Sure, I guess. I don't know how to get there." Chopper shrugged until he was taken out of Star Town and found himself in front of a shrine, where he could see Hellspawns aiming their guns at the seven Star Spirits, who were guarding the place.

"You will NOT be destroying this precious shrine!" Eldstar cried. "This will not please Staris one bit, and you will end up running into some trouble."

Maquano cackled at him as he fired his dark magic at him, knocking him away

"Silly old Star! You can't get past us! We're much stronger than you! Now! Hellspawns! Go and destroy this place!" Maquano ordered as the Hellspawns walked up the stairs, with Maquano following them. When they got to the pedestal, Staris rose up from his puddle to stop them and let out a roar.

"Lord Maquano! Big problem! There's a monster in our way and… AGH!" the Hellspawns were sent flying back by Staris's fists. Meanwhile, Maquano noticed this power and was quite intrigued.

"Hmm… Interesting. He really must love this place very much. And…" Maquano felt star energy surrounding him and saw Staris spread his arms out and use his power to lift the Hellspawns and Maquano off the ground.

"Aaaaargh… N-Noooooooo! _Hmph! I'm rather impressed by his power! Maybe one day I can get a hold of him and use him one day… I should find a way, though!_" Maquano thought as he and his Hellspawns were sent flying away. Chopper gasped and made his way up the stairs to confront Staris, who roared as it stepped closer to him.

"Uh oh… Please don't hurt me!" Chopper begged, shaking in fear. However, there was one thing that caught him off guard. He noticed a mysterious figure cackling and taking off from Staris's Shrine.

"What the—Who was THAT? I never saw someone like that before!" Chopper gawked as he looked back at Staris, who was about to punch him, but before he could get hit, his vision faded away once again.

* * *

**Present-**

Chopper returned to the present and was a little dumbfounded at the moment. Staris was protecting his shrine, but that shadow he saw didn't look like anything he'd ever seen. He began to ponder...until he got slapped by Fairisp.

_"Wake up already, Chopper!" _Fairisp shouted.

"Huh…? Oh, I guess I was on some kind of snooze cruise... But who cares?" Chopper shrugged. "Wait a minute… Fairisp, I saw some strange shadowy figure around the shrine. Do you know who that was?".

_"Umm… I'm afraid I don't know, Chopper, but listen to me. Don't put the Star Rod in its pedestal! It's going to be the end of the Mushroom Kingdom before you know it!"  
_

"But the Star Spirits told me that I need to do it to save the Stars! I'm not really sure if I should believe you... You're not really giving me any answers..."

_"Trust me, this is what I heard from Maquano while spying on him. Take this too." _Fairisp pulled out a pale yellow orb and handed it to Chopper. _"This is the Light Orb. If you throw it at anything, it will be sealed in there for eternity. Chopper, don't use this on Bowser, because it will be a complete waste! This is meant to be used on Maquano and only him! I took this from the Star Spirits so I could give it to you. It's very important that you don't tell them that I took it from them!"  
_

"What? I can't do that!" Chopper gaped. "I'm a completely honest person most of the time! I'm not going to do that to the Star Spirits! Look, I have my own ways of fighting Maquano. I don't need your stuff."

_"You NEED it, Chopper! This will keep him sealed from eternity, so you will never see him again! I'm not joking! Weaken him first and then throw it at him. Chances are you'll get rid of your arch-nemesis for sure!"  
_

"OK… I'll take it." Chopper sighed and took the Light Orb from Fairisp, who immediately left. "Well she left in a hurry. It's kind of strange that she didn't give me enough answers... Well, anyway, I better go find my friends."

Chopper looked around for his friends, where he found them at a pathway that was made of stardust and stars. Bow saw Chopper and dragged him over to the pathway.

"Chopper, this is the way we need to go!" Bow exclaimed. "This is **Bowser's Road**! I think Bowser put this road here in order for his minions to reach the castle. This is our chance to stop him and save Peach!"

"Bowser's Road, huh? Well I'm glad we made it!" Chopper smiled as he jumped cheerfully. "I guess this is our last stop before going to Staris's Shrine, right? Well this path looks a lot different than Star Road and Rainbow Path. There's some kind of light on the path, which looks pretty cool! Anyway, let's go, guys!"

Chopper and his friends exchanged nods as they made their way toward the last way to reach Bowser: Bowser's Road.

* * *

**It's short, but I don't have a problem with that. ****What's something to note is that Bowser's Road is the longest area in the entire story. Usually some of them took just one chapter, but this one takes two.**

**Be prepared, because a lot of interesting things will occur there...**


	104. Metal Chopper's Revenge

As Chopper and his ten partners walked out of Star Town, they were now on the road to Bowser's Castle. It looked gorgeous, even it was Bowser's Road. The path was made of stardust and the road seemed to have white light on it. They could see the stars getting duller and dying, indicating that there weren't many stars left in the dark blue sky.

There was no time to lose. Chopper kept going as he looked at Bowser's Road. He could see Firebars were set up in the area to get Chopper and burn him to a crisp. However, with his Water ability, he got rid of the Firebars and moved on with his friends. Geno noticed a new Hammer Bro. called a Fire Bro., with another one being an Ice Bro.

"Fire Bros. and Ice Bros.?" Geno gawked. "Be careful, Chopper. These guys are not to be messed with. They can freeze or burn you!"

A Fire Bro. spat a fireball from it mouth at Chopper, but he got rid of the fireball by squirting water at it.

"Ha! You SERIOUSLY think you're going to hurt me with my Water ability on? Please… You can do much better than that!" Chopper scoffed as the Ice Bro spat an ice ball at Chopper, which froze him and forced Bow to take action.

"Stand back, everyone!" Bow ordered as she covered her face, leaving the Fire Bro. and Ice Bro. confused. While they gawked, Bow used her Spook and made the two Bros. jump in fear and turn white.

"Aaaahh! Let's run for it, Bro!" the Ice Bro. cried as the two Hammer Bros. ran in fear as Bow cackled. Everyone else stopped covering their eyes and ears and saw they were gone.

"Well good work, Bow! That was impressive! …But Chopper's still frozen." Parakarry noted.

"No worries," Bow grabbed Kayzee and made her use her Heat Vision to melt away the ice, thawing Chopper out so he could move. Sadly, because of the ice, he didn't have his Water ability on.

"…Oh? They're gone? I was about to make a cool attack on them!" Chopper frowned as he shook himself and warmed himself up with a fireball. "But, oh well… At least they're gone. That's for sure."

"Aw, man! I wanted to be the one to thaw Chopper! My Dragonbreath would've done the trick!" Yosho frowned. "I know I'm usually cool with the ladies, but my breath can melt things down 'cause it's so hot! …Wait, scratch that thing with the ladies. I never really did a good job gettin' them anyway."

"Uhhhh... Yeah..." Geno trailed.

"I never expected to see those kinds of Hammer Bros.," Bruce gawked, getting back on topic. "They must know some cool elemental attacks. It might be dangerous to even run into them again! Though… I can just explode in front of them to give 'em a nice surprise!"

"We'll beat them, don't worry," Chopper assured as he began to move on toward the next area, which had a silver platform they jumped on with two Elite Magikoopas on their broomsticks patrolling.

"We've been waiting for you, Chopper! Oh yes! King Bowser REALLY wants to see you! Indeed!" an elite Magikoopa cackled. "But the only problem with that is that we've come to destroy you! Magikoopa Pete! Let's take them down!"

They both raised their wands and shot a fireball down at Chopper, who jumped out of the way.

"Since they attack at a far range… I think I better go close range!" Chopper equipped his Suplex ability and grabbed one of the Elite Magikoopas and slammed them on the other. It knocked them away and disintegrated into smoke in defeat. Chopper quickly ran toward the next area and could see the path curving down and then up and then going to the right. They could see some castle ruins around as well, meaning that there was once a castle in this place.

"Oh, this doesn't look so good," Kayzee frowned. "There was probably a castle here and now it's gone! I really feel bad for whoever used to live in the castle! …But it looks like it was made many years ago, so I think that time already passed. But still, it feels terrible!"

"This looks like it was destroyed by Bowser," Koopla pondered. "If that's true, then that sucks. Hopefully we'll be able to make him pay for that..."

"Uh huh..." Bruce agreed.

They could only move on as they saw some Elite Koopatrols trying to attack, but they were able to defeat them with no problem. The road was very long, and there were even some flames firing from a golden Bowser statue they saw in the next area as they walked straight.

"These Bowser statues look like the one we saw on Syrup Path when we saw that Goomba!" C-2 Choppor noticed as they walked past the statues. "Maybe this is what they were for. I had a feeling Bowser was planning this thing the whole time…"

A Lakitu on a yellow cloud appeared, pulling out some Spinies with golden shells was trying to throw it at Chopper in the next area, which seemed to have some platforms made of white light and stardust. Luckily, Chopper could jump on them, so he did that.

"Oh, not this… Well I still have my clouds to help me, so I'll do that instead!" Mallow decided as he made a cloud and jumped on it, taking him up. Bruce got on it and it took him up too. The rest jumped over to the upper pathway and were in another similar area. Chopper remembered he saw the stars were were up, down, up, up, down, up, down, and up in the sky. It was almost like something from Bowser's Castle.

"Oh, man… We better go in the order we saw those stars." Chopper sighed. "No need to worry, I know what the order is anyway."

"I know it too, so you're not alone, Chopper!" Ghoster added.

"Oh... OK then."

They began to take the order that they needed to go through the area, and after doing that, they could see an airship at the distance. Actually, there were two airships out there that were firing cannons at each other. As they fired, they seemed to get closer.

"Hey, Chopper… Those two airships… One of them has your head on it!" Geno noticed. "Don't suppose that they made it here too, right?"

Chopper nodded as he seemed relieved that the airship finally made it over to them. However, it wasn't good when he saw that smoke began to come out of their own airship. This made him grasp onto the Star Rod and hold it back, readying to strike at it.

"What are you doing, Chopper?" Bow asked.

"Saving them!" Chopper swung the Star Rod and a star fired towards the airship with Bowser's minions, which got struck. C-1 TM was the first to notice this, however.

"What? Who did that?" he looked down at the star, which damaged the Bowser airship and went through it. C-1 TM looked up and saw that this was done by Chopper. His eye zoomed in closer to get a better look, and he did see Chopper and C-2 Choppor, which did not please him in the slightest.

"Them… They made it here already! And they damaged the airship!" With that, the airship began to explode, with both of them crashing down. This made everyone abandon the ship and land down in the ocean in the Mushroom Kingdom. However, the only one in both airships that didn't leave was C-1 TM.

"I'm not going to let myself leave here just yet! I still have one last thing to do…" C-1 TM growled as he began to fly toward the airship, but he got caught in the explosion. All that could be seen from him was a glowing blue eye.

"Uh oh… I think I accidentally took down our own! …Man, I'm so stupid at times!" Chopper face palmed.

"That was…not good. But Bowser's minions are no longer a big problem to us, so we're probably good with that." Bow assured as she comforted Chopper. "As for our friends… I don't know. They could possibly be returning home now since you kinda destroyed our airship, but don't blame yourself."

"Yeah, Bow's got a point. Don't blame yourself for this." Parakarry assured. "You didn't destroy our airship on purpose. It was all a big accident. You know, some kind of misunderstanding or something along those lines."

"Don't worry about it," Geno suggested. "The important thing is to find Bowser and bring the Star Rod back where it needs to be. That's your goal, and you can't stop now. We need to keep moving."

"You're right, I guess we need to move on," Chopper nodded as he moved on with his Speed Dash. They found a Whomp blocking the way, which was about to squish Chopper, but once he jumped out of the way, he got on the Whomp and used his Rocket Jump to smash its back and destroy it, allowing everyone to pass on through.

"This sure is a long path… It's madness, I tell ya!" Yosho gaped. "Why do we have to be goin' through such a long road to Bowser's Castle? Wait, Chopper! Couldn't ya have taken the uh… I don't know."

Chopper shrugged, having no idea what Yosho was talking about and moved on through the road. There were some star statues around that could be destroyed with the Star Rod and also some ice on the ground, which made Mallow shivered.

"Man, is it me or is it just COLD out here! I think I'm going to freeze!" Mallow stammered while his teeth chattered. Chopper threw a fireball so it could melt some of the ice on the road. The Bowser statues were even breathing out ice as well.

"I think I'm going to need to be Ice Chopper here…" Chopper put on his Ice ability and began to ice skate across some of the ice he didn't melt. When he passed the Bowser statue, he didn't become frozen, but he did use his icy breath to freeze the statue and destroy it with a light ball.

"OK, it's clear! Let's get a move on!" Chopper began to ice skate to the north, which was going up a slope, then to the right a little, then south, and then going up. They found a pathway up ahead that led to another icy area, which he began to skate through while enjoying it.

"Weeeeeeeeeee!" Chopper cheered as he used his Ice Storm on some on the Spinies the Lakitus were throwing. Bow knocked the Lakitu off with her Smack, while Chopper froze the Lakitu with his Ice Storm. Things were working out well until a Whomp blocked the way.

"Halt! You're not going through here unless you pay me 100 Coins! If you refuse, then I'll crush you!" the Whomp bellowed. Chopper and his friends looked at each other, confused, and then Geno used his Geno Whirl to defeat the Whomp instantly, dealing 999 damage.

"There we go. That takes care of that enemy for right now. We better get going before more things begin to happen." Geno suggested.

"Too bad that doesn't work on bosses..." Chopper trailed.

"Well there's no point. Let's just move on."

The next area was a straight area with Whomps and Lakitus. Chopper continued to ice skate through the area and he reached the next pathway. Unfortunately, the ice skating came to an end when they all saw lava on the road. There was some Fire Snakes that were jumping on the platforms, as well as some Lava Bubbles jumping out of the lava.

"Yer kiddin' me! First we find some really cold area an' now we're in a hot area?" Yosho guffawed as Chopper replaced his Ice ability with his Fire ability, noticing that ice was not good in fire areas. "Man, this ain't right! I wish we could go back to the cold area!"

"That was a close one for you, Chopper! It felt like you were going to melt to death!" Mallow sighed. "Well, your crown was going to melt, that is... Hopefully my clouds can get us through here…or maybe Kayzee could just fly us over the lava!"

"Or better yet, we just jump on the platforms," Koopla added. "I think that works a lot better than those other things. The platforms might sink, but we'll go faster than doing something like what you were thinking of."

They were about to go, but Bruce stopped for a moment. "Hold on a minute, couldn't you just be Water Chopper in order to take out the fireballs around here? That would make more sense, wouldn't it?"

Chopper realized this and became Water Chopper. He squirted some water at a Fire Snake on a platform to defeat it before it could jump over to them. After that, Chopper jumped on the platform, while C-2 Choppor scanned the lava.

"My scanners indicate that this lava will burn you to a crisp, just like all lava," C-2 Choppor informed.

"Well of course it does..." Yosho trailed. "That's why it's lava."

"I was just trying to be helpful..."

"This should be easy for me!" Kayzee declared. "I can just fly over the lava! …Of course, I'll still help you guys if you're in any danger."

"Yeah, but thankfully, none of us are in..." Geno stopped when almost fell in the lava, but Parakarry managed to grab him before he could fall. "Oh, man... I thought I'd burn for a moment!"

"That was a close one for you, Geno! You could've gotten hurt!" Parakarry noted as he flew him across the area while avoiding getting burnt. Chopper noticed a lava fall coming up ahead and tried to squirt it with water, but sadly, that didn't work.

"That's not going to work. You need to be invisible like this." Bow informed as she made Chopper invisible and went through the lava fall. After that, she aided everyone else as well to reach the next area, where they found some Darklings and Hellspawns having a discussion.

"So, you're saying we should make a new corporation down in Hell? Are you serious?" a Darkling gawked. "There's nobody that we can trick—er, help people by having them give us money! We're already down ten million coins! That's going to cost us A LOT!"

"Yeah, he's right," a Hellspawn agreed. "What's good about that anyway? It's not going to be of good use! How about we try something else? A corporation company would cost us a lot of money, and we could end up broke. Lord Maquano would HATE it if we did that! We would have to ask him about it anyway."

"Good idea, we should do that," another Hellspawn noticed Chopper and his friends and jumped up a bit. "Guys! Chopper's here! Evacuate right now! We can't let him know we're here!"

The Hellspawns and Darklings began to fly away while Chopper was about to shoot a light ball at them. However, Geno stopped him, telling him that it wasn't necessary. Chopper sighed and lowered his arm before looking at the path ahead. They needed to go up a small, narrow slope on the road.

"I don't think you need the ability on, Chopper. Feel free to take it off!" Ghoster suggested. Chopper shrugged and removed his ability and ran up the slope afterward. They ended up finding another path above them and also a block in the small part of the area they were in.

"Looks like it's back to the gravity stuff… Man, that stuff was a PAIN." Chopper sighed as he jumped under the block to change the gravity, making everyone land upside down on another pathway with a corkscrew ahead.

"Another corkscrew? OK! I don't mind this!" Bruce shrugged as everyone began to get through the corkscrew and found a switch in the next area to bring the gravity back to normal.

"How much have we gone through? It feels like we've gone through A LOT around here." Yosho groaned. "But I won't complain about it. This is probably goin' to get intense anyway, so we better be ready fer anythin'."

"Yeah, good idea," Chopper nodded as he walked toward the next area after knocking down a Whomp and pounding its back.

* * *

**Up in space-**

After flying away from Bowser's Road, the Hellspawn Colonel shot a blast and revealed a black and red portal.

"All right, we better go back to Hell in order to make some new plans," declared the Hellspawn Colonel. "We can't let Chopper see us at all. Boys, this means we're not leaving Hell at all unless if it's completely necessary! Do you hear me!"

"Sir, yes sir!" the Hellspawns and Darklings nodded.

"Hold it right there!" the Hellspawns saw Metal Chopper aiming his gun at them in anger. The Hellspawns took out their guns and aimed at him - only to have them get swiped away by Metal Chopper's blue laser sword.

"_**WHERE'S CHOPPER!**_" Metal Chopper roared as the Hellspawns pointed toward Bowser's Road. Metal Chopper slowly nodded and fired a missile at them to send them flying away.

"Fine, if you're there, then that means we'll settle this," Metal Chopper mumbled as he turned to Bowser's Road. "I've been waiting a long time for this anyway."

With that, he took off toward the road.

* * *

**Back with the heroes-**

Chopper had to walk around a big Bowser statue that was blowing fire out and found Rainbow Block near the fiery breath, so Chopper smashed it, revealing a steel platform on the ground.

"Maybe we can go down there with your Rocket Jump," Bow mentioned.

"That sounds like a good idea," Chopper nodded as he jumped and used his Rocket Jump, smashing through the steel floor and going under the road, where there was a small pathway and a ladder. "Come on down here! There's a ladder that'll lead us to somewhere!"

Everyone came down and Chopper climbed up the ladder and noticed they were past the fire the Bowser statue was breathing out. They were able to take the path down a little and to the right, where they saw a Save Block. After hitting it, they moved on and found themselves in a bigger area, with the road being wider than before.

"I've found you at last!" Chopper heard the voice and he saw Metal Chopper hover down, which made everyone get in their fighting stances.

"What are YOU doing here?" Chopper asked.

"I'm here for my revenge!" Metal Chopper explained. "I've been waiting a LONG time for my revenge, you know! I guess I made the right choice of coming here. Even if I didn't show up, you'd have to get past those Hellspawn Guards that were blocking this way earlier, but I threw them out just for you! I think Maquano made a terrible choice of not begging me to come back because of my strength. I can take you down with one gun behind my back!"

"You wanna bet then? All right, let's duke it out, then!" Chopper smirked as he and Metal Chopper jumped toward each other.

**Tattle: **_You haven't seen him in a while! Why is he here? I think he just wants to destroy you. That's all he cares about, right? Max HP: 250, Attack Power: 14, Defense Power: 3. Whoa, he's got the same stats as Flyknightis! Well you can probably take this guy down. He's not really that tough anyways…_

There was a collision, and it turned out that Metal Chopper got knocked back by Chopper's light ball. The rest of the group seemed pleased to see that Chopper did this.

"Oh, cool! That was nice! I'll add a little more to it!" Bruce smiled as he walked over to Metal Chopper and used his Bomb to take 7 out of Metal Chopper, who quickly shook his head while his blue eyes glowed.

"I see you're putting up a little fight now! If that's the way you want it, then that's how we'll do it!" Metal Chopper flew up and fired a laser at Chopper, and in slow motion, it looked like he was ducking, with the laser missing.

"Wait... Did that just go in slow motion?" Chopper gawked. "Really, author? You had to resort to THAT?"

"Gah! I missed!" Metal Chopper was about to fire another laser but Chopper used his D-Down Jump to stomp on his head, which interrupted his attack. Following that, C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him. Metal Chopper rushed toward Chopper while sharpening his metallic fingers. He began to claw at Chopper, but he kept dodging them. However, that's when Metal Chopper knocked him down by kicking him.

"Gah ha ha ha ha! Look at you, lying on the ground like a little baby that you are! Look at yourself! You even look like a baby yourself!" Metal Chopper cackled until Bow flew over to him and struck him with a Power Smack, making him spin like crazy. "Whoa whoa whoa whoa! Who ever thought this chick would be nuts? !"

While that happened, Bow pulled Chopper up and noticed a bruise on his cheek. "I should give you a little kiss just so that bruise could come off."

"No no! It doesn't hurt!" Chopper assured as he pulled out the Star Rod and used Star Fire on Metal Chopper, which knocked him down again. "Now who's the baby now! …WHOA!"

Metal Chopper fired missiles at Chopper, which sent him flying back from the explosion. He was able to guard the seven missiles being fired, so he took 7 damage.

"Man, you sure want me dead," the pale green boy sighed as he pulled out his hammer, ready to strike Metal Chopper. He jumped toward him and landed a D-Down Pound on him to deal 8 damage.

"I'll lower his defense! I think it'll be pretty useful!" Ghoster threw a Ghost Ball at Metal Chopper to lower his defense.. He turned to Ghoster and flew toward him to punch him, which didn't seem to work.

"HA! See? That didn't do anything!" Ghoster scoffed. "I'm a ghost! And ghosts…"

Before he could finish, Chopper's robot counterpart shot a stunner at Ghoster to stun him for two turns. While Metal Chopper grinned, he was hit by Chopper's Star Smash, which he got hit in the head. Kayzee used her Heat Vision after that, which didn't necessarily melt the robot. Metal Chopper changed to his machine gun and began to fire rapidly at Chopper. He tried to flee, but he ended up taking some damage from it.

"I think this calls for some more damage. Chopper, let me boost your attack." Geno suggested as he raised Chopper's attack by 4.

"Thanks, Geno!" Chopper smiled as he ran toward Metal Chopper, who turned around and saw Chopper stomp on him twelve times, making him rub his head in pain.

"I shouldn't be rubbing my head from stomps! Chopper's feet aren't even tough!" Metal Chopper grabbed Chopper's foot and flew toward Bow and whacked her with Chopper, knocking her away.

"Bow! No!" Chopper cried as he took out his hammer and used his Mega Smash on Metal Chopper, whacking his face and letting him go. Geno fired a Geno Beam after that to knock him back. Unfortunately, Bow couldn't get up for right now, but she told Chopper to keep fighting. Metal Chopper began to fire missiles toward Chopper, which he managed to guard again. However, everyone wasn't pleased when Metal Chopper's defense went back to 3.

"Oh boy… Looks like we got to fight him the old fashioned way." Chopper sighed as he used his Star Fire attack on Metal Chopper, which knocked him back. Following that was Mallow's Thunderbolt, which zapped Metal Chopper before he could get up.

"Gah! This isn't over yet!" Metal Chopper hissed as he got up and knocked Mallow back with a laser.

"OW!" Mallow cringed as he was injured for two turns. Chopper had to make another attack, so he used a D-Down Hand to throw a light ball at Metal Chopper.

"I have to admit, this robot is pretty tough. I'll need to use some missiles against him." C-2 Choppor mumbled as he fired missiles at Metal Chopper, which exploded upon impact. When he came out of the smoke, he looked a little battered up.

"Missiles won't stop me from fighting back!"

Metal Chopper flew toward C-2 Choppor, firing bullets at him. The good robot kept avoiding the attacks and blocked them with his gun. He kicked Metal Chopper away, while Chopper used a D-Down Jump. C-2 Choppor attacked again with a blast to deal some damage, which made Metal Chopper take out some bombs and lay them on the ground.

"If you try stepping on these, you'll die! Nothing will make you go through this! Not even…" Before he could finish, Koopla used her Power Shell to make them explode and leave them unharmed. Now that they were gone, Chopper whacked Metal Chopper with his hammer, who changed to his blue laser sword and swung it at Chopper. Not even the Star Rod could help him defend this kind of attack.

Chopper quickly shook his head and he used a D-Down Hand to leave Metal Chopper with 50 HP left. He nodded to Parakarry, who used his Shell Shot to strike Metal Chopper. Angered, Chopper's robot counterpart changed to his flamethrower and began to scorch Chopper. Luckily, his attack was guarded, so Chopper used his Power Bounce on Metal Chopper and stomped on him nine times. Geno used his Geno Blast on Metal Chopper after that, and while he quickly shook his head, he noticed Kayzee flying toward him.

"Oh, I don't think so!" Metal Chopper fired a blue laser that sent Kayzee flying back.

"You jerk! How could you hurt a little girl like that! ?" Koopla guffawed.

"I don't care about their age. I kill anyone that I want to kill. Sorry, but that's how it is!"

"Oh, now ya crossed the line! Yer goin' down!" Yosho growled as he laid an egg and threw it at Metal Chopper.

"What was that?"

"I just laid an egg an' threw it at ya! Yeah, it sure did some damage to ya!"

"But that was such a stupid move."

Chopper fired the Star Rod at Metal Chopper afterward, which made Metal Chopper attack Chopper with his laser sword, only to have Chopper guard the attack. When he hurled a light ball at Metal Chopper and then Geno used a Geno Beam, it left him with only 5 HP left.

"You will not defeat me! You CANNOT defeat me, fools! I am Metal Chopper, the greatest creation made by Maquano's minions! I am UNSTOPPABLE! _**I AM…**_" Chopper sighed and fired another star at Metal Chopper which caused him to explode while all of his robot body parts were sent flying.

"This can't be… I lost because I didn't ATTACK! This is just plain stupid…" Metal Chopper's head groaned. "Chopper, I'll be back! Even if it takes two more years to return and get my revenge! I WILL be back!"

"Not likely," Chopper spat as Metal Chopper's head plummeted to the Mushroom Kingdom. He smiled as he received 53 Star Points and upgraded his HP to 95.

"That was an intense battle, Chopper…" Geno sighed as some of Chopper's friends slowly got up.

"Yes, it was," Chopper agreed. "I think the battle against Bowser will be tougher. We don't have time to lose. We need to get moving."

As soon as everyone took a breather, they began to carry on ahead, hoping to find Bowser's Castle on Bowser's Road soon.


	105. The Last Way

They could actually see Bowser's Castle further ahead, although it was merely a spec to them. There was no lava or ice in this area, but there were spikes down in a pit that they needed to cross, with Elite Koopatrols on the other side waiting for them. Not only that, but there were Boomerang Bros. on a circular area up ahead, waiting for Chopper.

"There are some spikes that we need to go over. I'll help you across, Chopper!" Kayzee decided as she grabbed Chopper and flew him across. The Elite Koopatrols got themselves ready to attack, but they got knocked down by a kick from Chopper, so they're flipped over with no defense. Geno finished one off with a Geno Whirl when he made it across, and Chopper stomped on the Elite Koopatrol flipped over to get some Star Points.

Chopper headed toward the next area to find a round area and also a closed bridge that could only come down by hitting a switch over the lava. The Boomerang Bros. were waiting for Chopper's arrival, and when he jumped on the platform, they smirked, while the group got in their fighting stances.

"Hmm…" Chopper equipped his Cutter ability, and when the Boomerang Bros. threw their boomerangs, Chopper deflected them with his cutter and threw it at both Boomerang Bros. like a boomerang, knocking them off the platform. When they touched the lava, they rocketed up in the air as they screeched.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! OOOOOOOOOW!"

They ended up falling off of Bowser's Road to Shiver Mountain. What made it better for them was when they landed in the snow butt-first. Both sighed in relief as their biscuits began to cool down.

"Wow… They landed right on Shiver Mountain." Geno blinked. "Even though their butts were on fire, I guess it was a good thing for them to do. Then again, I don't understand how fire would be gone if you touch ice. Doesn't it just melt the ice?"

"Yeah, it does. But I guess there's just something with snow that'll cool your butt off." Parakarry shrugged. "Probably because you're touching something while your butt's on fire just does it, but it's cold instead."

Chopper shrugged and walked over to the closed bridge, where Koopla followed him and noticed the blue ! switch next to the bridge.

"Hey, Chopper! Maybe you can use me to hit that switch." Koopla suggested. "Don't worry about me falling into the lava. I've done these kinds of things before, and I know how to handle them."

"You sure? All right…" Chopper trailed as he went behind Koopla, who went into her shell and kicked her toward the blue ! switch. This triggered the bridge to come down and allow everyone to move on.

"Well we sure handled that! Let's go!" Chopper headed toward the next area with everyone else and saw up ahead a locked gate, but there with platforms above them. It seemed like it was too high for Chopper, unfortunately.

"Oh, this shouldn't be a problem!" Yosho declared. "Chopper! Yer gonna need me to get that key or whatever's up there. C'mon, it's not goin' to be so bad!" Chopper shrugged and jumped on Yosho's back, who jumped onto the platforms to get to a star statue.

"I got this! Watch!" Chopper took out the Star Rod and shot a star at the statue, which made it explode and reveal a Star Key for Chopper to take. Jumping down from the platform, he unlocked the door with the key and moved on with his friends, only to find a castle wall in the way from the remains of some ruins. However, it did look a little weak...

"I got it! I just need to blow this wall up so we can get through here!" Bruce declared. Chopper gave him a nod and threw Bruce at the wall and blew it up. This revealed three paths to take.

"That material's really weak and all, but which way do we go? There's three ways to go!" Chopper gaped.

"My scanners tell me up to the north is a little inn, and to the south is a shop," C-2 Choppor informed after scanning the paths. "All you can do is go to the right, which is where we need to go."

"Oh, really? OK then. This shouldn't be too much of a problem. I'm already fully healed from leveling up from the fight against Metal Chopper. How about we just move on? I think that's what we gotta do."

Chopper walked to the right with his friends to an area with no lava, but it was a little wide. However, there were Sentinels lurking around, and unlike the others, these were red.

"All right, I'll help you with this one, Chopper," Bow assured.

"Of course. Go ahead!" Chopper smiled as they began to make their way past the Sentinels, using Bow's ability to become transparent every time they were spotted by one. Apparently, some blue Clubbas were also around, but they were sleeping, meaning that they had to slowly walked past them. With 38 HP, and Attack of 14 and Defense of 0 and the ability to boost their attack, they didn't want to mess with these guys.

Apparently, some blue Clubbas were also around after sneaking past the sentinels, but they were sleeping, meaning that they had to slowly walked past them. With 38 HP, and Attack of 14 and Defense of 0 and the ability to boost their attack, they didn't want to mess with these guys.

"Ewww! They have snot bubbles when they're sleeping!" Kayzee gagged until Mallow gestured her to quiet down. "Oh, sorry..."

"Just move quietly…" Ghoster whispered.

"…Before they wake up…" Mallow finished as they sneaked past the Clubbas and reached the end of the area. Kayzee couldn't help but laugh at the Clubbas, but that only made them wake up.

"Oopsies..." Kayzee trailed.

"Yeah, 'oopsies'..." Bow groaned.

"Run!" Chopper cried as he ran toward the next area with his friends and saw some platforms up ahead over lava. The center of the area seemed safe, so they jumped on the platforms to get over there. The Clubbas tried to jump across, but due to their weight, the platform sank into the lava, which made them rocket up while screaming. When they landed on the ground, they fled from Chopper and his friends, leaving them confused.

"So basically they just run away? Odd…" C-2 Choppor trailed as he turned around and saw another closed bridge. He saw a sign and two crystal switches on the gate itself. He decided to read the sign.

_Shoot the switches from one to two._

This was a little confusing but he discovered what to do, so he scanned the first and then the second and then shot a blast at them,, making the bridge come down.

"There we go. Let's go, everyone. For some reason, I can feel something up ahead. I don't know what though, but it seems…dangerous to me. VERY dangerous." C-2 Choppor walked across the bridge, while everyone followed him. They were walking in a straight path, with it curving down a little and up while going to the right.

"Choppor… You seem a little…different. What's bugging you?" Chopper asked.

C-2 Choppor didn't respond as he used the wheels on the bottom of his feet to hurry on ahead, blasting some C-D Robos that were in his way and freeing the Stars from inside, which were looking weak too.

"He seems to have found something really interesting," Bow pondered. "We better go follow him and find out what it is."

Chopper gave her a nod and they followed C-2 Choppor ahead, with Chopper using his Speed Dash. He noticed the Elite Koopatrols and Elite Hammer Bros. were left dazed, while C-2 Choppor destroyed the remaining C-D Robos left in the area. One thing for sure was that those were the last few robots.

"Whoa... Is it just me, or did he literally destroy those robots?" Mallow gaped.

"He wanted to finish his mission," Geno explained. "However, even if he has now, what's bugging him?"

"Wait up, Choppor!" Chopper cried as he continued to run after him, hoping that he didn't get far too ahead.

"Oh man… Why did that robot just knock us down with some shots? Man, it hurts…" the Elite Koopatrols moaned. Bow saw where Choppor was going and followed him. Chopper did end up leveling up and got 95 FP. He hit the Save Block at the end of the area and found another big area where C-2 Choppor was at.

"Choppor! Slow down for a minute!" Chopper cried.

"I'm sorry, Chopper..." C-2 Choppor apologized.

"Well, the rest of the robots are all gone," Geno explained. "Isn't your mission finally over?"

"No... Not yet."

"Really? Then what's left?"

"My brother…" C-2 Choppor trailed. "He's the last robot remaining. And he's here. He survived the explosion…"

Chopper and his friends could see C-1 TM in front of them. However, he looked more of a lighter black, while he had a couple of scratches and bruises all over him. His weapons apparently had the ability to transform to whatever he wanted to use, and he now had a green and blue eye, with the green one being used for aiming.

"I have something to finish here, and that's destroying the two of you!" C-1 TM hissed. "I am no longer C-1 Triple Mega. You may call me…C-1R. Revived."

"So you just stayed on the airship while everyone else abandoned it?" Chopper gasped. "And I highly doubt that you could beat us when we beat a couple of others! The Frenzyweed Boys, Hauntost, Kojo Pete, and even the Koopa Bros. fell down from Rainbow Path! What makes you think that you can beat us?"

"Chopper... This is not the same brother as I first saw him..." C-2 Choppor trailed. "I can see all of that anger in his eyes. All that hatred that he wants to take out on me."

"We're here to help you if there's any trouble, Choppor," Geno assured. "We're your friends, and that's what friends are for."

"No. You will not." C-1R denied as he shook his head. "I've only come for these two, and this fight is only between them and I! The rest of you can just stay back while I finish off Chopper and my brother."

He used his new power to shield everyone but Chopper, C-2 Choppor and himself.

"Why did you stay loyal to Bowser? You should know all of the terrible things that happened to his minions!" C-2 Choppor shouted. "There's still a chance for you to change your ways. You can help us defeat Bowser! I have a feeling that he's just using you just to become even stronger!"

"Robots can't feel anything!" C-1R spat. "We don't have a heart, you know! We both share a thing in common: Destruction! We were built to destroy, not feel! Ever since you've beaten me in those last three battles, I've developed some hatred over you!

"See? You have feelings too, C-1R!" Chopper cried. "You have anger inside of yourself, while Choppor has the feeling of caring! Don't you see? I don't think the other robots could feel because they had a Star in them! You two don't have one, and you can feel!"

"He's right, Mega," C-2 Choppor nodded. "We both have feelings in ourselves. You need to just stop right now so we can stop Bowser!"

"No! I will NEVER join you! I came here to destroy you, and that's what I'm going to do!" C-1R roared. "You better be ready, you two, because this could possibly be the last time we'll ever see each other!"

**Tattle: **_So he has become C-1 Revived. That must mean he's stronger than before! Max HP: 260, Attack Power: 14, Defense Power: 2. He'll do the usual things as before, but I think he's got some other things up his sleeves. Chopper, C-2 Choppor, come out of this OK, all right?_

Chopper ran toward C-1R and used his Star Smash on the robot, which knocked him back. The robot noticed the Star Rod Chopper was holding.

"What? How on earth did you get that?" C-1R gawked. "So YOU'VE been the one holding that thing. IHmmm... So if I defeat you, I'll become stronger than King Bowser. Interesting… I won't need him then!"

C-1R charged at Chopper but he got hit by blast by C-2 Choppor, making him fly back a little and fire multiple blasts at Chopper. He was able to guard some of them, but he got hit by two out of four. Nevertheless, he still managed to make an attack on Revived. He used Star Fire on C-1R to deal a little bit of more damage, while C-2 Choppor fired missiles at C-1R. This made C-1R summon some missiles that would fire on the next turn.

"Uh oh… That's not good." Chopper gulped as he used his Star Fire, which blew up the missiles and made C-1R cringe in pain.

"Urgh... My missiles..."

C-2 Choppor scanned C-1R and fired a blast at him. This made C-1R aim at Chopper and fire a laser at him, which knocked him away onto the ground.

"I'm not going down just yet!" Chopper groaned as he got up and used a D-Down Hand attack to throw a light ball at C-1R. Since there was no dark powers in him, it didn't leave him severely hurt from the attack. C-1R began to hover up, but then he was knocked down by a blast C-2 Choppor fired. This made him take action by charging up a punch attack.

"Heads up, Chopper!" Bow cried as Chopper turned around and jumped up a little, only to have C-2 Choppor push him out of the way before he could get hit.

"What! " C-1R gaped as C-2 Choppor put Chopper down and fired missiles at C-1R. Chopper became Plasma Chopper and fired a strong plasma ball at C-1R, electrocuting him, only to have C-1R whack Chopper away with his arm.

Chopper's face turned red with anger, so he used his Ultra Jump Charge to boost his Jump, and then C-2 Choppor fired another blast at Mega, knocking him away. However, Mega hovered back up and charged up a blast, aiming at C-2 Choppor instead of Chopper.

"Heads up, Choppor!" Chopper cried.

"Don't worry," C-2 Choppor assured as he fired a blast at the blast Mega fired, creating an explosion that made them both skid back. Chopper was using another charge Jump attack, while C-2 Choppor fired missiles at his own brother.

"You must really want to destroy your own brother, don't you?" C-1R wondered.

"I don't want to destroy you. I want to free your soul from this world." C-2 Choppor replied. "You don't deserve to be a servant of Bowser's. I'm trying to help you, not hurt you."

"You idiot! We don't have souls! You're so stupid if you think you can help me, while I'm trying to destroy you!" C-1R fired missiles that flew toward Chopper, making him get sent flying back, but he was able to grab onto the edge of the area. C-2 Choppor noticed this and headed toward Chopper to save him.

"Whoa! …Thanks, Choppor!" Chopper smiled as he was pulled up by C-2 Choppor and he ran toward C-1R and delivered a Power Bounce on his robotic head to deal a a ton of damage after nine stomps.

"Gah! I almost forgot about you…" C-1R cringed. "I need to destroy you because King Bowser wants you gone, so I still have to settle things against you!" C-2 Choppor, meanwhile, fired a blast at his brother, which made sparks fly everywhere around him.

"Ack… Not so soon!" C-1R fired a laser at Chopper, which he managed to guard. Afterward, the pale green boy used a D-Down Jump, while C-2 Choppor aimed at his brother and shot him.

Chopper shot a star toward C-1R, but he whacked it away with his arm and came toward Chopper and punched him, leaving a red mark on his cheek. C-2 Choppor had his chance to strike him, so he fired a blast at him once his brother was preoccupied. Chopper pulled out his hammer and used a D-Down Pound, which made sparks fly around C-1R. However, he was able to fire a laser straight at him.

"Oh, man! Not again!" Chopper cried in pain. He had to use Star Fire on C-1R to lower his HP, and when C-2 Choppor fired missiles at him, he was left with 30 HP left. "OK... Almost done now..."

Everyone looked as C-2 Choppor came toward Chopper to save him from C-1R's Mega Punch. Unfortunately, he was hit by the attack, leaving him a bit weak. C-1R looked at his brother while he panted.

"Hmmmm... Apparently both of us are not faring too well as of now..." C-1R noticed while Chopper was a little shocked.

"Oh no… All right, that's it!" Chopper gripped the Star Rod and used Star Fire on C-1R, while C-2 Choppor aimed at C-1R again and shot him with a blast. They noticed the damage on him was getting more severe.

"Argh…" C-1R fired missiles at C-2 Choppor, who shot them with his gun. Chopper swung the Star Rod at C-1R while still battered up and panting, and when C-1R got hit by the attack, his robotic body began to look worse. This made C-1R fire another laser at Chopper, who got knocked to the ground, completely exhausted.

"Choppor... Finish it..." Chopper coughed.

"Brother... It's time for you to go..." C-2 Choppor covered his visor as he aimed at C-1R to prevent himself from looking. He fired the blast, making a bright light emit from his brother.

"N-No… This can't be! How could you…do this to your own brother?" C-1R cried as the explosions knocked him to the ground, leaving him severely damage. When Chopper got his 53 Star Points, he upgraded his BP to 57 as he slowly got up. Thankfully, the shield was destroyed, freeing his friends, but C-2 Choppor was still in his fighting stance as he watched his brother lying in pain.

Chopper was about to walk over to C-1R, but C-2 Choppor put his arm in the way.

"No, I'll check first," C-2 Choppor stated.

"Are you sure?" Chopper asked.

"Yes... Let me go see my brother." C-2 Choppor slowly walked over to his brother out of sympathy and noticed the severe damage left on him. Unfortunately, C-1R's eyes began to glow again and, with the remaining strength left, he fired a blast at C-2 Choppor, sending him flying back to his friends.

"No! Choppor!" Chopper cried as C-2 Choppor knelt in pain. For C-1R, however, by using that remaining strength, his body began to explode, leading him to get destroyed and freeing his "soul". C-2 Choppor, however...

"Systems…failing. Recovery Mode…failing." C-2 Choppor moaned as his red visor began to blink as sparks emitted from his body.

"No, Choppor! I'm not letting this happen to you!" Chopper gasped as he ran over to him and took out an Ultimate Shroom. However, C-2 Choppor swatted it away.

"Chopper… An Ultimate Shroom cannot heal a robot." C-2 Choppor informed. "Please... Go on without me. All of the..._bzzzzzzzrtt_...C Robos are destroyed, and with my brother saved, my mission is..._bzzzzzzrt_...finally complete. Please... Go and save...Princess Peach for...me."

"But…"

"I'm sorry, Chopper. But I no longer require your assistance. With that, I am..._bzzzzzrt!_...no longer needed in this world. Just go and..._bzzzzzzrt!_...don't look back."

"We have no choice. We need to get going now." Bow said as she grabbed Chopper's hand and was dragging him away from C-2 Choppor.

As Chopper watched his robot companion slowly wave goodbye to him, he began to do the same thing. A small tear began to come down the robot's visor.

* * *

**Next area-**

The area they walked into had some lava moving platforms. There was actually lava on the wall as well. There were Fireballs that also jumped up from the lava, so Chopper and his friends got on the platform and let it take them up over the lava while the gravity changed.

"Man, poor Choppor… I didn't expect him to have such a terrible fate with his own brother." Parakarry frowned. "He didn't seem like he was so upset about leaving…though I thought I heard him crying a little."

Chopper hung his head low in sadness, but he remembered that the grieving should be saved for later, so he brought his head back up and when the platform made it to the path, he got off and turned back to everyone else.

"We can't sit here any longer. We need to go find Bowser right now." Chopper declared. "I know it's a tough thing…especially for me, but we have no other choice. Choppor pretty much sacrificed his life in order to save us. We can't fail him now, so we better get going."

"Good idea, Chopper," Bow nodded. "I think we better be careful here. It looks intense over here."

Everyone got off the platform and walked on the white path, going up a little and then to the right, where there was a small staircase to walk up. A Thwomp was slamming the ground there.

"All right, we gotta time this right!" Geno declared as he watched the Thwomp slowly come back up. "And… NOW!"

Everyone went up the small staircase and quickly jumped off in order to proceed onto the next area. What was strange in the next area was the fact that there was no lava. It was water instead.

"Water in space? Wow, that's gotta be something interesting." Koopla commented.

They all jumped into the water, where there was a platform in the middle with no water Koopla, Parakarry, Yosho, Kayzee, and Mallow swam over there to get some air.

"Man, I never knew that breathin' was so much hard fer this water! But it's probably 'cause we're up in Star Haven right now." Yosho gasped. "Why's Star Haven this long anyway? I can never understand that one bit, y'know?"

"I don't know. I've never been to Star Haven, and I haven't been to any other place in the Msuhroom Kingdom before." Kayzee shrugged. "I'm sure my hometown is getting destroyed by monsters! Hopefully my sisters and the professor get out of that airship just fine."

"I'm sure they'll be fine!" Mallow assured. "I can't wait to go back to see my parents again! That's because when I go back with them, peace will be back in the Mushroom Kingdom! …But then there's the part with saying goodbye to your friends…"

"Oh, yeah..." Koopla realized.

Chopper swam up and then to the right due to there being a pathway. Everyone else followed him and headed to the next area, which had a pole leading up to a high ledge. They could see it leading up to a spinning round platform.

"I guess we're going to need to climb up this thing," Bruce groaned. "It really stinks that I can't make it up there, that's for sure."

Yosho sighed and used his tongue to inhale Bruce and climbing up. After making it up to the top, they jumped on the spinning circle, which had a spike in the middle with two Firebars spinning around.

"Oh… This is bad. Wait, what am I complaining about? We can do this!" Ghoster declared. Everyone looked at Ghoster at the moment, but then they headed over to the white path ahead while jumping to avoid the Firebars. When they made it to the next area, which was rather large, they could see a large amount of Elite Koopatrols and Elite Hammer Bros. and a bunch of Bowser's other minions trying to block Chopper and his friends.

"Halt! This is Bowser's territory you're in now, Chopper!" an Elite Koopatrol shouted. "How do you know if you're there? Well how about you take a look!"

Chopper and his friends saw they were closer to Bowser's Castle. From what he could see, the castle was just like it was before when it was up in the sky - only this time, Peach's Castle wasn't on top.

"So we ARE close to the castle! We're not so far! …But then we have these guys." Chopper said as he got in his fighting stance, but everyone else stepped away because of the large amount of enemies..

"Uh… Chopper, I think we'll be back over here." Bow declared as she turned transparent. "You can go ahead and do your little thing."

"You can handle this, right, Chopper?" Geno wondered as Kayzee and even Koopla backed away. "You can take care of all of these guys, OK? We'll be where everything is safe!"

"Fine, be cowards! I can handle this! _I hope I can or else I'm dead meat…_" Chopper turned back to the minions, who all grinned at him. An Elite Magikoopa took out its wand and was about to use its magic.

"Uh oh…" Chopper pulled out the Star Rod and shot a star at the magic, knocking the Magikoopa away. This made the other minions go after Chopper...until they were lifted up.

"_**AAAAAAAGGHHH!**_"

The minions screamed as they were thrown off of Bowser's Road. Because of this, Chopper's partners returned to him.

"Well at least someone is brave enough to help me," Chopper said as he turned to his friends and eyed Ghoster, giving him a thumbs up. "Good thing you helped me."

"Uhhhhh... That wasn't me." Ghoster sweat dropped.

"Really? Then who was it?"

"His Evilness's minions won't stand a chance against Chopper!" Kammy scoffed as she slowly flew down on her broomstick, making Chopper get in his fighting stance. "This is just getting a little too much!"

"What the..."

"Silly little boy! You honestly thought that you'd be getting through here easily? Those guards are useless anyway. I think I, Kammy Koopa, will be the one who's going to be taking care of you! Nyeah hee heh har!"

"Oh yeah, it's you. I almost forgot about you. You're that hag who works for Bowser, right? Yeah, I think I remember you putting a block in the way to keep me from moving, and you also powered up Bowser. That's all I can think of right now…"

"You're right on that one! Yes! I am Kammy Koopa, for all of the new people here. Hmmm? What's this? You seem to be missing that robot traitor! One guess: He died along with his brother?"

"How did you know about that?" Bow asked.

"I know many things, my dear! My wand can allow me to see things! I can even use it to get in contact with anybody! That's how I got in contact with Valentina, while Camikon was able to get in contact with the Crystal King!"

"Valentina? Ya mean that jerk from those clouds?" Yosho gaped. "Man, she was just TERRIBLE! I'm sorry, but she can be pretty bad…"

"Yes, she did cause a lot of problems for you! Too bad that Flyknightis person left us. He could've been of some great use! Such a shame… But that was before! My time has finally come to destroy you once and for all!"

"Hold up, Kammy! You're not doing this alone!"

"Oh, what now?" Koopla groaned.

Camikon came flying down and quickly stopped before he could crash into Chopper.

"Camikon? Why are you here!" Chopper gasped.

"I'm not going to be telling you anything," Camikon retorted. "If Flyknightis couldn't get the job done, then I might as well do it for Lord Maquano! Hear me, Chopper! I will show you what TRUE magic is!"

"Having some aid to destroy this little boy? Well that sounds just fine!" Kammy grinned as she raised her wand. "Mweh heh heh heh! Prepare yourself, Chopper! For this is our final battle!"

**Tattle: **_That evil wizard is Camikon. He's Maquano's oldest Hellspawns…and he's also his sidekick! Max HP: 160, Attack Power: 14, Defense Power: 0. He seems to use the kind of magic that can hurt you, and he'll even use some dark magic. Personally, I find Kammy to be the bigger threat of the two._

**Tattle: **_That's Kammy Koopa. She's second-in-command of Bowser's crew. She helps Bowser with some of his plans. Max HP: 140, Attack Power: 13, Defense Power: 0. She can attack you with some dangerous magic like ice and thunder. She'll also heal Camikon or herself at times. Even though she has less HP and Attack, she is probably the bigger threat. I would recommend taking her out first._

Chopper rushed toward Kammy and Camikon and he swung the Star Rod by using a Multi-Star attack, hitting both of them. Sadly, since C-2 Choppor wasn't around, he couldn't help.

"I guess we should focus on Kammy first because of her abilities," Bow suggested as she appeared in front of Kammy and she smacked her eight times, making the old Magikoopa angry.

"You little…" Kammy grit her teeth as Camikon fired a dark magic ball of energy at Chopper, which he managed to guard. Kammy fired some magic at Chopper too, which knocked him back.

"OK, let's hit Kammy!" Chopper used his Star Fire attack on both Kammy and Camikon, and then Bow smacked Kammy yet again. Camikon fired a dark magic pulse that Chopper managed to guard, because it could hit his partners too. Kammy used magic to make lighting strike Chopper, which he was lucky to guard.

"Wow, two people attacking me at once? That's not good… I gotta find a good way to take them out." Chopper pondered before he decided to use his Power Bounce on Kammy and stomped on her ten times.

"I suppose I should attack too," Koopla declared as she got in her shell and used her Power Shell on both magic wielders to deal 8 damage.

"OK, let's get ready this time," Geno suggested as Camikon fired large dark magic from his wand that was coming toward Chopper. Parakarry grabbed Chopper and carried him up.

"Grr!" Kammy used her magic to boost her attack up by 1 and fired some magic at Chopper. However, Chopper inhaled the attack and spat it back out at her to knock her off her broomstick.

"My broomstick!" Kammy cried as she got back on it, but then Chopper jumped down and Parakarry used his Shell Shot on her after that. Chopper was able to avoid Camikon's attack, while Kammy used her magic to recover 30 HP, which made Chopper use a Mega Smash on her, while Bow used her Fan Smack to deal 20 damage.

"Gah! That recovery was all for nothing!" Kammy sneered.

"This is why I love my fan," Bow cackled. "Of course, I don't know if it's any better than you, Chopper."

"No, I think your fan is a lot better than me," Chopper replied.

"No worries, Kammy. We still have this!" Camikon assured as he waved his wand and fired some dark magic at Chopper, knocking him back.

"Ah! Good idea!" Kammy waved her wand and fired magic at Chopper, which made him fall to the ground. He was able to get back up after that and shot a star at Kammy, while Bruce used his Bomb attack on her afterward.

Camikon shielded himself with darkness, while Kammy raised Camikon's defense for about three turns by 1. Chopper saw the darkness around Camikon and used his Multi Star attack to hit both Kammy and Camikon's shield, destroying the shield.

"No! My shield!" Camikon cried.

"No more shield for you!"

"Stupid little kid..."

Mallow used a Thunderbolt afterward, electrocuting the two wizards and making them sizzled before they qucikly shook themselves and attacked Chopper with their own attacks, which made Chopper pant a little. That is, until he pulled out something special.

"All right, I'm using it!" Chopper declared as he began to eat the Ultimate Shroom, making hearts appear in his eyes as he tasted it, recovering 100 HP.

"Wow! That must've been good." Bow commented. "You would share it with me, right?"

"Well... Maybe after this adventure is over with, you can have one."

Kayzee flew toward Kammy and punched her. This made Kammy try to swat her away with magic, but it didn't work, unfortunately. Camikon tried to attack Chopper, but his attack failed as his wand seemed to not be working.

"Hmm? What's this! This isn't right…" Camikon trailed as Chopper smirked and used his Star Fire on both of them, and then Bow used her Power Smack on Kammy, which made her fall off her broomstick and to the ground in pain.

"Ooog… Forgive me, King Bowser… I tried, but I failed…" Kammy moaned.

"What? Kammy's down already? Crud… This isn't good for me." Camikon gulped as he fired magic at Chopper, making him skid back as he got hurt. Camikon's defense boost was gone, so he no longer had any defense on him.

"Well this fight shouldn't be so bad!" Chopper smiled as he stomped on Camikon while Geno used his Geno Beam on him afterward. Camikon now had 100 HP left, so they knew they could bring him down with ease.

Camikon fired more dark magic at Chopper that he was able to guard, which allowed Chopper to throw a light ball at Camikon, making him cringe in pain.

"Ack! I hate this light power! It's literally destroying me!" Camikon winced as Yosho laid an egg and threw it at Camikon.

"An old man afraid of light? That's not somethin' ya see every day." Yosho realized.

Camikon was panting, unable to attack for a moment. Chopper decided to lay off the light attacks and threw a fireball at him instead. Ghoster punched Camikon in the face afterward.

"Take THAT, old geezer!" Ghoster shouted.

"Grrr! How could you be attacking an old man? !" Camikon snarled. "You should realize that attacking an old person is wrong!"

"Well you're EVIL!" Chopper retorted as he guarded Camikon's magic and struck him with a Star Smash. "I fight anyone who's evil either if they're a girl, or even old! Sorry, but I have to do what I have to do!"

"Take this! Butt stomp!" Yosho fluttered over to Camikon and used his Ground Pound on him to leave him with 50 HP left. Camikon growled as he fired more dark magic at Chopper, who was able to guard it again. He went with a Star Fire attack on him, while Mallow used Shocker.

"You should really consider giving up," Chopper suggested. "I really DON'T like hurting old people, but you ARE evil. However, I don't like seeing old people in pain whether they're good or bad."

"Gah… This isn't over yet!" Camikon growled as he waved his wand and fired a dark ball of energy at Chopper, leaving him to pant. Chopper struck him again with a light ball, making him scream, but not as much as before.

"He just won't go down…" Bow trailed as she smacked Camikon to make him shut up, but it didn't exactly work.

"Huff… Take…this!" Camikon summoned a dark block that came down on Chopper. It looked a lot different than a Rainbow Block for some reason before it fell on top of him, leaving him dazed as it disappeared.

"You thought your hammer could break anything? Well these blocks are invulnerable to that!"

"Oh, shut up," Bow groaned as she used her Smack to smack him eight time, leaving the old Hellspawn to breathe heavily.

"OK, this is where it ends!" Chopper declared as he charged up some power in the Star Rod and fired it at both Kammy and Camikon, which made a huge explosion and sent them flying away from the power of the attack.

"_**AAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!**_"

Chopper sighed as he collected his 57 Star Points and upgraded his HP to 100.

"Did we…actually just take out Kammy and Camikon?" Geno gawked. "That means…there's no more of Bowser's minions left. Chopper, this means we're going to be heading to Bowser's Castle!"

"Yeah, it does! Let's go!" Chopper headed toward the next area, now that it was clear. They found a small area ahead with a Heart Block, be didn't need to hit it because he was fully healed from leveling up.

"This is it for the area? Oh well… Bowser's Castle is up ahead anyway, so there's no time to lose!" Chopper and his friends hurried on toward the next area, where they found a long narrow white path leading up to Bowser's Castle.

"At long last… Bowser's Castle." Geno sighed. "We still have a chance at saving Princess Peach! It's a shame that we couldn't find Mario…"

"True… That's a real shame." Chopper sighed. "We'll go find him after we save the Mushroom Kingdom, since those Star Spirits told me to do this task first. Now then, let's just go…slowly."

With that, they began to head toward the front door of Bowser's Castle, which appeared to be sealed. However, with Chopper's Star Rod, he was able to bust through the door with ease.

Their adventures was slowly coming to an end.

* * *

**Up next comes the boss chapter. Yeah, it's finally that moment again.**


	106. Giga Bowser: Bowser's Ultimate Weapon

"Gwaaaa ha ha ha ha ha! Ah, yes! Try to come here, Mario! There's no way you're going to save your Peach! She belongs to me now! If you plan on showing up, I'll just roast you like I've always did when we would fight! It's not going to be like before!" Bowser cackled as he turned his head to Peach. "So, Princess Peach… How are you enjoying this castle so far? You like it, huh? Oh, I'm pretty sure that you do."

"Don't even try to do anything smart!" Peach responded sharply. "After all you've gone through, from being beaten by Chopper, and then trying to go destroy him, you decide to kidnap me again? It's going to just end like before. When will you learn from your mistakes? Mario will always beat you, invincible or not."

"Oh, my dear princess! Of course I know that Mario defeated me every single time when I kidnapped you! I've got a secret weapon that'll make Mario suffer when he shows up here! Of course, the front gate is completely sealed, so there's no possibility he can come in here!"

While Bowser and Peach were talking, Twink looked through one of the windows. However, because the Star Rod wasn't in Staris's Shrine, he too was growing weak like the rest of the Stars.

"Princess…_cough_…Peach! She's been kidnapped by Bowser? And just when…Mario shows up? This is terrible!" Twink gasped. "…But what can…I do? I'm too…_cough_…weak to do anything. I don't want to just…sit here and watch Peach like…this."

"So now, Princess Peach… Now that you don't have Mario around to help you, maybe it's time we arranged a little wedding, huh?" Bowser proposed. "You know you want to marry a hunk such as myself, right?"

"Why would I want to marry YOU?! In fact, why on earth would I marry a Koopa?!" Peach guffawed. "That just doesn't fit well, and I don't even like you either! I could've said yes to you if you didn't kidnap me all the time, but I guess you just wanted to! You and Maquano are just evil! You try to destroy Chopper by throwing in some minions, and then you brainwash a small child to fight Chopper! There's no way I would want to marry you for all of that!"

"The thing with brainwashing a child was Maquano's idea, not mine! I don't go THAT far. You should be blaming Maquano for all of this, because he told me to get the Star Rod! Then again, it was my idea to kidnap you in the first place. Look, Maquano is just pure evil, so why don't you go blame him for everything!"

The door was blown open, and Bowser and Peach could see Chopper holding the Star Rod up, which was glowing when he walked inside with his partners.

"What! How did you get in here?!" Bowser gasped. "And where's Mario!? Shouldn't he be with you?"

"I don't know what happened to Mario," Chopper explained. "We were going to come here together, but he suddenly disappeared. It's not my fault or anything, but what IS important is taking you down!"

"You've done too much damage already, Bowser! I think it's time it all ended! Now!" demanded Geno.

"Mario's not here? Where could he be, then?" Peach asked as Chopper shrugged. The Evil King Koopa jumped off his throne and stomped in front of Chopper, making everyone get in a fighting stance,

"All right, fine! We'll just settle this once and for all!" Bowser declared. "…But not here. It's too small to have our battle here."

"What do you mean?" Chopper wondered.

"It's too small for us to fight here! I've got a better idea!" Bowser stomped over to Peach and grabbed her and went up the stairs near his throne. "If you want to battle, then follow me!"

Chopper and his friends understood what he meant and followed him up the stairs. When they reached the top, they found a Save Block right next to the door.

"I have a feeling that that Save Block is going to be one of the last," Koopla deduced. "I don't think we can ever turn back when we're facing Bowser."

"But we have no choice," Bow stated. "Chopper! We still need to go catch Bowser! Let's go!"

Chopper immediately opened the door, where they found themselves outside. Bowser was on his Koopa Clown Car, flying over the castle. Chopper also noticed a Koopla Clown Car that looked big enough to fit the whole group inside.

"We'll have to use that! I know I hate clown stuff, but we gotta do it!" Chopper jumped into the Koopa Clown Car with his friends and took off, following Bowser high above the castle. They noticed the sky was beginning to change to purple, indicating that there was a sense of darkness around.

They could see a big, tall green platform that they were heading to, and when the Koopa Clown Car flew over it, a fireball struck it and made it crash onto the platform. Bowser was in the middle of the platform, while Peach was far behind him while tied up. When Chopper and his friends got up, they looked confused.

"Hold on a second, Bowser! Where the heck are we?" Chopper wondered.

"We're in my battle arena! This is where you'll finally be stopped! Gwaa ha ha ha ha!" Bowser cackled. "I'm not as stupid as you think, you know. I was planning this for YEARS when I would finish Mario once and for all! However, I think you'll be the first one to be my first victim! Not to mention Kammy Koopa has given me an AMAZING power to help me win!"

"Oh no… Chopper! You might want to be careful!" Peach cried.

"Are you ready, Chopper! Because I am! Prepare to witness _TRUE POWER!_" Bowser raised his arms and was struck with dark lightning that forced him to grow bigger in size. Everyone noticed he had a spiked, scaled shell, and looked more muscular than before, with his horns having a new curve to them and were also bigger. One thing for sure was that he was more monstrous than before.

"Oh, crap... I wasn't expecting this!" Koopla gaped as Giga Bowser cackled.

_**"****Yes… YES! This is what power I've been wanting to use! This is PERFECT!"** _Giga Bowser grinned, his voice becoming darker and threatening._** "Chopper! You shall now know me as Giga Bowser! With this power, I will crush you once and for all!" **_

"EEEEEEK! Bowser looks so scary right now!" Kayzee screamed, while everyone was trying to calm her down.

"O-OK, Bowser! Y-You've got your transformation, but I st-still got the Star Rod, which will t-take down you with no problem at all!" Chopper declared, despite looking a little scared of his transformation.

_**"****Then let's get started!" **_Giga Bowser cackled._** "I'm ten times stronger than I was before, and now my power has exceeded the Star Rod! You can't defeat me like this! It's impossible!" **_

**Tattle: **_Oh my gosh! Is that really Bowser transformed into Giga Bowser! Oh no! I think he's been planning this for a long time now! M-Max HP: 280, Attack P-Power: 15, D-Defense Power: 3. His attacks are completely devastating, and he can use dark flames on you! B-Be careful, Chopper! He's no pushover whatsoever!_

Chopper looked at Bowser's size and gulped, but he didn't need to worry. He used his D-Down Star on him, which was able to ignore his defense and deal 8 damage. Without C-2 Choppor, this fight might be a little tough.

"He sure looks tough… Let me try an attack." Geno used his Geno Blast, which only did 7 damage to him. "Oh, that's bad… That's not enough..."

Giga Bowser stomped over to Chopper and used his dark flaming punch to hit him, but the attack was guarded, so he didn't take as much damage from the attack as he would usually deal. Chopper once again attacked Giga Bowser, but with a D-Down Jump instead, and then Bow appeared in front of him and used her Power Smack, which didn't even leave a bruise on his face.

"Oh, geez... I should've left a bruise on him with that smack!" Bow gasped.

_**"****Is that the best you got, Chopper? I can do better than that!" **_Giga Bowser used his dark fiery breath on Chopper to take 17 out of him, which made him cringe in pain.

"Well Bowser seems to be really on that level. We might as well make our big attack too." Chopper declared as he used his Power Bounce to stomp on Giga Bowser nine times to deal 9 damage. Koopla got in her shell and used her Dizzy Shell attack on Giga Bowser, who retaliated by making his way over to Chopper and jumping on his head.

"Ow... That hurt..." Chopper winced as Bow helped Chopper up before he ran toward Giga Bowser with a D-Down Hand, throwing a light ball at him, which made him feel pain inside of him.

"_**Arrgh! Great… I almost forgot about the light power you have." **_Giga Bowser winced._** "My transformation lets me use some dark powers, but light power is still harmful to me! Darn it! …But this fight is not even close to being over." **_

"If it's not, then take this!" Kayzee shouted as she used her Heat Vision on Giga Bowser, who tried to use his Koopa Klaw on Chopper, which he was able to guard.

"OK, time to make a next move!" Chopper used his D-Down Pound to pierce through his defense and making Giga Bowser wince a little, but that didn't even stop him.

"I guess I'll do somethin'!" Yosho laid an egg and threw it at Giga Bowser, which knocked him back, but it still allowed him to breathe some dark fire at Chopper, who brought his arms up to guard.

"Be careful with that fire breath, Chopper!" Peach warned. "I think that's one of his strongest attacks that he has!"

_**"****Of course it is! It'll be good to roast you with it!" **_Giga Bowser chortled.

"Oh no! You WON'T be doing that!" Chopper retorted as he used his D-Down Star to strike Giga Bowser with a star.

"He's going down a little. That's good! I guess I can add a little explosion to it! Stand back!" Bruce declared as he walked toward Giga Bowser and exploded in front of him. Giga Bowser spat a dark fireball at Chopper, which he managed to guard. Giga Bowser growled while Chopper struck him once again with his D-Down Star.

"Take this, you giant lizard dragon thing!" Ghoster's eyes began to glow blue and Giga Bowser was surrounded by a blue glow while Ghoster slammed him to the ground. This made a piece of the ground come off, which made Ghoster stop.

"Uh oh… I don't think that was a good idea…" Mallow trailed.

"Yeah, I just realized that"

_**"Since I never showed you this, maybe my times has come to finally show you it!" **_Giga Bowser got in his shell and he tossed himself toward Chopper, rolling him over. Geno helped him up after that, but Giga Bowser cackled as Chopper began frozen.

"What the... Chopper froze?!" Geno gaped.

_**"****Gwaa ha ha ha ha ha! I bet you weren't expecting that!" **_Giga Bowser cackled as Chopper was thawed out when he spat a fireball at him. _**"Be thankful that I didn't keep you frozen forever. I want this fight to be more of an achievement!"**_

Chopper frowned a he conjured up a fireball and hurled it at the demonic Koopa. Bow floated over to Giga Bowser and used her Power Smack on him, which made him angry and he got in his shell again, but this time he jumped while in his shell and slammed the ground. Another piece of the platform tore off while Chopper guarded the attack

Peach actually got knocked back from the shockwave, and when Giga Bowser noticed he almost hit her, he decided to not to do that. She was already tied, so there was nothing she could do anyway.

"Man, this is getting intense!" Mallow exclaimed. "Look at the place! Hold on a minute… Chopper, you could just grab his tail, right?"

"You know, that sounds like a good idea! Let me give it a try!" Chopper jumped behind Giga Bowser and grabbed his tail, which had sharper spikes on it. Unfortunately, he couldn't even move him around.

_**"****Hunh…? Get off my tail!" **_Giga Bowser roared as he was about to whip him with his tail, but Chopper jumped up and he used his Star Fire attack on him to leave him dizzy.

"Mallow! Star Rain! Now!" Chopper cried as he jumped off of Giga Bowser, while Mallow summoned a giant star to fall down and hit Giga Bowser. However, that wasn't all.

_**"****Not bad… You're not as bad as I thought you'd be. Too bad I'll still have the advantage! Watch this!" **_Giga Bowser punched Chopper, which caused an explosion, and it almost made him fall off the platform, but Parakarry was able to grab him and pull him up.

"Don't worry! I got you!" Parakarry assured.

"Thanks, Parakarry," Chopper sighed as the postman tossed him toward Giga Bowser, who used a D-Down Stomp on him, while Parakarry used his Fly ability to go up high. This made Giga Bowser get in his shell again.

"Here it comes!" Chopper cried as Kayzee grabbed him and lifted him up, while Giga Bowser passed right by him. When he got out of his shell, Parakarry came down in his shell and hit him.

"Good work! That was some good teamwork!" Geno smiled as he had his thumb up in approval.

"I'll say!" Chopper smiled as he used his Star Fire on Giga Bowser, but unfortunately, this made him spew out his dark flaming breath on Chopper.

"Oh no! This isn't good!" Peach cried.

"Princess…_cough_…Peach!" Twink wheezed as he flew down, making Peach gasp at not only seeing him, but also the condition he was in.

"Twink? What happened to you? You look terrible!"

"The Star Rod hasn't been brought back to Staris's home… I can't do much now except untie you…" Twink coughed as he began to slowly untie Peach, who slowly became free. Unfortunately, there was not much else they could do except watch the fight.

Chopper quickly shook off the soot on him and used his Power Bounce on Giga Bowser. He stomped on his head twelve times, but he felt a little exhausted, so he jumped off. Bow used another Power Smack to leave the Koopa dazed a bit. Giga Bowser was about to grab Chopper, but Bruce immediately jumped in the way and exploded in front of him, making him miss his attack.

"Oh, thanks Bruce. I REALLY need to heal myself." Chopper sighed as he took out an Ultimate Punch and ate the silver mushroom with some sweetness to it, recovering 100 HP and 100 FP. "Mmmmmmm! Delicious! I'd prefer this more than a Jelly Ultra!"

Hearts fluttered around him as Giga Bowser unleashed his dark flaming breath, but Chopper was able to float up for some strange reason.

_**"****What the… What on EARTH are you doing?" **_Giga Bowser gawked as Chopper floated to him and took out his hammer and used a D-Down Pound attack to bash him in the head. Everyone else smirked, so Geno used a Geno Blast on Giga Bowser.

"Ha! You already have 61 HP left, Bowser! You should learn that you don't always get the best things." Chopper scoffed. "You don't even have anything that will threaten us! Yup! I think this will be easy!"

_**"****ENOUGH!" **_Giga Bowser roared as he clenched a fist and he punched the ground. The outer parts of the platform began to slowly tear apart. Peach and Twink barely made it before falling off the platform. When the pieces of the platform fell off, the platform was shaped like a star.

"Wow… I think we underestimated him, Chopper." Bow gaped, just like everyone else.

_**"Gwaa ha ha ha ha! So, now are you intimidated by my power?!" **_Giga Bowser grinned as he folded his arms._** "Yeah, I thought so… All right, Chopper! Let's end this once and for all!" **_

Giga Bowser unleashed his dark fiery breath on Chopper, which made him jump up and step back - when he saw he was right by the edge of the platform, that is.

"Oh, man... This is bad..."

_**"****There's no escaping me this time! I'm going to make sure you're destroyed and thrown in the darkest place of my castle, where you'll NEVER see the light, nor will anyone ever see you! ...Or better yet, you can just hide in some Warp Pipe for eternity!"**_

"No… I'm not running away." Chopper declared as he clenched his fists and used his D-Down Hand to throw a light ball at Giga Bowser, which made him screech in pain. After that, Bow delivered a Power Smack to their enemy's face.

Giga Bowser got in his shell and came toward Chopper. Luckily, he jumped out of the way and let Giga Bowser fall off the platform.

"Phew! That was a close one!" Chopper sighed. "I thought I would be in trouble there for a second!"

"That was a lot easier than I thought," Parakarry realized.

However, they all heard a roar and saw Giga Bowser coming back up. Everyone got out of the way, but when he stomped on the ground, a shockwave struck Chopper and electrocuted him.

"Ow ow ow ow ow! That hurts!" Chopper cried. He quickly shook his head and used his Star Fire attack on Giga Bowser, and once Koopla used her Dizzy Shell attack, he was down to 26 HP.

_**"****Guh… This…isn't over yet…" **_Giga Bowser panted as he used his dark fire breath to burn Chopper. However, he was able to guard it with ease. Chopper then used his D-Down Star to take another 8 out of Giga Bowser.

"I think I can do one more thing to weaken him just for you," Bow informed as she used her Power Smack on Giga Bowser and left him with 8 HP. Giga Bowser got in his shell tossed himself at Chopper, who guarded the attack before he could become frozen.

"OK, Bowser! This is it!" Chopper declared as he held the Star Rod up, which began to glow. Giga Bowser's eyes widened as he gulped.

_**"****Uh oh… I'm screwed…" **_

"_**Hi-YAAAAAAA!**_" Chopper swung the Star Rod at Giga Bowser, and a powerful star struck him in the chest. A shining light enveloped Giga Bowser as he began to spin around as he slowly began to turn back to his normal self. When all the dark power was drained out of him, he fell over on the ground.

"Oh… NOOOOOO!" Bowser cried. "How could this be!? After using my full power, I lose! I can't believe it! Chopper defeated me AGAIN! I was even stronger than I was when Kammy used the power! Darn it!"

Chopper smiled as he received 60 Star Points and upgraded his FP to 100. However, he couldn't help but mock Bowser for some reason.

"Ha! Now how does it feel like to get pummeled by an eight year old, huh? Yeah, I thought so!"

"You little..." Bowser growled. "Don't think that this will be the last of me! I'll get my revenge someday!"

"Not likely..."

"I can't believe we did it! That was…actually pretty tough." Bow sighed as Chopper walked over to Peach and Twink.

"You did it…Chopper…" Twink weakly smiled.

"Whoa, you don't look so good, Twink…" Chopper trailed as he noticed Twink's appearance. "That's not good at all."

"Thank you so much, Chopper. I'm so glad that you came here even with when you need to go to Staris's home." Peach thanked as she lowered her head and pecked Chopper's forehead. However, when Bowser got up, the platform began to shake.

"Uh oh… I don't think destroying some of those platforms was a good idea." Bowser gulped. "My castle…AND this platform is about to explode!"

"Oh, no! Not good at all! …Wait!" Chopper suddenly realized something and used his Star Call to call out the Star Spirits. They were able to come to his aid immediately.

"Chopper? Is this something important?" Eldstar asked.

"Yes! Take Princess Peach and Twink to somewhere safe! ANYWHERE!" Chopper cried. The Star Spirits obeyed and took Peach and Twink off of the platform safely. When they were off the platform, he began to wave goodbye to them.

Unfortunately, he wasn't able to save himself and his friends. The platform exploded, sending Bowser flying off the platform, and it also sent Chopper and his friends flying away as well. However, instead of going down like Bowser, they were getting sent flying up.

Their quest wasn't truly over yet.


	107. Maquano: The Lord of Evil

The explosion from the platform was very intense, but luckily, the heroes were all all right. They ended up landing on a gray ground, which seemed to be higher above the platform they faced Bowser on. The sky was dark blue with dull stars, and everyone couldn't help but sense a dark feeling around the area, especially when it was silent.

Chopper got up and rubbed his head. "Ooog… Where are we now?" he looked at his surroundings and saw up ahead some stairs going up.

"I think that platform exploded and it took us here…" Bow trailed as she slowly got up. "That's all I know of right now. I think you were able to save Peach and Twink from the explosion."

"Oh… I remember now. That fight with Bowser was intense!" Chopper recalled. Everyone else got up and walked over to Chopper. They were battered up after the fight against Bowser.

"Aw… My achin' head…" Yosho groaned. "That was just intense! I thought I was goin' to die there fer a second! Hold on a minute… There's a sign by those stairs! What does it say?"

"Guys… We're at our destination," Geno realized as he read a sign up ahead. "Yes, we must take this small path to Staris's home. We are VERY close to it. Guys, this is it. We've come to find his home, and now we're at our destination. We've come this far… Unfortunately there's no turning back, sadly…"

"Then we better get going! The faster we get the Star Rod to its pedestal, the faster the Mushroom Kingdom will be saved!" Kayzee declared as she flew up the stairs, while Chopper followed. After going up the stairs, they found another stairway going up north, so they walked up those stairs to find another area with a couple of stairways going up to the right and left.

"Man, there's a lot of stairs here! I might just get worn out because of it! No, I can't tell myself that! We can keep going!" Koopla grumbled. Everyone groaned as they made their way up them, while the ones who could fly flew up instead of walking on them.

"So many stairs! I feel like I'm going to just tire out from all of them! Somebody give me a hand, please!" Bruce begged. Mallow made a cloud so he and Bruce could make it to the top, while everyone else complained a bit.

"Oh, that's just not fair… We have to go up all of these stairs? That's just not fair!" Yosho complained. However, he knew he couldn't complain the whole time, so he decided to keep his mouth shut for now.

When they all made it up the long and annoying stairs, they found stairs going up to the north, and guess what they found? More stairs… This time, there were only two stairways to go up.

"This isn't so bad. Let's hope those are the last of the stairs we'll ever have to deal with." Mallow hoped.

"I'm pretty sure it is. For some reason, I find no other stairs around here except these." Ghoster noticed. When they walked up those stairs, they found a ladder, so they climbed it up.

"This place gives me the creeps," Parakarry shivered as he looked at the sky. "The sky definitely looks darker now, and it feels when you're closer to your destination, it gets a lot more dangerous… At least Bowser's Road actually had some light. This place… There's nothing."

"You do have a point, but I'm not worried about this place. It's not really dangerous, at least." Bow assured. When they made it to the top of the ladder, they found another ladder on the ground, so Chopper ran over to it to climb up it. There was another ladder to climb too. After two more ladders, they had to move through a narrow pathway to run into another ladder. They could see a Heart Block near the pathway up ahead to the right. It looked like there was a dark cloud at the end of the area.

"What's with the dark cloud?" Chopper wondered. "Wait a minute… I remember someone telling me that it'll get darker when we get closer to Staris's floating home. It makes sense, I suppose."

When they went into the next area, the sky was completely black, and the stars couldn't be seen because of how foggy it was from the dark clouds. For some reason, they weren't ordinary clouds. They felt like dark clouds that meant evil was around.

"I don't like this place one bit! It scares me!" Kayzee shivered.

"I can really sense some pure evil around here. There's nothing around in the Mushroom Kingdom that's pure evil…" Chopper trailed until his antennas sprung up. "Except…!"

"Except who?" Bow wondered.

Chopper's eyes widened as he began to move at a faster pace. The area had a white road, but with a little black to it. There were no enemies around here either, so they were safe...at least, for now.

Chopper moved through the small path and went to a large area and then moved to another small path. It may have looked boring, but it wasn't boring. However, once Chopper and his friends went deeper into the place, they could see a path going to the right and then going up. But what made Chopper's antennas tick was a beeping sound. A sound...that he once heard before.

"Choppor! He's actually here?!" Chopper gasped as he rushed through the path and found C-2 Choppor kneeling on the ground in pain. All of the scratch marks and damage on him was still there.

"No way… Choppor is still alive!" Ghoster gasped as the rest of the group followed Chopper to the damaged C-2 Choppor.

"Ch-Choppor? I-Is that you? What are you doing here?" C-2 Choppor asked.

"This is where we need to go to reach Staris's home," Chopper explained. "I can't believe it! I thought... I thought you were, well, you know..."

"Oh… This is where to go to find Staris's home. Listen, I need to tell you something important. It has to do with the masked boy."

"You mean Sir Flyknightis? What about him?"

"Th-That masked boy… My scanners p-picked up something…"

"What? You found something about Flyknightis? Oh yeah… I remember. I don't think he was on that airship."

"He just past by me a while ago… Flyknightis… He's Flyer. My scanners told me that he's Flyer."

"Flyer?! Flyknightis…is Flyer?!" Chopper was stunned for the moment with his mouth open in shock. It wasn't a happy kind of shock either. "My best friend? No… This can't be… How could HE be the one to lead that huge army against mine? This whole time… I was fighting my best friend?"

"Oh my… He's really Flyer? Your best friend?" Bow gasped as she put her hands over her mouth. "That's…bad."

"Listen, Chopper… I need your help." C-2 Choppor pleaded. "There's one last thing to do…and only you can help me with it. Flyer is heading to…Staris's home. And Staris…he's still alive too. He just looked at me and just left. Take me to his home…"

"Staris is alive? I can't believe it… All of this has happened. Don't worry, Choppor. I'm going to help you through this." Chopper and Ghoster grabbed C-2 Choppor and began to carry him to the next area, which had a lift that everyone took up. There was a Save Block there, so Chopper hit it to save his game first before moving on to the next area, which made everyone stop when they saw someone looking away from them.

"I've been waiting for you…" the Lord of Evil, Maquano, turned around and faced the heroes. Sadly, it was difficult to see him because of the fog, but the only thing they could see was his glowing red eyes and his cape blowing through the wind.

"Maquano! So you DID decide to show your face!" Chopper growled as he slowly put C-2 Choppor down and walked over to his arch-nemesis, clenching his fists in anger.

"You're already too late, Chopper. Flyknightis and Staris already beat you to the floating island." Maquano stated. "And there's nothing I can do about it. They have disobeyed me now, so they're on their own. You honestly thought you destroyed Staris? You can't destroy a God! Don't you realize that!"

"Huh… So Staris is immortal, huh? Well, they may have made it there, but I still hold the Star Rod! Sorry, Maquano, but we already won!"

"Nonsense, you haven't won yet! This is how I wanted it to go. Now that you already took care of Bowser, I can gladly take over the Mushroom Kingdom and destroy it myself! I don't need a Star God or even a masked boy to help me!" Maquano declared until he remembered something. "Hold on a minute… That masked boy… Yes… He found that Power Star himself, but I didn't let him go any further when I brainwashed him! He does look familiar to you, right? Yes, that's because it was _**I **_who brainwashed your stupid little friend, Flyer!"

"You… So YOU did that!" Chopper hissed. "You're going to pay for making me fight my own best friend!"

"Yes, I did that, and it was fun to watch you fight! Also, he's definitely my most powerful minion! …Or, he WAS until he disobeyed me. He just went off on his own."

"I can't believe you would do something like that..."

"Heh heh heh! You never knew this whole time on your planet that you were fighting your best friend! I couldn't help but laugh while you fought him! But he is pathetic, just like you. He doesn't even know anything about who you are! This fog here will go to the Mushroom Kingdom soon, and only I can control it! All of the Toads will be dead, and even your precious princess!"

"Whoa… That is just EVIL!" Yosho gaped. "Even my girlfriend will be dead?!"

"Of course! I do plan on killing everyone down there and here, after all! And when that's all over, I'll go do it to the next world! I was thinking about destroying a place called Tallon IV or something after..."

"This is what you do for a living?!" Bow gaped.

"Of course! Destroying places is always fun! I think I had the most enjoyment of destroying Chopper's birth planet, especially since a certain person from there had to destroy a certain someone." Maquano declared, angering Chopper. "But, whatever, we can just end this now. But you better listen! You cannot control Staris anymore! He do what he wants as of now! That goes with your pathetic friend Flyer too! You can't remove that mask he wears! That's what keeps him the way he is! Now then… Take this for our battle!"

Maquano pulled out Galaxia and threw it over to Chopper, who put away the Star Rod and inhaled it to become Galaxia Chopper. "You're lucky that I gave you this sword. Don't consider me this noble, Chopper."

"All right, let's settle this once and for all!" Chopper declared, gripping Galaxia in his hand.

**Tattle: **_This is it, Chopper. This is hopefully the last battle you'll ever have! Max HP: 300, Attack Power: 15, Defense Power: 3. Now we know it. He's just has pure evil in his heart. I don't know what caused him to be this evil, but what he wants to do…is just terrible! Make all Toads extinct? I'm really scared of him right now! His attacks are pretty strong too. If you have your Sword or Galaxia ability on, you can at least not take as much damage from his strikes._

"All right, we'll do like what we did with Giga Bowser. He's just himself…so this may not exactly be so bad." Chopper decided as he used his D-Down Slash and was able to hit Maquano. After he landed the attack, Bow used her Power Smack on Maquano, who completely shook himself after the smacks.

"What? A stupid smack attack isn't going to affect me!" Maquano scoffed. "This helmet takes care of thing for me!"

He swung his sword at Chopper, but he was able to block it. That is, until Maquano used his power to blast him away. Chopper jumped toward Maquano and used his D-Down Slash again, while C-2 Choppor weakly raised his armgun and fired a blast at Maquano.

"Unngh! Hmph! So you have got some strength to fight, Choppor…" Maquano trailed as he fired dark magic at Chopper, which he guarded. "Even after you destroyed your own brother. You should be lucky Flyknightis…or should I say FLYER brought you here."

"I may be weak, but... I can still help my friends...finish their...mission." C-2 Choppor stated.

Chopper jumped up and used his Sword Beam to strike Maquano, while Koopla used her Dizzy Shell in an attempt to make the demon knight dizzy, but it sadly failed.

"Dang. I guess it didn't make him dizzy." Koopla frowned.

Maquano swung his sword at Chopper, sending him flying back. While he was trying to get up, Parakarry used his Shell Shot to strike the demon knight, and then Chopper used his D-Down Slash to strike Maquano and make him cringe in pain.

"Gah! You'll regret that!" Maquano spat as he swung at Chopper, who was able to parry the attack and jumped up to Maquano and slashed him with Galaxia in a way to counter him.

"All right, now! Now for my next attack!" Chopper jumped off Maquano and used the Sword Beam to strike his nemesis, who was trying to protect himself. Once he did that, Ghoster used his Psychic to throw a bunch of stars at Maquano. He retaliated by firinga Dark Sword Beam at Chopper, who tried to block it, but he failed to guard it and took 17 damage.

"Ouch... That's a lot." Bow realized.

"All right, let's try something else…" Chopper used a D-Down Hand attack, making him throw a light ball at Maquano. While it worked against him in the past, it didn't seem to have major effect on him. "Huh? I swear that that should've done something..."

"Fool!" Maquano roared. "That may have hurt me a little, but light won't destroy me! You should have realized that."

"This might…" Bruce trailed as he lit his fuse and walked over to Maquano, exploding in front of him. Unfortunately, that didn't do much when Maquano used some dark power to raise his Attack and Defense up by 3.

"Oh boy… This isn't good. We're going to need to avoid a lot of his attacks." Chopper gulped as he struck Maquano with a Sword Beam

"I better get to attacking then!" Kayzee declared as she used her scream to make Maquano cover his ears. Although, that's blatantly impossible with that helmet.

"Gah! Stupid screaming!" Maquano fired dark lighting at Kayzee, who was able to avoid it with ease. Maquano squinted at her, but then at Chopper, who used a D-Down Slash on him.

"Ugh... I should've paid attention…" Maquano groaned as Mallow looked satisfied, so he used Star Rain on Maquano, making a giant star hit him. However, the demon knight destroyed the star once it struck him and swung his sword at Chopper, taking 18 out of him.

Chopper used his D-Down Slash on Maquano again, and afterward, Yosho used his Dragonbreath to scorch the demon knight. Maquano simply scratched it off and fired dark magic at Chopper, who swung it back at Maquano. He simply swung his sword to destroy it.

"Whoa, I didn't know he could do that…" Chopper chirped as he used his D-Down Jump on his archenemy, and since Geno didn't attack, he used his Geno Flash. Maquano brought his sword up and darkness began to surround it. He swung it at Chopper, but luckily he was able to counter his attack and strike back at him. Chopper followed up by using a D-Down Pound on him by bashing him with his hammer. C-2 Choppor fired another blast as his red visor blinked.

"If what he says…is true…then we must…defeat him…" C-2 Choppor trailed, noticing that Maquano was already down to 100 HP.

Thankfully, Maquano's boost was gone, so he went with something else. "I suppose it's right for me to do this…"

He raised his sword, making it get surrounded in darkness. They couldn't even see any red in it now!

"All right, I think I gotta make a good move. Let's see how many times I can Power Bounce him." Chopper sighed as he began to use his Power Bounce on him and he was able to stomp on him about fifteen times. Bow then used her Outta Sight to make everyone invisible. When Maquano used his Dark Sword Beam attack, it missed, and Chopper was able to use his Power Jab attack on Maquano to jab at him twent times.

"Argh! It missed..." Maquano grumbled.

Bow used her Power Smack on Maquano, and after he stopped spinning, he grinned.

"Heh heh heh… You honestly didn't think I wouldn't just let you beat me, right? I'll just take care of this…" Maquano assured as he raised his arms and used his power to recover **60 HP**.

"Yeesh! He managed to heal himself!" Parakarry gasped.

"This isn't good..." Bow trailed.

"Holy… 60 HP? That's nuts!" Yosho gaped.

"You're nuts, pathetic Yoshi. I'm going to make sure you and the rest of your friends will burn in Hell when you're all dead!"

"Whoa! That's WAY too harsh! Ya wanna burn? 'Cause I can make ya!" Yosho unleashed his Dragonbreath on Maquano, and then Chopper followed up by using a Sword Beam attack on him.

Maquano jumped toward Chopper and swung his sword at him, leaving the pale green exhausted and low on HP. Chopper decided to pull out an Ultimate Punch and recover 100 HP and 100 FP.

After Bow used her Power Smack on Maquano, she noticed Chopper float over to Maquano due to his love of the Ultimate Punch. Maquano looked confused and tried to swing his sword at him, but he just kept avoiding the attacks and countered the demon knight's attack and struck him with Galaxia to take 5 out of him.

Once that was over with, Chopper took out the Star Rod and used Star Fire on Maquano instead of using his Sword Beam. C-2 Choppor fired a blast at him afterward. Maquano made dark lighting strike Chopper and took 16 instead of the normal 15.

"All right, back to my sword!" Chopper used his D-Down Slash on Maquano again, and then Geno used his Geno Blast to leave Maquano with 47 HP. He retaliated by swinging his sword at Chopper, knocking him back. Luckily, he was able to run back toward the demon knight and swing at him with Galaxia with a D-Down Slash. Bow used her Power Smack on Maquano yet again.

"Gah… Fools!" Maquano growled as he raised his arms and raised his attack and defense up by three. Because of that, Chopper jumped up and used a Sword Beam on him. After that, C-2 Choppor had enough power in his for a Laser Cannon.

"Activating…_Bzzzzzzt_…Laser Cannon. Fire!" C-2 Choppor shouted as he fired his Laser Cannon at Maquano, which sent him flying back.

"You… After my army made you, THIS is how you repay me!" Maquano roared, clenching his sword. "I should just finish off what C-1 Mega was trying to do!"

Maquano swung his sword and unleashed a Dark Sword Beam at C-2 Choppor, knocking him to the ground and making sparks fly everywhere and leaving him a worse state. Chopper was completely shocked and clenched his fists at Maquano.

"You… How could you do such a thing to a robot with FEELINGS! ?" Chopper exclaimed. "Do you LOVE to do things that are pure evil, such as brainwash my best friend, and also try to destroy a great robot friend of mine! ?"

"I see you're a bit surprised by this. He's not even needed anymore. I could care less about those C Robos. I just got rid of them because they were complete garbage in my place." Maquano explained, sighing without emotion. "I even thought that he was garbage too. He should be put down like his brother has been. He's no longer needed for this world!"

"Well I don't think you're needed for this world either!" Chopper jumped up and began to store some green energy in the sword.

"Hold on... What are you doing?!"

"_**Galaxia…SWORD BEAM!**_"

"Galaxia... Galaxia Sword Beam?!"

Chopper swung the sword down at Maquano, which, unfortunately, destroyed the sword and got rid of his hat.

"What! ?" Maquano tried to block the attack with his sword, but it didn't work and ended up getting hit by the attack, making him fall to the ground with his armor battered up and dirty with scratch marks and his cape was ripped. Chopper was awarded with 65 Star Points and his last level up. With that, he upgraded his BP to 60.

"I'll NEVER die, Chopper!" Maquano roared, raising his head at his nemesis while his red eyes began to glow. "No matter what you do, there is no way you will permanently destroy me! As a demon, I am immortal!"

_"I think this is my chance…" _Chopper thought as he pulled out the Light Orb, which his friends noticed.

"What's that? Where did you get that?" Bow asked.

"That's…the Light Orb!" Geno gaped. "Chopper! Those have never appeared for centuries! How did you get your hands on it?"

Maquano's eyes widened as he saw the Light Orb when Chopper turned around. "The Light Orb? You aren't planning on…"

"Yes. I am. This is it for you, Maquano! This will seal you for eternity, and you'll never get out of here!" Chopper threw the orb at Maquano, which enveloped him in a bright light.

"**_AAAAARGH!" _**Maquano yelled. "I don't believe it... How someone like you could get your hands on something like that... It almost comes off as surprising."**_  
_**

After his last words, the dark clouds disappeared, showing the starry sky again and getting rid of the fog. The orb floated down to Chopper, where he noticed the darkness inside of it. Without saying a word, he grabbed the orb and threw it far into space, hoping to never see Maquano again.

"Goodbye, Maquano," Chopper muttered. "I hope to never see you again..."

With that finished, he looked over to C-2 Choppor, who was in a severe state at the moment. Everyone else made their way to him as well.

"Chopper… Are you OK?" C-2 Choppor asked asked as the eight year old walked over to him.

"Yes, everything's all right..." Chopper slowly nodded. "Maquano's gone now. Hold on, we're gonna get you to safety!"

However, before he could pick him up, C-2 Choppor pushed Chopper's hand away.

"No, Chopper... I no longer have the strength to aid you... All systems are failing..." C-2 Choppor trailed. "I believe my time has finally come to join my brothers..."

"But... You can't go! I don't want you to!" Chopper cried as his eyes began to water up. "You were one of my greatest friends!"

A tear slowly came down his face and landed on C-2 Choppor.

"Are you…crying?"

"Y-Yes..."

"No no… Don't cry. No crying until the end, Chopper. Wait until your entire adventure is over, or if your death is about to come soon... Just remember that, Chopper. No crying until the end."

"OK, Choppor…" Chopper trailed, wiping the tears off his face. "I won't cry until the end…"

"Good… You must go help save your best friend, and please… Help Staris..."

"I promise I'll do that..."

"Thank you, Chopper... Thank you all for the wonderful adventure. But for now...

...

...

...

...

...Farewell."

C-2 Choppor's visor slowly began to fade away as he remained motionless. Chopper looked down at his robot friend and slowly put him down and stood up. Everyone slowly hung their head low. Yosho even took off his fake toupee in gratitude.

"Poor poor Choppor… Why did this have to happen?" Kayzee asked.

"He has suffered a terrible fate with his brother and Maquano..." Geno trailed. "At least he can rest in peace…for now."

"Yes… But we can't grieve now." Chopper stated. "Remember what he said: 'No crying until the end.' We need to go help my friend and stop Staris. We know he's alive now, and if he's waiting for us, then we'll have to be ready."

Chopper and his friends slowly walked away from C-2 Choppor and made their way over to a rainbow bridge leading to a large floating island up ahead. He also hit the final Save Block before he turned to his friends."

"Guys… This is it." Chopper declared. "This is where our adventure will be coming to an end. Are you guys ready?"

"Yeah, I'm ready," Koopla nodded.

"Ready as I'll ever be," Bruce answered.

"Yeah," Parakarry nodded.

"Of course," Bow replied.

"We're not lettin' them cause any problems there," Yosho stated.

"I hope we're not too late..." Kayzee trailed.

"I'm ready," Mallow nodded.

"This is for Choppor," Ghoster declared.

"We're all ready for this, Chopper," Geno nodded.

"Then let's go," Chopper turned around and began to run across the bridge with his friends to Staris's Shrine, their final destination.

They hoped they weren't too late.

* * *

**What a shame to see C-2 Choppor go like that...  
**

**Well, it looks like only three chapters left, which includes the final battle and ending. Hopefully they can find "Sir Flyknightis" and try to stop him. We'll see.  
**


	108. The Beginning of the End

Once they were across the rainbow bridge, they reached the floating star island where the Star God Staris lived. Chopper, Bow and Geno realized that this was the place in their vision. They noticed up to the north was a large shrine, which was Staris's Shrine. Up the stairs and on the pedestal was where Chopper needed to put the Star Rod. The ground was a mix of a blue and purple, and they could see a large fountain in the center of the island, where they saw the beautiful, sparkling pool. Even the stars were bright around here.

"This place… So it IS real… I didn't expect this place to be real at all." Chopper gasped, recalling the time he saw this place. I can't believe it... We're already at the end of our adventure. All we need to do is bring the Star Rod up to the shrine and then everything will be set. _Though… I still don't understand why Fairisp didn't want me to put the Star Rod at its pedestal. Is this true? …Or is she lying about it?_"

"What was that, Chopper?" Bow asked, hearing Chopper mumble. He jumped a bit and told her it was nothing. All he could do was look at the island and the light blue shrine. The Star Kids were nowhere to be seen, possibly because of the previous events involving the Star Rod being stolen. However, there was one person watching the fountain.

It was Sir Flyknightis.

"Chopper! Look! It's Flyknightis!" Geno noticed. Chopper gasped and ran toward Flyknightis, who was kneeling by the fountain and touching the pure water. While Maquano was gone, they didn't necessarily believe that he was on their side.

"Flyer! It's me! Chopper! You're best friend! Don't you remember me?" Chopper asked as Flyknightis stood up and turned to the eleven. "I don't know if you can hear me, Flyer… But you're being brainwashed! That mask has to come off of you right now!"

Flyknightis remained silent and drew his sword. After a couple of swings, he sent lightning down on the group.

"_**AAAAGGHHH!**_"

Everyone but Chopper fell to the ground because of the power of the lightning attack. Since he was granted that power by Merli, the lightning reflected off of him and hit Flyknightis instead, making him hold his arm in pain.

"Guys? Are you there!" Chopper gasped as he turned to his unconscious friends before slowly turning. "…Oh no… It's just me against Flyer."

He slowly pulled the Star Rod out while Flyknightis was able to shake off the attack and walk toward Chopper.

_"It's just me against Flyer… I HAVE to pry off that mask or else he'll be like that!" _Chopper was about to swing the Star Rod at him, but then he stopped. He couldn't attack his own friend. It wasn't right...

Even though Chopper refused to attack Flyknightis, his friend still attacked him. He fired a blast at Chopper, which knocked him back, and then he jumped toward him and swung his sword. Chopper used the Star Rod to prevent himself from getting sliced in half. Sure, he wouldn't attack his friend, but he needed to protect himself too.

_"...Wait, Maquano said I couldn't pry off the mask, but he never said anything about him taking it off himself! But... The only way to do that would be to try to get in touch with the real him! I'll have to try..."  
_

"Flyer! Listen to me! You're fighting your own friend right now!" Chopper cried. "You're not Maquano's brainwashed minion! You're Flyer!"

Flyknightis stopped for a moment, which made Chopper believe he was going to stop, but it didn't turn out to be when he summoned a tornado, which sucked Chopper in and made him fall into the fountain. Flyknightis walked over to the wet Chopper and drew his sword, ready to finish him off.

"Wait! I got it!" Chopper jumped out of the water and landed in front of Flyknightis. He tried to pull the mask off, but once again, it did no good. Flyknightis punched Chopper, knocking him back into the fountain. Before the winged knight could bring his sword down on him, Chopper rolled out of the way and got back up.

Even seeing his friend hurt him didn't make him feel happy.

"Flyer, if you can hear me, just LISTEN to me!" Chopper demanded. "You're NOT Sir Flyknightis! You are Flyer! We're friends! Don't you remember me or at least something? Remember when I first met you? I rescued you from those Darklings that were bullying you."

Flyknightis paused for a moment and began to ponder. He began to recall a time when someone who looked like Chopper rescued a person that looked like him...without his mask on. He looked at Chopper, who stared at him sadly. At this point, he began to hear some voices in his head that made him shut his eyes and put his hands on his head.

"Unnnghh!" Flyknightis couldn't take it anymore. He ended up firing a blast from his wrist blaster, sending Chopper flying back. He slowly got himself up in pain and staggered toward Flyknightis. The masked boy gazed at him while he slowly pulled an item out.

It was the broken picture of Chopper and Flyer with tape covering the middle.

"Flyer… I had this picture for many years." Chopper sighed. "I'm sure you kept a picture like this at your home. It's you…and me. Well, it _was_ you…until you became what you are right now. You were my best friend, and I felt like I was shattered when I saw this broken. Do you really not want to be my friend anymore? I understand if you don't…"

Chopper put down the picture and slowly walked away with his head hung low and his eyes closed. Flyknightis slowly picked up the picture and began to look at it. He looked up back at Chopper too.

While Chopper was walking away, someone tapped him on the shoulder, and when he turned around, he saw Flyknightis handing him the picture, which made Chopper gasp.

"Flyer..."

"I'm sorry, Chopper…" Flyknightis trailed. Chopper slowly smiled as he saw his friend begin to remove his mask.

But before he could remove it, he got struck by lightning, knocking him toward the fountain.

_"You stupid little kid! How could you just go back to him like that!" _

"Huh? Who said that?" Chopper looked up and saw Fairisp slowly floating down. However, her laugh didn't sound nice, but it sounded more witch-like. "Fairisp? Why did you do that!? You just hurt my friend!"

_"Eeeyah ha ha ha ha! I can't believe you never even suspected it! Chopper! It was I who planned this whole thing!"_ Fairisp cackled.

"What in Clara are you talking about?"

_"I tried to set you up with your friend, but it didn't work out. You see, the whole reason why Staris became like this is because of me! It was my message that brought Maquano to make Staris angered, you see..."  
_

"What?! You gotta be kidding me! Why would you bring that up at the last minute of the story?!" Chopper gaped as he slammed the ground with his fist. "There was never any mention of something like that or any sort of build-up! Now you've ruined the final battle by making me fight you!"

_"I'm sure you don't recall seeing a mysterious figure in that flashback, did you not?"_

"Actually... I believe I did. ...Wait, don't tell me that was you, wasn't it?!"

_"Yes! You see, after noticing that some demon knight wanted to get a hold of him, I decided to play my part by telling him about the Star Rod! Of course, being the villain he is, he wanted to trick Bowser into using him as a little decoy. As for me... I decided to watch you guys and make sure that you succeeded. There's a reason why I gave you the Light Orb, you know. Now that demon knight isn't in my way!"_

"Huh... Not bad...for a fairy - if that's what you are, that is."

_"Oh, yes! Please excuse me for a moment... I have to assert my true form."_

Fairisp transformed into a big light purple witch-like soul with a freaky tongue sharp edges on her mouth. She also had a small heart in her body and two long arms with four fingers. This wasn't exactly what Chopper was expecting...

"What the… You're…a ghost?" Chopper gawked.

"No, you fool! I WAS alive…but then a plumber in a red cap and blue overalls came to the Beanbean Kingdom and destroyed me!" Cackletta's Soul growled. "This is what's left of me now. My name is Cackletta! And I must say... I thank you for all the help! Now I can control the Star God and take over the Mushroom Kingdom!"

"Oh, it's THAT kind of cliche... Yeah, why don't you villains try something unique for once? It really doesn't..." Chopper paused when he saw a yellow puddle behind Cackletta's Soul. A fist rose out and punched the witch, sending her flying back.

"WHAT!? I thought Staris would do my bidding after all of that!" Cackletta's Soul gaped.

"You can't control a God, Cackletta! You're foolish to even think that you'll have control over him!" Chopper jumped over to Staris. "All right now! Show yourself, Staris! I know you're still alive! I'd rather have a final battle with you than some stupid witch anyway!"

Staris rose up from his puddle, only in his normal form, but what shocked Chopper the most was when he saw he had a hold of Mario.

"Oh no... Mario! So Staris had him this whole time!" Chopper gasped as he clenched his fists as Staris shot a beam from his mouth at Chopper, who used the Star Rod to defend himself.

"I guess Cackletta was wrong about having him under her control. Maybe he's like this because of what I did. He looks like he wants to destroy me for sure!" Chopper ran toward Staris and he stomped on his head. Sadly, his partners couldn't help him, considering that they were still unconscious.

Staris had 2 HP left, considering that he only had a Max HP of 10. He looked at the Star Rod in Chopper's hand and punched Chopper to grab it. He dropped the unconscious Mario and grabbed the Star Rod, using its power to make himself invincible.

"Uh oh…" Chopper gulped as he watched Staris heal himself. Not everyday would someone see the Star God using the Star Rod. While Chopper and Staris were fighting, Flyknightis rubbed his head. After remembering what he saw from the picture of Chopper and himself, he managed to regain consciousness of himself.

"Ugh… I'm not feeling good." Flyer moaned as he got back up and saw Cackletta's Soul getting back up after Staris attacked her. One thing for sure was that she wasn't pleased.

"After all I've done for you, THIS is how you pay me back! Fine! I shall dispose of you, then!" Cackletta's Soul roared as she began to charge up an energy blast from her mouth, but then Flyer struck lightning down on her with his sword and flew toward her.

"I'm sorry, you evil witch! I'm not going to let you hurt my friend! After all we've gone through, you WON'T do anything to harm him!" Flyer shouted as he swung his sword at her. "I think it's time I put you down!"

"Fine! I shall dispose of you quickly, and then eat you for lunch!" the witch's soul declared. "Your friend shall become dinner after that! And perhaps Staris will make a nice drink! THEN I shall get rid of that plumber he's got! I'm not done with him yet!"

Cackletta's Soul fired a ball of energy at Flyer, which knocked him back and left his mask scratched. Afterward, Flyer stored up some power and fired a blast at the ghost's heart, which made Cackletta's Soul cringe in pain.

"Gah! Not my heart!" When Cackletta's Soul punched Flyer, it did less damage than before. It seemed that her power weakened when Flyer hit her heart.

"Ah! Now I see it! When I attack her heart, it will make her weak! I must aim for the heart!" Flyer declared as he slashed the heart on Cackletta's Soul, which made her scream even louder and make Chopper and Staris left off guard for a minute.

Cackletta swung her arms around at Flyer, but this time it only did one damage. "Urk! My heart is in pain! I need to find a way to end it!"

Cackletta's Soul attempted to strike Flyer with lightning, but she soon realized that it did nothing at this point.

"Oh…no! This can't be! My attacks…don't even work against him?" Cackletta's Soul gasped as Flyer held his sword up, ready to make the final blow.

"Ha! And you call yourself 'The Greatest Witch'? I've got this equipment to help me defeat you! I think it's right to put you out of your misery too!" Flyer ran toward Cackletta's Soul and struck her right in the heart one last time. After Flyer pulled his sword out, Cackletta's Soul began scream and almost felt like she was going to explode.

When Flyer turned his back, she smirked and fired a blast toward him - only to have her miss and hit Staris instead. However, this didn't mean that she was done yet.

"Huh?" Chopper looked confused when a blast hit Staris. This made the Star God turn to Cackletta's Soul and fire a Star Beam toward her, impaling her her and making her let out a scream worse than before.

"Whoa! That was TOO close!" Flyer gasped.

"_**EEYARGH! **_It can't be! Impossible! I… No… How could I… and to this masked boy! HOW COULD I LOSE SO EASILY?!" Cackletta's Soul cried as she began to disappear as her spirit began to fade away, just like her body.

"Yes! She's gone!" Flyer cheered until he realized that Staris was still left. "Wait... He's still left."

Flyer tried to attack Staris with lightning, but since he had the Star Rod, he was invulnerable to it. This made him fire a Star Beam at Flyer, knocking him toward the stairs of his shrine and leaving Chopper shocked.

"You! All right, I've had it, Staris! You've gone TOO FAR!" Chopper roared. "We're ending this right now! Star Spirits! I need your help!"

Chopper summoned all seven Star Spirits to use the Peach Beam - only to have it not work against him. With the Star Rod in the Star God's hands, he was way too powerful for the Star Spirits, and this even let him take 16 out of Chopper when he used its power to strike him with lightning.

"The Peach Beam didn't do anything!" Chopper gaped. "I think the power from the Star Rod for Staris is ten times greater than for Bowser! Crud… There's absolutely NO WAY I can even attack him!"

What was another stupid move of Chopper's was not just using the Peach Beam, but leaving the Star Spirits wide open for Staris. He used the Star Rod to prevent them from escaping and managed to catch the seven by bringing yellow waterfalls down on them. Chopper gasped when he heard the screams of the Star Spirits as they were enveloped by the water.

Chopper's friends slowly brought their heads up to see Chopper and Staris facing off and also Mario on the ground. However, what made them gasp was when the Star Spirits were getting driven closer by Staris's power.

"We can't escape!" Eldstar cried.

"No… No…! NO! _**NOOOOO!**_" Geno cried as the Star Spirits were absorbed into Staris. A flashing yellow light enveloped the Star God as he raised his arms and roared, disappearing from their sights.

"_**NO!**_" Chopper cried as he slammed his fist on the ground. "I can't believe it! Staris was alive this whole time, and now he's got the Star Rod AND all seven Star Spirits! I can't believe that we've come this far…and now we failed!"

As Chopper and his friends hung their heads low in failure, it began to rain.

* * *

**Yeah, I know the whole Cackletta thing was a little anti-climatic, but thankfully, she is NOT the final boss! I mean, I even made fun of that in the chapter as well! :P  
**

**Besides, it wouldn't feel justified for her to be the final battle anyway. However, be prepared, people, because the final fight will be next chapter!  
**


	109. Perfect Staris: The Final Battle

Everything felt a bit peaceful in Toad Town. That is, until yellow rain began to fall from the sky. The Toads felt confused, because it wasn't supposed to rain, especially yellow rain.

"Hey, why is there rain here? There wasn't supposed to be any today! What gives?" a Toad wondered as the rain started to come down harder, forcing them all to hurry indoors.

"I have fury!" Fawful cried as he jumped out of a warp pipe and wore a red cloak and hood to prevent himself from getting wet. "So now it is time for Fawful's leaving! I bid you all farewell, and Fawful will run like the horse with sponges for feet!"

Once he took off with his Headgear, yellow water began to shoot out of the pipes and begin to flood Toad Town. This wasn't just happened in Toad Town either. Places like the City of Flowersville had skyscrapers falling over and windows breaking. Water began to spit out of there as well, making the entire Mushroom Kingdom flooded by star water.

In Toad Town, right by Peach's Castle, something in the star water began to form up. It was a monster much bigger than Peach's Castle. He resembled the head of Staris in his normal form, but unlike his other forms, he could have as many arms as he wanted, with them having the ability to transform into tentacles or even laser swords. He no longer had legs, but this wasn't a big issue when he could sink into the water and come out in an area further from him. A rainbow glow surrounded him thanks to the power of the Star Rod, and on his body, seven stars appeared in certain parts, such as his chest and shoulders. Even his eyes turned from green to rainbow, but this wasn't just Staris.

This was Perfect Staris.

* * *

**Staris's Shrine-**

"I can't believe we've failed!" Chopper cried. The Mushroom Kingdom is now flooded because of Staris, and now there's nothing we can do about it!"

"I just wish we had a little help for this. We NEED something…" Geno trailed. What made everyone surprised was when they saw Peach and Twink flying over to the floating island.

"What? Princess Peach? Twink? What are you two doing here?" Koopla asked.

"I…_cough_…heard a wish that Geno made…and I wanted to come here to help," Twink explained.

"We need to make a wish if we're to stop Staris," Peach explained. "Stars and usually powered up when everyone makes a wish. We could wish some of the stars to grant a power that could be used to stop Staris! We will need everyone's help for this, and we'l need a way to get a hold of everyone."

"Then make a wish to call out for every, Peach!" Twink cried. "They'll hear your plea and listen!"

"Twink... All right... I'll try that." Peach closed her eyes and began to think of a wish. Fourteen sparkles of light were emitted from Staris's Shrine and sent down to many areas of the Mushroom Kingdom.

When everyone down below heard this plea, they listened and closed their eyes to make a wish to help the Stars. Even the villains that were injured from battle began to make wishes.

"It's still not enough. We need some more help!" Twink cried while Peach noticed Mario slowly get up.

Mario: What happened?

"Oh, Mario! I'm so glad you're OK!" Peach smiled. "We need your help right now, and we need you to help make a wish to give the Star Spirits some power."

Mario nodded to her and put his hands together and made a wish with her. Kayzee looked down below and noticed that Staris was destroying Peach's Castle with his fist.

"He looks likes he's full of evil!" Kayzee cried. "If this keeps up, he'll eventually destroy the whole world! Who's not helping us?"

Mallow turned to the unconscious Flyer while saying, "I think I know the answer," as he walked over to Flyer and poked him. "Get up, Flyknightis! Please! We can't fight right now, we need your help!"

"No, my name's not Flyknightis… My name…" Flyer trailed as he removed his mask and quickly shook his head. "…is Flyer."

"Flyer? You're all right!" Chopper gasped. "Listen, we need your help. You need to make a wish to help the Star Spirits!"

"The Star Spirits? OK… I'm just feeling lightheaded today…" Flyer began to make his wish like everyone else, summoning the spirits of the seven Star Spirits.

_"Oh my! I feel some power within me!"_ Eldstar gasped._ "So Staris has gotten all seven of us, I'm afraid. With the dark power corrupting him, he has become nothing but a monster!"  
_

"What does that mean?"

_"If nothing could stop him, he'll be like that forever!" _

"Oh, no... Then...all hope is lost?"

_"No, not quite... Listen, Chopper… There's one last power that we haven't given you yet. One that will make you stronger than ever! You'll be so strong, that you'll be able to defeat Perfect Staris! This…is our final Power given to you."_

The seven Star Spirits gave Chopper as much of their glittering power as lightning struck down from the rainy sky. A familiar type of power was absorbed into Chopper's body has he found himself floating above the ground. Swinging his arms back, a huge, light power was unleashed, turning his skin a golden yellow and his shoes a darker gold. Not only that, but he was surrounded in a light glow.

**Chopper has become Super Chopper! His HP has increased to 500 and his Attack Power is 20.**

"Chopper…turned yellow?" Bow gawked.

"I'm... I'm **Super Chopper**!" the boy gasped. "This is the power that helped me face off Maquano before!"

_"That's the last of the power we can give you, unfortunately… We must be going now."_ the Star Spirits slowly began to fade away, leaving only Super Chopper and his friends, Peach, Twink and Mario.

"Chopper! You must go now!" Twink suggested.

"We will try our best to support you," Geno said. "Now... Put an end to the evils corrupting Staris and neutralize him!"

"I'm on it!" Super Chopper nodded and flew down from Star Haven and down to Toad Town where Perfect Staris was. "Hey, Staris!"

Perfect Staris stopped with his destruction and turned his attention to the floating Chopper. He let out a roar, but it didn't faze Super Chopper one bit.

"Staris, throughout this adventure, I have come to realize something. You're not truly evil. You were a caring god who supported Star children. However, once Bowser took the Star Rod, you became corrupted with evil. If the good is still in you, I'm here to dispose of that evil. I, Chopper of Planet Clara, will stop your wrath!"

Perfect Staris let out a roar as he fired a projectile filled with star energy. Smirking, Super Chopper easily swatted it away.

"This is it, Staris! This is our final battle!"

**Tattle: **_Phew! I'm so glad I'm safe right now. That's Perfect Staris, and that's at Staris's full transformation. He…is REALLY strong. Max HP: 1,000, Attack Power: 28, Defense Power: 0. He doesn't have defense, but he's still nobody to mess with. He's HUGE! He'll do many things to stop you, such as using his tentacles that he can summon, firing a Star Beam, and he'll also heal himself if he's low on HP. Chopper, this is the last battle, and you cannot fail now._

Super Chopper flew around Perfect Staris and fired an energy blast from his hands at him to take 20 out of him, making him gawk for a brief moment.

"20 damage? Wow... That's a lot more than what Maquano could do!" Super Chopper gasped. Perfect Staris used his glowing arm to fire a blast at him, knocking him back and making him quickly shake his head. Sure, he was super-powered, but Perfect Staris was much stronger HP wise and Attack wise. Mostly... "Whoa, that's pretty strong… He may be big, but I can still take him!"

He charged up an energy beam and fired it straight at Perfect Staris to deal 40 damage, something much stronger. The Star God whacked him toward Koopa Bros. Park, and because he was fast, he made his way there with ease. In Koopa Bros. Park, The Koopa Bros. were hanging onto dear life on the railing of the broken roller coaster.

"Aw, man! Our park is completely destroyed! Not cool at all! And…" Red paused when he caught a glimpse of the Star God, Perfect Staris. "OH MY GOSH THAT THING'S HUGE!"

Perfect Staris let out a roar upon seeing them, but he was interrupted when Super Chopper fired a light beam at him.

"Whoa! Check it out! Chopper's fighting that thing!" Black noticed. "But…he's all yellow now. What's with that?"

"Beats me," Green shrugged. "Let's just see what happens here, OK?"

"Why can't we just go pummel that yellow water thing ourselves?" Yellow whined as Red punched him in the face with his free hand.

"Shut up, Yellow!" he snapped. They saw Super Chopper getting punched by Perfect Staris, and then he returned the favor with a light ball hurled at the Star God.

"Go Chopper... I mean go Staris!" was what the Koopa Bros. were thinking at the moment.

"I'm so glad I can use this attack!" Super Chopper smiled as Perfect Staris punched Chopper and sent him flying away - but not without shooting another light beam at the Star God.

"Well… This stinks, doesn't it?" Red wondered. "We're stuck here, over some water. This is just perfect…"

Perfect Staris sank back into the water in order to go after Super Chopper. Apparently, the yellow boy found himself in the Dry Dry Desert and didn't notice Perfect Staris rise up and fling a tornado at him, making him land over Dry Dry Ruins.

"Man, he's just not easy…" Super Chopper trailed as he flew toward Perfect Staris and used another light beam on him, which ended up making the Star God fire a Star Beam at Super Chopper to take 30 out of him. He charged up another light beam and he fired it at his head, but he was hit again by a blast coming from Perfect Staris.

"OK, this attack will make him have only 800 HP left. Hopefully it works." Super Chopper flew toward Perfect Staris while he clenched his fist. Once he crashed into Perfect Staris, he ended up exploding.

"Oh, cool! I did it!" Unfortunately, he ended up getting hit by lightning and was whacked away by Perfect Staris, who rose back up from the water, knocking him past Forever Forest and over to Yoshi's Island. Yoshi Mountain wasn't flooded, and because of that, there were many Yoshis on the mountain, looking down at the yellow water.

"Oh, our poor village..." Yoshgin trailed. "Why did it have to end like this?"

Super Chopper saw Perfect Staris rise up from the water and attempted to attack the boy - only to have the hero avoid the attack and use his Multi-Beam attack, which let him fire beams at him multiple times. He was able to shoot seven beams. Perfect Staris's eyes glowed as Super Chopper got struck by lightning, making him cringe in pain.

"You know what stinks? I'm not invincible against enemies like him compared to Super Sonic..."

Super Chopper quickly flew up and he came down at Perfect Staris, charging up a beam and firing it at him. However, he got punched away once again to the City of Flowersville, where he crashed through a bunch of buildings.

Now that Perfect Staris did this, he sank down into the water and rose up in the city, only to be attacked by Super Chopper's light beam. Luckily, Super Chopper flew low when Perfect Staris tried to punch him, and then he rammed right through him afterward. The people in the city seemed to be cheering after seeing he was helping.

"I don't know who he is, but he's REALLY helping us by stopping this evil water god!" one civilian cheered as Super Chopper was sent flying back by a beam Perfect Staris fired out.

"Uh oh… I'm running low on HP! I need a safe place to go, and FAST!" Super Chopper quickly flew out of the city and flew to Shiver Mountain, where he recovered at least 300 HP. "Ahh... That's MUCH better!"

However, Perfect Staris showed up in Shiver Mountain as well, so Super Chopper used his Multi Beam attack, hitting the Star God eight times. After avoiding another attack from Perfect Staris, he charged up a beam and fired it at him. Super Chopper did a good job attacking, but Perfect Staris managed to use Star Storm, which was related to Skolar's Star Storm. Super Chopper gulped and guarded the attack.

"You gotta be kidding me! You've got a Star Storm?!" Super Chopper gaped as Perfect Staris roared at him, being unable to speak compared to him. The next thing Super Chopper did was charge up another beam and fire it at Perfect Staris, who managed to recover 80 HP, which made the super-powered eight year old groan.

"Oh fine… I'll go ahead and use another Multi Beam attack." Super Chopper declared as he fired ten beams at Perfect Staris. Now he only had 294 HP left, which meant that it was coming closer to an end.

Perfect Staris sank into the water again, and Super Chopper noticed he was gone. He knew he had to go somewhere else, so he began to fly over to Tadpole Pond, but he wasn't there. It turned out that Perfect Staris headed back up into Star Haven on his own island to finally settle this. All of Chopper's friends were on the top of the shrine to avoid drowning.

"Holy… He's huge!" Yosho gaped.

"OK, Staris… If you want to settle it here, then we will!" Super Chopper declared while charging another beam. He fired it at Perfect Staris, who retaliated by punching Super Chopper, knocking him back. He reacted by ramming through the Star God and firing a light beam.

"That's amazing! I've never seen this type of power!" Bow gasped seeing Super Chopper get thrown back by Perfect Staris's star beam.

"Come on, Chopper... You can do this..." Geno mumbled.

This made Chopper clench his fists again and charge at Perfect Staris, hitting him with no problem. However, Perfect Staris recovered his HP once again, which didn't make Super Chopper happy. He used his Multi Beam attack on him once again, hitting him twelve times.

Super Chopper smirked, feeling satisfied, but then he stopped and saw Perfect Staris change his arm to a tentacle and whack him with it, sending him flying back toward Rainbow Path. While Super Chopper tried to fly back, Perfect Staris eyed his friends.

"Whatever you do, don't scream, Kayzee…" Ghoster warned.

Before Kayzee could, Super Chopper came back and attacked Perfect Staris with his light beam, which brought his attention back at the small hero. Now with 100 HP left, he clenched his fists and threw two tentacles at him. Luckily, the attack was guarded, which gave the opportunity for Super Chopper to heal himself, due to being low on HP, but he still got attacked by Perfect Staris before he fired a charged beam at him.

Perfect Staris roared as he fired another Star Beam at Super Chopper, who fired another charged beam at him. Due to running low on HP, he used his power to heal 80 HP again, which got Super Chopper angry, firing a light ball at Perfect Staris to take 20 out of him.

"Seriously, you keep healing yourself!" Super Chopper groaned as Perfect Staris summoned another Star Storm to make shootings stars come down Super Chopper. After shaking his head quickly, he fired a light beam at Perfect Staris. Luckily, Super Chopper avoided the Star God's punch and was able to attack with another light ball. With Perfect Staris at 40 HP, Super Chopper had to hit him two more times to end the fight, but he wasn't looking too good either.

Perfect Staris's eyes began to glow as Super Chopper got struck by lighting. After he quickly shook his head, he fired a light beam directly at Perfect Staris. This made the Star God get pretty tired as he tried to shoot Chopper with another Star Beam. Ultimately, this failed because he was too weak. The dark power inside him was growing weaker as well.

"This is it, Staris!" Super Chopper declared. "You thought you would be victorious, but now I got you!"

Super Chopper raised his arms and charged up a ball of light energy. Perfect Staris panted, but tried to fight back by firing a star beam. Sadly, the attacked was too weak, hardly doing much to affect him. With the light ball much bigger in size, Super Chopper threw it with all his might.

The attack struck Perfect Staris in the chest, causing him to explode. With that, all of the water in the Mushroom Kingdom and in Staris's Shrine was finally gone.

"He…did it! He defeated Staris in his full form! I don't believe it…" Geno gasped.

All of his friends cheered as Super Chopper weakly gave them a thumbs up. With the power he was using, he found himself exhausted and turned back to normal, causing him to plummet. Flyer came to his aid and caught him in midair, while the revived Star Spirits stayed by his side.

"When he ends up using his super form, he becomes so exhausted from using it that he sometimes ends up unconscious..." Flyer explained, landing on the ground.

"Chopper… He saved us from Staris. But at a time like this he becomes weak?" Eldstar said in solemn. They were interrupted by a yellow puddle appeared that had reformed where Staris was. Everyone gasped and got in a fighting stance.

"Wait a minute… Staris is still alive!?" Ghoster exclaimed.

"But Chopper destroyed him him!" Yosho gaped. "Somethin's not right here!"

Staris slowly rose up from the puddle and walked past the group. Geno sensed something different as the Star God approached Flyer and the Star Spirits.

"I sense something...different about Staris," Geno noticed. "I can't sense any dark power within him. It's as if...Chopper's super form destroyed all that was dark in Staris."

"Wait, what do you mean?" Bow asked.

"Staris is back to himself!"

"The power of Super Chopper is meant to destroy that what is evil," Flyer explained. "Perhaps Super Chopper could not truly destroy Staris, but any source of evil in his heart."

Before Flyer could explain any further, Staris looked down at the unconscious Chopper. His hands began to glow yellow, and he waved it across Chopper as he picked him up like a baby. Chopper's eyes slowly opened and noticed Staris's face.

"Staris? You're still alive?!" Chopper gasped.

"It's all right, Chopper! Staris isn't evil!" Ghoster confirmed.

"Wh... Really?"

Staris nodded to him as he put him down. Many weak Star Kids began to fly over to the Star God, squealing and laughing as Staris patted them of the head and gave them all hugs.

"Isn't that just adorable?" Kayzee squealed.

"It's great that Staris is back to himself," Peach smiled.

Mario: Of course!

"Hey, what about the Star Rod, though?" Mallow mentioned, which made Staris realize that it wasn't in place, so he took it out and handed it to Chopper.

"Wait... You want me to do the honors?" Chopper gasped.

Staris gave him a nod in response.

"Thanks, Staris..." Chopper smiled, taking the Star Rod and walking over to the staircase. However, he paused for a moment as he remembered something and turned to the Star God. "Umm… I have something I would like to ask you. It's about Choppor… You know him, right?"

Upon hearing the word "Choppor", Staris gave him a nod and used his power to teleport the broken C-2 Choppor over to the shrine. Everyone's heads hung low as they looked at the damaged robot, but when Staris placed his hand on C-2 Choppor, all the damage left on him were healed off, fixing him and making his red visor turn on.

"Huh...? What happened?" C-2 Choppor asked as he slowly got up. "I'm...alive?"

"Staris fixed you, Choppor," Chopper explained, though he noticed C-2 Choppor's head hung low a bit, but then he looked back up at Chopper and nodded. "I felt like you needed...another chance."

"I see... However, now's not the time for that, Chopper. Scanners indicate that you must place the Star Rod in its pedestal."

"Oh... Right! I need to do that!"

Chopper headed up to the shrine and saw the light blue pedestal at the top. He placed the Star Rod in its place, which fired a huge light wave throughout the Mushroom Kindgdom. All of the damage caused by Statis began to get fixed, and even all the energy in the Stars were restored. Twink himself was back to his yellow color.

"Yay! I'm all better now! Thank you so much, Chopper!" Twink cheered as Chopper walked down the stairs.

"Well, now that everything is finally back to normal, I guess this means I have to leave this body," Geno announced.

"Wait... What?!" Chopper gasped. "You're going to be leaving your body?!"

"Well, you've helped accomplish the mission, and now that everything's back to the way it is, I don't have any point in being in this body anymore."

However, before he could leave the body, Staris gestured him not to leave, which made Geno a little surprised.

"What? You don't want me to leave this body? You want me to keep it? But what about the boy who owns the doll?"

Staris created another Geno doll and he made teleport to Gaz's house so he would have his own Geno doll, which made Geno smile a bit.

"Hmmmmm... Well, now that I think about it, I do like this body a lot more than my usual self." Geno stated. "I guess I'll hang around in this body!"

"Peach, it's been a really great time with you, and same with you, Chopper!" Twink smiled as he turned to Peach. "I'm just really sad that it's all over, and now I'm going to have to leave…"

"Oh, don't worry about that, Twink!" Peach assured. "You're always welcome to go see me at my castle! I'd be happy to see you arrive!"

"Yes, that is a good idea, Twink," Eldstar agreed. "Maybe one day you can visit Princess Peach again. But for now, we must return to Star Sanctuary. Farewell, Chopper and Staris!"

With that, the seven Star Spirits began to return to Star Sanctuary.

"Princess Peach, I thought it was a great honor seeing you again. I'm glad I met so many great people, such as you, Chopper! I'm going to become a great star like those Star Spirits and make people's wishes come true!"

"Thank you so much for helping me, Twink," Peach said. "You've always been a stellar friend to me!"

"Princess Peach… I… I…" Twink stammered. "Well, no, never mind! I have to go, too! Thank you very much, Chopper. You too, Mario. I'll always remember you, Princess Peach! Remember that! Good-bye…!"

And with that Twink flew off. Chopper sadly waved goodbye to him and turned back to Flyer once the Star Kid was gone.

"So… Does this mean you'll be going too?" Chopper asked.

"Maybe… But I might hang here for a little. I can't believe I was brainwashed by Maquano!" Flyer exclaimed, a bit disgusted by being brainwashed. "However, I'm glad you snapped me out of it. But… I don't know what to do. Should I be the way I was before? …Or should I keep this stuff and be strong?" Flyer wondered as he looked at the gear and cape he still had on. "Actually… I'd rather not. My life is to build and hack, not destroy!"

"Well that's great!" Chopper smiled as he gave his friend a high five. "And I'll always be your buddy too! I mean, you're still a force of nature, even when you took down Cackletta on your own!"

Mario: Wait... I already destroyed Cackletta!

"No, it was her soul. Apparently, she was behind this whole thing. We never knew about her from the START."

Mario: Oh... I understand...

Staris asked Chopper if he wanted to go back down to the Mushroom Kingdom. Everyone instantly nodded, remembering the feeling of being home in peace. So, using his powers, Staris surrounded them in glowing light orbs and began to slowly descend them back to the Mushroom Kingdom.

* * *

**Yeah, the final boss was Perfect Staris (no real surprise. I think most of you knew it from the start). The fight was... All right in my opinion. I still liked the Flyknightis fight in Chapter 15 and Maquano battle before this battle more. But with that, Staris is finally back to himself, and peace should return to the Mushroom Kingdom once again!  
**

**However, the next chapter is actually the final chapter of the story. It had to end eventually...  
**


	110. Saying Goodbye

**Three days later-**

After the events of the battle between Super Chopper and Perfect Staris, peace was once again restored in the Mushroom Kingdom. As for Chopper and his friends, they returned back home. Of course, only C-2 Choppor didn't have a home, so he decided to stay around Toad Town and live with Merlon, who gladly accepted him.

Chopper, on the other hand, didn't leave Mario's world just yet. He only came here to go on a vacation, and he wanted to at least have one without any trouble. He decided to spend his vacation on Mario's roof while laying down with sunglasses on.

"Ah, yes! Now THIS is a vacation!" Chopper declared. "Being up here where it's nice and sunny, it's really nice! It's a good thing this didn't turn out to be the worst vacation ever, or else I would've just left by now."

Mario walked out of the house and he looked up to see Chopper on the roof.

Mario: What are you doing up on the roof?

When Chopper took off his sunglasses and looked down, he jumped down and sweat dropped.

"Oh, sorry," Chopper apologized. "I probably do some of the weirdest things around here, so don't get mad at me, OK? It's what I do the most of the time, I'm afraid."

Mario slowly nodded as Parakarry flew over the house.

"Oh! Mario and Chopper! I was looking for you! I've got mail for the two of you. Here you go." Parakarry pulled out two letters and Chopper took one and so did Mario. Once Chopper opened the letter, he began to read it.

_Dear Chopper,_

_Thank you so much for all you've done. Because of you, the Mushroom Kingdom is back to normal! I'm throwing a little party and I invited everyone to it! We hope that you can make it! We've got something great!_

_From,_

_Princess Peach_

"Hey! An invitation to a party! I bet that's what it says for you too, Mario!" Chopper smiled. Mario read his letter and it was indeed an invitation to a party, which made him smile. It reminded him of seven months ago when Peach threw a party after a couple of days when she was rescued.

"I've been invited to the party too, so once I finish delivering these letters, I'm going to go head to Peach's Castle! I hope I see you there, Chopper!" Parakarry was about to fly off, but Chopper had another idea.

"Hold on, Parakarry! I forgot something! Give this to Goombario, OK?" Chopper took out a box, which left Parakarry confused, but he took it anyway and flew off. He went over to Goomba Village first.

"_**Goombario!**_" Parakarry shouted as Goombario turned around and walked over to his winged friend.

"Hey, Parakarry. What's up?" Goombario asked as Parakarry pulled out the box given by Chopper and handed it to him.

"Ooh! I wonder what's inside!" Goombario opened the box, and a boot popped out and kicked him, knocking him down. Goombaria began to laugh obnoxiously at him while Parakarry gawked before flying off.

He stopped by at Koopa Village, where Koopla and Bruce were getting along just fine. Parakarry flew down to them and delivered their letters. When they took a look at them, they were surprised at what was going on.

"An invitation to a party? Count me in!" Koopla grinned.

"Yeah! Party time!" Bruce cheered as he ran off.

Inside of Boo's Mansion, Bow was looking at the mirror to see how beautiful she looked thanks to her new appearance suggested by the Boos. Bootler agreed about that, but then a Boo came into the room was getting shooed away by the ghost butler, but then he noticed the letter so he took it and showed it to Bow while shooing him. While reading the letter, she looked at the table to look at the picture of her and Chopper that was taken a couple of days ago.

"Oh, Chopper... How much I miss you... I hope to see you at the party!" Bow smiled as she flew out of the mansion.

"La... Lady!" Bootler gasped as he flew off to follow her.

By Merlon's house, C-2 Choppor was going out to get some Super Shrooms for Merlon, since he couldn't leave because of his job. Parakarry noticed him and flew down to the robot and gave him his letter.

"Scanners indicate that this is a letter from Princess Peach," C-2 Choppor confirmed. "I would love to go. Just let me finish my job first."

With that, he went to the shop to get the Super Shrooms before leaving.

Parakarry flew over the ocean and to Yoshi's Island. There, he saw Yosho and his girlfriend Yoshina walking on the beach. A lot of people in Yoshi Village were shocked, surprised, amazed, and even happy to see Yoshina back. Yosho still had his sunglasses and his personality, which wasn't as annoying as before. When the Paratroopa flew down to him, he didn't look all that happy because Parakarry bumped into him, which made Yoshina giggle. They were both invited to Peach's Castle for a party, which made them happy.

"Oh heck yeah! A party!" Yosho grinned. "Now THAT'S what I'm talkin' about!"

"We're going all right," Yoshina nodded.

Going to the City of Flowersville was pretty tough with all the crime going around. He was actually trying to be careful. The bad news was that a criminal was trying to force him to hand over his money and any other valuables he had, but the Dayzeeflower Girls were able to take care of him and send him to jail. Parakarry felt relieved and he gave a letter to Kayzee, who squealed after reading the letter.

"Yes! An invitation to a party!" Kayzee squealed.

"What? How come she gets to go while we can't?" Blayzee whined until Parakarry gave the other two girls letters. "Oh..."

"Yeah! A party!" Tayzee grinned.

Now Parakarry had to go up to the skies to find Prince Mallow. Valentina was there, but she had a different job instead for what she did to both King and Queen Nimbus. Her job was to…clean the castle up. Dodo stayed too, but instead, he was able to relax since he was never really evil to begin with. Parakarry was allowed to go see Mallow, because he said it was OK and delivered the letter to him. He asked King and Queen Nimbus to go, and they said yes, which allowed him to leave immediately.

"I can't wait to see what's at the party!" Mallow cheered as he took off.

This letter wouldn't be so hard to deliver - if he didn't get scared of the ghosts. While he was flying through Ghost Pass, some ghosts tried to get him, but he told them he was a friend of Ghoster's, so they stopped and let him pass. Going past Ghost Yard, he saw that Ghosgar was not evil now and respected Ghoster for being better than his brother. When the postman made it to Ghost Town, he went to Ghoster's house to deliver the letter. When he got it, he looked happy to be invited to a party, so he got himself ready.

"Just gimme some time. I'll be there soon!" Ghoster assured.

Parakarry had to go to one more place before going to the party. He flew all the way up to Star Haven to Staris's Shrine. He was able to barely make it there, but when he did, Geno noticed him coming, and Staris used his power to bring him up. Parakarry panted for a little bit and pulled out two letters. One for Geno and one for Staris. Yup, she's inviting Staris to the party!

"It's a letter to Princess Peach? We've been invited to a party! We must go, Staris!" Geno declared. Staris nodded and took him off the floating island. He also was nice enough to bring Parakarry back as well.

* * *

**Mario's house-**

Back at Mario's house, Luigi came out and Mario told him about the party. "A party? Oh, yeah… That. Of course I know about it, Bro! Let's go to it right now!"

They all headed over to the pipe and used it to go into Toad Town. When they jumped out, Luigi turned over to the other two.

"OK… Listen, Mario and Chopper. I'm just gonna run ahead. There's something important that I have to do. What is it? Sorry, you two… It's top secret!" Luigi explained as he ran off.

"Y'know, it would've been awesome if you were with us through this whole adventure," Chopper mentioned. "You'd probably experience A LOT of things. Maybe someday we'll be on an adventure together. What do ya say?"

Mario agreed to this and headed on to Peach's Castle with Chopper. Once they reached the front entrance, the Minister was there to greet the two.

"Ah! Mario and Chopper!" the Minister noticed. "Welcome to the castle, brave heroes. Princess Peach should be here very shortly."

Chopper could see the Shamans in the room, as well as his partners. There were also some Toads that he didn't know about, as well as Professor Toadsmeth, who greeted Chopper.

"Good news, Chopper! You managed to save the Mushroom Kingdom!" Toadsmeth smiled.

"Indeed I did," Chopper nodded as he noticed Staris walk into the castle. Everyone was notified that Staris was no longer evil, so everyone felt just fine.

"And now… Princess Peach!" the guards announced as Peach walked out of the door and walked down the stairs.

"Greetings to all of you! I'm so glad everyone could be here on this special day." Peach smiled. "The Mushroom Kingdom and Star Haven are now saved…thanks to Chopper! Staris has become a peaceful Star God, and peace has once again finally returned to the Mushroom Kingdom. Above us, the stars shine with more beauty and power than ever before. It seems that they're sending us our thanks."

Because of Staris's power, the castle looked absolutely gorgeous.

"Chopper… Mario, Koopla, Bruce, Parakarry, Bow, C-2 Choppor, Yosho, Kayzee, Mallow, Ghoster, Geno, Staris, and everybody across the lands of the Mushroom Kingdom, we've regained peace because of all your efforts. Thank you very much, indeed. I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. I hope that the Mushroom Kingdom will enjoy peace and prosperity for a long time to come. Perhaps forever! This is my heartfelt wish."

Chopper smiled as Mario gave him a proud look.

"So, let's celebrate! Enjoy the festivities, everyone!"

* * *

**Later-**

On an empty road, Luigi in a conductor's outfit while holding a baton began to lead a whole parade as he carried on. Behind him were some Toads playing the trumpet and then the Star Ship, where Chopper's partners were all waving. Geno was simply crossing his arms and nodding.

There were so many exciting things. The Koopa Bros were on the shell of the Trojan Bowser, along with the Trojan Maquano. However, four Bob-ombs ran in and exploded, covering them with soot.

Moustafa and the mice and Rolf and his son walked by in the parade, and then King Tutankoopa came running in with the Chain Chomp chasing him. Luckily, Tutankoopa was able to turn sideways to avoid it. Buzzard was at his nest with some baby vultures.

Tutankoopa got chased by three Chain Chomps afterward, and Bootler came next with Bubba Blubba trying to eat him, but he was surprisingly being carried by other Boos. Bubba Blubba's disgusting blue heart was bouncing around as well.

What was next was a small island with the Yoshis sitting on it. Yoshina was there too, waving to everyone. Bloopink was rising up from the fake water. King Lakilar came after and was being chased by Blayzee and Tayzee, with the Mayor trying to chase him in his pickle costume, thinking he was a pickle.

After that, two Crystal Kings appeared and ended up turning into Duplighosts. Unfortunately, there was no sight of the REAL Crystal King, so he was not in the parade. What came after that was Frogfucius and the Lakitu that was trying to make him float, but then the hook came off, making the old frog fall.

The ghosts came up next and were scaring the Toads around, and then following that was a Toad using parts of Metal Chopper to play a song. Metal Chopper's head was still blinking, and he was definitely ticked.

Goombado was on his wheelchair still and Kent C. Koopa was behind him. There were some slot machines, with one exploding in front of a Koopa. The boss was still wondering where Chopper's partners were.

Up next was a cloud float, and King and Queen Nimbus were waving, with Valentina trying to clean up the cloud. Dodo was simply sitting down and watching her do the work, making her annoyed.

What was interesting was the next one. There was...Sir Flyknightis? Ha! Just kidding! Flyer was just using the outfit as a costume. He took off the mask and quickly shook his head, giving a smirk as Popple was fleeing from the lovesick Birdo.

Jr. Troopa and Kammy were having a magic battle, shooting magic at each other while Bowser was crossing his arms on his Koopa Clown Car in disappointment. Hammer Bros. were juggling their hammers, and the two magic wielders ended up hitting Bowser with magic. This was unfortunate for them, because Bowser breathed fire on them afterward.

Once it was nighttime, the Seven Star Spirits were on some Christmas Trees and brightening it. Bumpties were ice skating and the Shiver City Mayor and his wife were walking by.

A Toad with a mustache was conducting a band with some Toads playing violins, while a female Toad in a purple dress was singing. After two Amazy Dayzees passed by, the Shamans were conjuring up a spell.

A C Robo that somehow managed to live came walking by and was being chased by three Stars, which were C-3 Cosmo, C-4 Crater, and C-5 Nebula.

Toads came up ahead with trumpets, drums, and flags with a star on it with the spots on their cap lit up. Koopa and Toad from the party came and then Toadsmeth was giving everyone good news. The last person was Staris, who came walking by with a bunch of Star Kids cheering. On a mushroom float after Staris, Chopper, Mario, and Peach were on it and were waving to everyone. Twink came down and they waved to him, and then he took off by Mario's house.

Mario and Peach got off of the mushroom and Chopper did too. The two were walking to Mario's house, but Chopper stayed behind for the whole parade to be over. It ended right after some Toads passed by.

With that, everything was silent.

"Well… It looks like it's time for me to go. I wish I had a chance to say goodbye to my friends." Chopper frowned as he began to walk away from the parade and back to Toad Town.

"Wait!"

Chopper turned around and saw his party members were behind him. They must've gotten off the Star Ship to go see Chopper and say goodbye to him.

"You're goin' to leave without saying good-bye?" Koopla asked. "C'mon, that's not the way things end! We need to go too, so don't worry so much either."

"Yes, that's true. It's too bad I have to leave now..."

"Don't worry about it, man! You were great to travel with! At first I was a little annoyed with you, but I ended up getting used to you."

"Really? I never knew that..." Chopper blinked. "I apologize for doing anything bad to you."

"Honestly, you didn't do anything wrong. I was just lettin' myself get too annoyed with you. I'll admit, I was a bit mean to others, especially to Yosho. I can't help but feel bad... Sure, I'm tough, but I don't want to be called a bully."

"Well, we've all got our mistakes, Koopla," Yosho noted. "Ya let yerself get a little too angry at times, while I was bein' too much of an idiot."

"But I was being really harsh toward you. I will admit some of the things you did were dumb, but I don't want to be like a bully, and for that, I apologize to ya."

"Well, I guess I accept yer apology. I hope we can become better friends in the future."

"Yay! I love happy endings!" Kayzee cheered. "It makes our friendship so much better!"

Everyone couldn't help but smile or giggle at Kayzee's exclamation. Sometimes what she said at times was a bit too cute or nice.

"As for you, Chopper... I will remember you, and I ALWAYS will. Don't forget that! And maybe if you ever come back here, you can come visit Koopa Village! My uncle's bound to be there, so we can see what he's up to!"

"That sounds really nice!" Chopper smiled. "Kolorado was always kinda entertaining!"

"Yeah, that'll be cool! Well, see ya, man." Koopla began to walk off, going back home. Bruce decided to approach Chopper next.

"Chopper, I have to say… It was really nice traveling with you." Bruce stated. "I wanted to blow up some stuff, which you let me do, and you seemed to help me get over losing Bombette. I don't know where she went, but maybe one day you'll find her, and if you do, maybe you could tell her I said hi. Y'know, a friendly one!"

"Sure! If I ever find her, I will tell her you said hi! I promise!" Chopper declared, making Bruce smile.

"Thanks, Chopper. I really appreciate that. Anyway, see you some other time! And good luck with any future adventures too!"

With that, Bruce took off.

"There's so many things I wanted to say to you, but I forgot about them," Mallow sighed. "All I can say is thanks for helping me find my real parents! If it wasn't for you, I would still think of myself as a tadpole and wouldn't find out my true background. I promised my parents I'd be back a little later, so I need to go. I hope we'll meet each other again some day!"

Chopper smiled as Mallow got on a cloud. The cloud prince was about to take off, but Chopper thought he should do something for him first.

"Wait, Mallow!" Chopper cried, making Mallow stop and come down. He took out his Diamond Hammer and gave it to him.

"What? You're really giving me your hammer?" Mallow gaped. "But… Why?"

"I don't need it anymore. I think I can trust you the most with it." Chopper assured as Mallow smiled and took it.

"Thank you, Chopper! I'll never forget you! Remember that!" the little cloud prince then flew off to Nimbus Land as everyone waved.

"I guess I should say my goodbye. Thanks for letting me on this adventure. I wouldn't have found out so many things if you didn't let me join you. Sorry, I don't have much to say... Well, I guess there's one thing I can do. Put it there!" Ghoster had his hand out, so Chopper shook it and got a shock. However, instead of getting angry at the ghost, he slightly laughed.

"Haw haw haw! Works every time… I can't wait to do that to my ghost friends! Well see ya, Chopper!" Ghoster waved goodbye as he began to fly off.

"It was really nice hanging out with you, Chopper!" Kayzee smiled. "I feel like I could travel anywhere in the Mushroom Kingdom! It also seems safe without Kojo Pete and those Frenzyweed Boys! You're more than welcome to come to Flowersville if you want!"

"Maybe I will! Tell the professor I said hi!"

"Tee hee! Of course I will! I hope to see you some time, along with the others!" Kayzee let out one last giggle as she began to fly off cheerfully.

"It's tough to say goodbye, especially around a time like this..." Parakarry trailed as he approached Chopper.

"Admittedly, I have to agree," Chopper nodded. "I always liked having a postman travel with me. I really did appreciate your help too."

"And I appreciated your help too. Just so you know, I'm always traveling around the Mushroom Kingdom, so maybe if you ever returned, we might end up meeting each other again! Or you could always come to the Post Office in Toad Town if you want. It would be really nice to meet you again! Well, I'll be seeing you. I've gotta make a few more deliveries before going home.

"Good luck, Parakarry!"

Chopper waved goodbye to his Paratroopa friend, who began to fly off in the distance. Now that left only four of his friends.

Yosho was the one to approach Chopper next.

"Well, Chopper, buddy… I think this is the end." Yosho said as his eyes began to water up and hugged Chopper, crying. "I'm gonna miss ya, buddy! You were always one of the coolest people I've ever hung out with!"

"I'm going to miss you too, Yosho," Chopper nodded. "Even though you acted weird at some times, you were always great. You have Yoshina with you, so you're not alone!"

"_Sniff_… Yeah, that's true." the Yoshi sniffled. "...No, I can't cry like that. I'm too manly to be cryin'. An' it would be real embarassin' too."

"You know, I don't think there's a problem with crying, no matter how old you are. If you wanna cry, go right ahead! I was taught that it's all right to cry, especially at the end."

"Y-Yeah... Thanks, kid." Yosho smiled. "Well, I guess I better get goin'. Yoshina likes gazin' at the stars at night, an' I wanna be there with her to gaze at 'em too. I guess I'll be seein' ya."

Yosho began to walk off, and Chopper and the three remaining watched him walk off until he was unable to be seen in the night.

Geno decided to approach Chopper and shook his hand.

"Chopper, this was a great experience we had," Geno smiled. "I feel like I can do more now in this body. I'm glad Staris wants me to stay in here, because I honestly enjoy being in this body more than as a star!"

"Really?"

"Yes. I feel like my power has grown stronger in this body, and it even gives me an easier time to explore the Mushroom Kingdom. Maybe I will when Staris allows me. But for now, I guess this is good-bye."

"Yeah, I guess so..."

"Chopper, may the stars shine upon you…"

"You too," Chopper nodded Geno flew off. All that remained was C-2 Choppor and the Boo princess, who flew over to him next. She was blushing shyly at him, which C-2 Choppor happened to notice.

"I'm really going to miss being with you, Chopper. We had some great times together." Bow commented.

"You know, while you may have been over me and kissed me a couple of times _which I still find a bit gross... _I still think we had a great experience on our adventure." Chopper smiled. "Sure, your snobbishness got ourselves in bad situations, but I still believe you have a heart, and I think that heart can really shine!"

"Oh, Chopper... You're really flattering me!" Bow grabbed Chopper's cheek and began to pinch it while looking away from him. "I will agree with you on some points. Being snobbish probably isn't the best way to go, and if I caused any trouble for you and your friends, I apologize."

"Ow! Stop pinching my cheek?" the pale green boy cried, making Bow release his cheek. "Thanks... Anyway, I guess I can accept your apology. And I apologize for anything I caused to you that was bad."

"You don't really have to apologize to me, Chopper," Bow blushed. "You know, now that we're one of the few people left here, there's something I've been trying to say to you, but I never got to tell you it throughout our adventure."

"I believe I should stand back," C-2 Choppor decided as he slowly began to walk away from the two.

"What did you want to tell me?" Chopper wondered.

"Well, you see... I... I..."

"You what?"

"I... Oh, never mind. I think this will give you the idea more." Bow grabbed Chopper and kissed him right on the lips, making Chopper's eyes widen. When she let go of him, he felt a little dazed while Bow blushed behind her fan.

"See you…" Bow winked before she disappeared. All that was left was C-2 Choppor, who walked over to Chopper and bonked him on the head.

"Thanks, Choppor…" Chopper thanked. "Augh... Why the heck did she do that?"

"Research has shown that when someone kisses you on the lips, it is known that the person possibly has an interest in you."

"What does that mean?"

"My analysis states that Bow might be interested in you."

"...I don't really get it. I guess maybe I will in the future." Chopper sighed as he wiped his mouth of Bow's kiss. He stopped and noticed C-2 Choppor extended his hand to his, so he grabbed his hand and shook it.

"I must thank you for this experience, Chopper," C-2 Choppor thanked. "Our adventure was a great one, and it is one my data will always keep. But I have one question to ask you. Why did you bring me back?"

"Well you didn't deserve to have your life end like that. I wanted to let you have another chance. I apologize if you didn't want to come back. That was a little selfish of me..."

"I forgive you, Chopper. Perhaps I don't need to go just yet. There's still plenty of more things to do outside of the Mushroom Kingdom. Perhaps I'll go check those places out." C-2 Choppor pondered. "Until we meet again, Chopper. And remember... No crying until the end, OK?"

"Yeah, no crying until the end," Chopper nodded as C-2 Choppor began to fly off. Chopper sighed as he hung his head low and began to walk off toward Toad Town. When he reached the teleporter at Toad Town, he noticed Staris was waiting for him.

"Staris? What are you doing here?" Chopper asked as Staris opened the door and revealed that the teleporter was ready for him. He smiled at Staris and walked into the teleporter, waving goodbye to him as he left.

With that, he headed back to his house on Clara and got some sleep.

* * *

**Four hours later-**

While Chopper was sleeping, he heard the front door knocking, making him slowly open his eyes and get up.

"Huh? Who could be knocking on my door at this time of the night?" Chopper wondered as he put his gloves and shoes on and walked down the stairs and opened the door. He saw a white box at the front of his door addressed to him.

"What's this?" he picked up the box and closed the front door. Once he opened the box, he saw a cake with Mario, Peach, Luigi, Chopper's partners, and also himself, who was on the top part of the cake between Mario and Peach. Chopper read the words written on the cake and smiled as a tear dropped down from his face.

The words were, "Thank you."

_**THE END**_

* * *

**And that wraps up Paper Chopper. My thoughts on this? Well to be fair, I consider it my least favorite in the trilogy because I just don't find it as exciting as the two sequels. Plus, I couldn't help but feel that the characters were kind of one-dimensional most of the time (C-2 Choppor is a major exception), kind of like most of the partners in Paper Mario. However, I don't think that this story is bad in any way. I suppose it was good for the people who wanted a long story.  
**

**For those of you who want more, don't worry! There's a sequel to this story called "Paper Chopper: The Crystal Stars", which is probably my favorite in the trilogy! And if you read through this whole story, tell me what you think of it. It doesn't hurt to give out an opinion anyway.  
**

**With that, I guess this is it. I hope you enjoyed this story!  
**


End file.
